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Why you should not be overly concerned about the Packers disappointing loss in Cleveland
It may not have been pretty, but the Packers have no reason to panic after getting pipped at the wire by an underrated Browns side.
The Green Bay Packers have trailed for 0:00 of gametime this season. They are the only team left in the NFL who can say this. Even the 6 undefeated 3-0 teams around the league have fell behind at one point or another. Despite this mathematical fact, the Packers are, of course, no longer undefeated.
Having failed to get out of 2nd gear offensively all game long in Cleveland, the Packers still felt out of sight in a game the Browns had no business winning. All Green Bay had to do was avoid a backbreaking mistake and get back on the plane. Then a backbreaking mistake came when Jordan Love’s first interception of the season quickly led to a tied ballgame late in the fourth quarter.
After bouncing back strongly by getting straight back into field goal range to set up a game winner, all the Packers had to do was once again avoid a backbreaking mistake. When Josh Jacobs was ruled to have recovered his own fumble, it looked like the Packers were going to be home & dry with an ugly win on the road.
But the football gods are more subtle than that. The backbreaking mistake wasn’t going to be so straightforward. Instead of gifting Cleveland possession deep in their own territory with a fumble recovery and likely heading to overtime, it was instead Brandon McManus’ game-winning field goal which was comfortably blocked, setting up Cleveland with a chance to win it. (If anything, the Packers caught a break when the ball bobbled awkwardly. Otherwise that ball was going the other way for six points).
A few more defensive blips & a penalty for good measure allowed the Browns into field goal range and a relatively unknown commodity at kicker nailed a 56-yarder to send the Packers home with a dumb, ugly loss.
The good news? That’s all the loss was. Dumb and ugly. A reminder that in any given week, the professional athletes on the other side of the ball who get paid handsomely to win football games, are capable of doing just that.
The Packers were not soundly defeated by a bad team. They were not embarrassed in this game. They just laid a bit of an egg. It happens in the NFL. If you don’t show up, you’ve got every chance to lose. Good teams lose dumb games every single week, it’s the reason betting spreads in the NFL are as marginal as they are. If anything, the Packers’ volume of dumb losses over the last half decade is proportionally lower than other contending franchises.
When looking at the big picture, the Packers are in a fine spot. Any fan would’ve been more than happy with a 2-1 start to the season, it just so happened to be the weirdest of the 3 possible iterations.
And if we’re being honest, it’s probably the best of the 3 scenarios in the long run. The Packers have proven they can beat 2 NFC contenders they may see later down the road in January, got a head up on divisional standing and conference seeding, and lost a noon kickoff road game to an AFC opponent.
Speaking of said AFC opponent, if you ask anyone who covers the Browns or the NFL league-wide… this defense is actually quite good. They held Joe Burrow’s Bengals to 17 points in Week 1, and while the floodgates opened late last week against the Ravens, they gave one of the league’s best offenses plenty to think about through three quarters.
You can definitely ask questions around how the Packers offense prepared for this game. It looked like they focused too much attention to Myles Garrett, perhaps swayed by how much of a difference maker an elite pass rusher has been for Green Bay’s defense over the first two weeks.
You can have peace of mind knowing that perhaps aside from TJ Watt in a few weeks time, the Packers won’t have to face a pass rusher close to Garrett’s caliber again this season because they simply don’t exist.
Elsewhere offensively, Tucker Kraft proved his injury is no concern by playing almost every snap, Dontayvion Wicks yet again showed off his improved hands while Matthew Golden became more involved and you just get the feeling that his explosive 100+ yard performance is right around the corner.
While the rushing offense is still an issue after yet another game with little ground success to speak of, this was the third stout and disciplined run defense in as many games for Josh Jacobs to contend with. They’ve got another one coming up with Jerry Jones’ super run D next week. No but seriously, the Cowboys are built to stop the run (and not much else).
Zach Tom’s re-injured oblique is concerning, but if its little more than a small setback which will have him miss nothing more than a few weeks, the Packers should at least be able to tread water until he comes back.
Defensively, Rashan Gary reminded us that the Packers aren’t just a one-man wrecking crew on the edge. I felt Lukas Van Ness but together a nice performance too. It felt like we didn’t see too much of the secondary in this one. We’ll have plenty of time to break that down when we get our hands on the film tomorrow.
The Packers are still Super Bowl contenders, and the NFL is still the hardest league to win in every single week. With the undefeated stigma now off the Packers’ shoulders, we get to see what this team looks like pissed off. If it’s anything close to what we watched in Week 1 and Week 2, we could be in for another treat in Dallas next Sunday.
