The Packers could not have come up with a worse way for Sunday to go that didn’t include an injury. We’re all familiar with the story. Important game against a divisional rival, lead in the 4th quarter, abject disaster. I’m not going to try and sugar coat it. Sunday was a worse case scenario for a coaching staff facing a lot of questions.

That being said – it’s week one. If decades of NFL football should have taught fans anything, its that week one is an insane clown show where anything can happen. Last year the Las Vegas Raiders beat the eventual runner up Patriots. The Jets and Steelers were in a offensive shootout. The point is, weird stuff happens a lot in week one.

So what do the Packers need to do to bounce back?

Packers Get Your Line Right

Sunday was one of the rare losses in football where it can all be traced back to a single thing. Fans knew going into the season that the line was a question mark. What I don’t think anyone saw coming was a nearly 90% blitz rate. Love handled it well for most of the game, but eventually Minnesota just kept getting home.

While the line isn’t good enough long term, I also think that Sunday was an aberration more than the standard. There are a couple of things I expect to go differently against the Jets this weekend.

First, I think Jennings is removed from the starting lineup with either Banks returning from injury or rookie Jager Burton. I wouldn’t think Jacob Monk is safe either, with Anthony Belton being floated as a possible replacement.

Whatever the answers end up being, I do think it’s impossible for them to play worse, which is a silver lining of sorts, because when they gave him time Love was playing incredible.

Jordan Love Is Going To Put Up Numbers

Despite being sacked four times, hit 18 times, and just generally running for his life on Sunday, Love still managed nearly 400 passing yards and two touchdowns. Imagine what he could with just an extra half second every play.

He wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but I think there are maybe two or three quarterbacks in the entire league that could have done what he did against the Vikings against that kind of pressure.

He’s going to need to keep doing it too against a Jets team that loves to blitz a ton as well. But Aaron Glenn isn’t Brian Flores and the Jets are not the Vikings. I expect Glenn to try blitzing early and often, and I expect Love to make them pay for it.

The Packers Defense Can Hold Up

I know the score doesn’t look pretty, but I was impressed by what I saw from Jonathan Gannon’s first game as Packers DC. Edgerrin Cooper looked incredible, the run defense looked better than past years, and they even managed to stop the Vikings 4 separate times on a single drive if not for some of the worst ref work you’ll see all season.

Gannon was aggressive with the blitz, something I hope he doesn’t abandon when Parsons returns, and overall the unit played well until the Hochuli drive. If Green Bay can get to an early lead against the Jets and force Geno into obvious passing situations I think the defense could really impress some people this weekend.

Final Prediction

The loss to the Vikings won’t help with any of the skepticism this team is facing this year. However I expect the Packers to bounce back against an inferior opponent in a convincing manner.

Look for Jordan Love to top 300 yards passing again, this time with touchdowns to Tucker Kraft and Mathew Golden. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Christian Watson put up another big game.

Packers 28 – Jets 14