It finally arrived. No more offseason. No more just talking about practices. On Saturday night, the Green Bay Packers hosted an actual football game. Sure, it wasn’t a regular season matchup, but it was still preseason football—and the starters were ready to play. Against the New York Jets, no less. Spirits were high.
That didn’t last long.
The Jets won 30-10.
Packers First Team
The Jets called tails on the coin toss—and lost. The Packers chose to receive. Jordan Love started under center with Josh Jacobs in the backfield. Right out of the gate, Love drew the Jets offsides for a free five yards. Unfortunately, the offense managed only four more before punting it away.
The starting defense took the field next, minus Nate Hobbs and Xavier McKinney. But Justin Fields and the Jets offense sliced through them with ease. Fields, in his lone drive, went 3-for-4 for 42 yards, added 14 rushing yards, and capped it off with a touchdown.
Love and company got another crack at it but stalled again around midfield—another punt.
Analysis of the First Team Offense and Defense
Yes, it’s just the first preseason game. Offenses and defenses are often vanilla this time of year. Still, some familiar problems popped up. By halftime, Packers receivers had dropped four passes. Defensively, the middle of the field looked wide open on nearly every Jets passing play.
Special teams didn’t help. Mecole Hardman’s first punt return ended with him getting tackled inside the five. On his next try, he muffed the catch, handing the Jets the ball deep in Packers territory.
Let’s hope those trends don’t carry into September.
Malik Willis and Second Stringers
The Packers finally got on the board with a Brandon McManus field goal—helped along by a couple of late hits from the Jets that gifted 30 free yards.
Later, backed up near their own goal line, Malik Willis was strip-sacked in the end zone. The Jets recovered for an easy touchdown.
By the time the first half ended, this was far from the preseason debut the Packers were hoping for.
Packers Third String
The third quarter didn’t offer much relief. While the backup defenders opened the half with a stop, things went downhill fast from there. Sean Clifford took over at quarterback but couldn’t get much going—and to be fair, it wasn’t all on him. The Packers looked undisciplined from start to finish, racking up flags, especially for holding.
Jacob Monk had a rough night on the offensive line, giving up a sack and drawing multiple holding calls. Second-round pick Anthony Belton also held on a couple of different plays.
It wasn’t easy going for sure. The Packers didn’t get a first down in the second half until an Amar Johnson run early in the fourth quarter, which was then followed up by a long touchdown run. Johnson was really the one bright spot on the offense throughout this entire game.
Overall Conclusion
Overall, the Packers just seemed like they completely lacked effort throughout this game. They are really going to need to rebound in joint practices this upcoming week against the Indianapolis Colts. At least we can hang our hat on the fact that this is just preseason game number one and there is still a ton of time to right the ship before the Lions come to town on September 7th.
Oh, and Daniel Whelan is great!
No matter how hard the watch,
Go Pack Go!
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Damon is a diehard, fully-immersed cheesehead who currently lives in southern Missouri. He teaches at a local high school and has a family YouTube channel about all things Packers. You can follow him on twitter at @packersfamily and on YouTube at The Packers Family.
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