It is a tale as old as time for the Green Bay Packers, coming up short because of avoidable mistakes in a winnable playoff game. Their 22-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round will yet again become bulletin board material, but will anything change?
Injuries to key players on both sides of the ball made things difficult, but poor situational play calling from Matt LaFleur and poor decision-making from Jordan Love kept this offense from picking up the slack. For once, it was the defense that carried the load, as Jeff Hafley’s unit was on point for most of the game.
Offense
Love threw three interceptions, one on an underthrown deep ball, one where he never saw the linebacker, and the third on a late-game prayer. In a game that required a near-perfect performance from Love, he gave anything but that.
While Love got into a rhythm at various points in both the first and second halves, the inability for this offense to hit on anything but short-yardage passing plays made it tough to put points on the board.
Injuries to Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed, Elgton Jenkins, and Josh Myers, as well as a missed field goal from Brandon McManus, decimated the Green Bay offense, putting this unit behind the eight ball from the jump. One of the few bright spots was Josh Jacobs, who gave everything he had in Sunday’s loss, finding the end zone for the team’s lone touchdown on the night.
LaFleur seemed to rely too much on his usual style of play calling when this offense needed a jolt, not allowing the offense to string together any momentum. Questionable play calls in the fourth quarter, including calling for a run on a key third-down that ultimately resulted in a failed fourth-down conversion, did not paint LaFleur in a good light.
Having this team come up short again in the postseason needs to fall on the shoulders of LaFleur and Love, as both came up short when this team needed them. Love’s inconsistencies have been on display for a good part of the season, and he hasn’t really looked the part of a QB1, while LaFleur has had too many situational deficiencies pop up to just push under the rug.
Defense
On the flip side, we saw a really strong performance from Hafley and his defense against the Eagles. While injuries took out a few of his key players as well, Hafley’s unit held strong for as long as it could.
This loss is most certainly not on the backs of the defense’s performance, even though the pass rush was stymied for most of the contest, as they kept Jalen Hurts and his receivers in a box. Even Saquon Barkley didn’t take over the game, even though he was PHI’s best player on offense.
Injuries to Devonte Wyatt and Quay Walker made things tough for the front seven, but they held their ground against one of the better offensive line units in the NFL. Barkley needed 25 carries to run for 119 yards, but the Eagles offense only racked up 290 total yards of offense.
Having started the game with a fumbled kick return by Keisean Nixon (on an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit that wasn’t called), things never seemed to get back on track for Green Bay. Playing from behind after starting with the ball first, the Packers had a lot stacked against them in their Wild Card matchup with the Eagles.
Green Bay Offseason
It will be yet another offseason of ‘what-ifs’ for this team, as an 11-win record but an early postseason departure shouldn’t be considered enough for the talent this roster has. With Love taking a step back this year and the offense as a whole struggling in key facets, they need to go to the drawing board and figure out what needs to be done to maximize talent.
Adding to the wide receiver, edge rusher, cornerback, and offensive line groups needs to be top priority on offense, whether it be through free agency or the NFL Draft. Entering the offseason with over $64 million in cap space, there is no free agent that is not in Green Bay’s price range, so there are no excuses.
Having added both Jacobs and Xavier McKinney this past offseason, Green Bay needs to be aggressive yet again, with plenty of talent available to help extend their Super Bowl window. Offseason decisions also loom for Jaire Alexander’s future, as well as potential contract extensions for Zach Tom, Rasheed Walker, as well as how to move forward with the incumbent WRs.
There needs to be an added sense of not being content with how things currently are, as this roster has far too much talent to keep coming up short when the lights shine the brightest. Love needs to be better, LaFleur needs to be better, and there needs to be some organizational changes made in other areas, more so focused on positional coaches.
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Mike Johrendt has been an avid fan of the Packers ever since he can remember. He is now a writer at PackersTalk and you can follow him on Twitter at @MJohrendt23
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