Paul Bretl | 1/12/024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Miscues, mistakes, blunders–all the above or pick your favorite verbiage, either way it sums up the Packers’ performance against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Slow starts have doomed the Packers repeatedly this season against the NFC’s best and that theme continued in the NFC Wildcard round of the playoffs.
“I think that’s going to be a great reflection point this offseason,” said Matt LaFleur post-game of the slow starts, “because obviously, if we had the answers, it wouldn’t have been a problem, and for it to come up multiple times is disappointing. And I mean, this is one of the best defenses in the league, so give them some credit as well, and they played better than us. Bottom line.”
Things couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start for the Packers with Keisean Nixon fumbling away the opening kickoff. On a short field, the Eagles’ offense scored on three plays, giving them the early 7-0 lead.
“When you come into somebody else’s house against a really good football team, you can’t start the way we did, and to fumble the opening kick and then, then turn it into a touchdown and be down 7-0 from the jump, it was obviously too much to overcome,” LaFleur said.
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The offense, which came into the postseason sputtering, continued to do so for much of the game. Through the first three possessions of the game for Jordan Love and Co., he was just 2-for-5 passing for 16 yards with an interception and another near interception on the first possession. The run game averaged just 2.8 yards per carry, the offense as a whole averaged a measly 1.5 yards per play, and the Packers converted only one first down.
“I think it’s collectively,” said LaFleur of the offense’s struggles. “I think we all share our part of blame in that, and it was tough tonight ‘cause they were playing soft zone, and really the entire game got basically a 6-1 front, played quarters, and we didn’t have a whole lot of luck running the ball like consistently, getting them out of that.”
Moving the ball through the air was always going to be a difficult task in this game. For one, the Packers’ passing game had been disjointed and out of synch for several weeks leading up to this game, but in addition to that, as we highlighted leading up to the game, Philadelphia boasts one of the more stingy pass defenses in football.
The Eagles entered the playoffs allowing a league-low 5.5 yards per pass attempt, illustrating their ability to limit big plays and the opposing quarterback’s efficiency. Philadelphia also ranked sixth in completion percentage and fourth in pass deflections.
As LaFleur said during the week, one of the challenges that comes with this Eagles’ secondary is how physical they play, forcing pass catchers to fight through contact, which can disrupt the timing and rhythm of the play. In this Vic Fangio-led defense, it forces opponents to string together long drives by limiting explosive pass plays.
Prime examples of this came on the drive that ended in a missed field goal and took 7-plus minutes off the clock. Then, on the drive where Brandon McManus made his attempt, which took 12 plays and nearly 6 minutes of game time. This style of defense requires the offense to be patient, efficient and play mistake-free, something the Packers have been unable to do.
Love would finish the game with another out-of-sync performance, completing 20-of-32 passes for 212 yards and a very modest 6.6 yards per attempt with no touchdowns and three interceptions.
“You’ve got to earn the right to get them out of that soft shell,” LaFleur said. “And we never did. You’d like to be able to lean on some of the things in the run game and it was just a little bit of a struggle. But, you know, we’ll take a look at it and we’ve got to come up with better answers and I think it all starts with staying ahead of the sticks, though, and being efficient on offense.”
Adding to the passing game’s burden was the inability to lean on the run game, which has often been the catalyst for the offense this season.
Against a stout Philadelphia front, it was tough sledding between the tackles for the Packers’ defense. Josh Jacobs would finish with 81 rushing yards on 18 carries, good for an average of 4.5 yards per attempt. However, and not to discount it but to paint a more accurate picture of how the game went, 31 of Jacobs’ 81 yards came on one run. Otherwise, he averaged under 3.0 yards per attempt.
The trickle-down effect of not moving the ball steadily on the ground is that it puts the offense behind the sticks and in obvious passing situations. It also doesn’t force the Eagles’ out of their Cover-2 shell so downfield opportunities for the passing game aren’t presented.
“We’ve just got to be more efficient is what I’d tell you,” LaFleur added. “If teams are going to play that soft coverage like that, you’ve got to be able to convert the third-and-shorts, and there were a couple times obviously at the end of the game, we got an out cut where we’re open and we ended up out of bounds. It’s all the little details that really make a difference in terms of just being able to convert in a lot of those critical situations.”
Contributing to those described woes was losing left guard Elgton Jenkins early due to injury. With him sidelined, it exposed the lack of depth that the Packers have on the offensive line as the Packers had to rely on rookie Travis Glover initially, before switching to Kadeem Telfort after Glover was penalized three times in the first half.
Along with the run game struggles, Love was pressured on just shy of 39% of his dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus’ initial metrics. For some context, over the course of the season, that would rank as the fourth-highest rate among quarterbacks.
“Just felt like we didn’t have any rhythm, felt like we were just shooting ourselves in the foot,” said Josh Myers. “We were getting penalties, we were turning the ball over. All the stuff you can’t do against a team like that, you can’t do.”
Losing the turnover battle 4-0 and having the described issues persist throughout the course of the game is already enough to leave in defeat, particularly against an opponent of the Eagles’ caliber. But you add in that the Packers tied a season-high with eight penalties for 85 yards and oftentimes, any sort of good that might have been manufactured was wiped away.
This also included two of those penalties coming in the form of unnecessary roughness penalties on the defense in the fourth quarter of the game, giving the Eagles’ offense an additional 15 yards in both instances on two drives that ended in points.
“You got to be disciplined at all times,” LaFleur said of the penalties. “And I get it, football is an emotional game … but bottom line is, you got to keep your emotions in check, and you can’t do anything to put yourself in the cross hairs of the officials, and you never know how they’re gonna officiate that. So we just got to be better. Bottom line.”
What kept the Packers in reach for much of the game was the play of the defense. As he does, Saquon Barkley was productive with 117 rushing yards on 25 carries, but to a degree, that’s going to happen. What the Packers defense didn’t let the Eagles do was control the game on the ground.
Even with a lack-luster pass rush, the Packers’ secondary held it’s own against the Eagles’ dynamic pass catchers. Jalen Hurts would throw for just 131 yards and had a stretch where he went from the 1:20 mark in the first quarter to the 4:33 mark in the third quarter without a completion.
Overall, the Eagles’ offense averaged just 5.3 yards per play and had a six possession stretch after their opening touchdown that the Packers gifted them where they punted five times.
“I thought defensively, I thought we played winning football,” said LaFleur. “It’s just offensively and on special teams we had too many mistakes, and we can’t overcome those against a really good football team.”
The Packers’ 2024 season concluded with them going 0-6 against the NFC’s top three teams and the story that we saw unfold in Philadelphia on Sunday evening was all too familiar to the one we had seen numerous times this season and particularly as of late.
Inconsistencies, undisciplined play, an out-of-whack passing game, a lack of execution, and a slow start once again did this Packers team in. But unlike those previous occasions, there won’t be an opportunity to bounce back or right the ship. The season is over.
“I think that’s really the thing that hurt us in a lot of games,” said Jordan Love. “We talk about it, I feel like, a lot of the times this season and just feel like we’re not getting beat by the other team; we’re kind of beating ourselves.
“Whether it’s penalties, turnovers, stalled drives, things like that, I think it all comes back down to the details and execution – a lack of execution in some of those areas. So, something you’ve got to be focused on when you go out there and try and limit that stuff.”