Jordan Love is unsure of the future course of the season. And following Sunday’s 20-3 victory against the Los Angeles Rams at Lambeau Field, the first-year starter quarterback for the Green Bay Packers wasn’t speculating.
Love was willing to concede, however, that Sunday’s game was unquestionably a significant turning point in the young team’s journey toward understanding how to win on a regular basis. The team had lost four straight games and five of its previous six since a season-opening rout of the rival Chicago Bears.
“We’ve struggled to win the close games and the tough games, so we just have to grind it out and finish it,” Love said after registering his most comprehensive performance (20 of 26 for 228 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions for a 115.5 passer rating) since defeating the Bears.
“It’s not easy in the NFL to get a win, so anytime you can get it, we’re going to cherish it. But that’s the thing that going forward we just have to keep building on, keep growing and keep finding ways to win those tough games. We’ve been put in some positions where we haven’t gotten the outcome we wanted, and there’s a lot of things to learn and grow from. Going forward the rest of the season, we’re going to be put in the situations that we’ve been put in in the past, and we’ve just got to find a way to finish those games and get a win.”
just as they did on Sunday. Here are five takeaways from a much-needed win for the Packers:
1. Finally, Jones was engaged with the Packers
Aaron Jones, the team’s top running back, has been out or restricted by a hamstring injury for the majority of the season. Packers coach Matt LaFleur had Jones train all week in a red no-contact jersey and declared on Friday that the coaches were prepared to “cut him loose.”
And they carried it out.
Jones was targeted three times in the first fifteen minutes and forty-one seconds of the game. He caught two passes for 11 yards and ran eight times for 27 yards, including a 3-yard touchdown run that snapped the Packers’ five-game first-half touchdown drought. This was the team’s first touchdown since September 17.
“I think Aaron’s been getting healthier each and every week, and certainly to be able to give him the ball as much as we did today, it helps our offense,” LaFleur said. “He’s a dynamic player. There’s usually good things happen when the ball’s in his hands. I know he had the fumble (in the third quarter), and he said he had to make up for that, and he’s done that. He’s done so much for us over the course of the five years I’ve been here. He’s a guy I’ve got a lot of love and respect for.”
Over the last three games he had participated in, Jones had averaged 26 offensive snaps; however, he had missed three more because of a hamstring injury he sustained in the team’s opening game on September 10 against Chicago, where he had 11 touches for 127 yards and a touchdown.
Jones participated in 39 of the Packers’ final 24 scrimmage touches on Sunday, gaining 99 yards, including a season-high 20 rush attempts for 73 yards.
“He just let me go out there and play, and I love when I can impact the game,” Jones said. “This is the best I’ve felt, coming into this game. I wasn’t at 100, but it felt like I was close. Hopefully next week I’m at 100 and help my team and be that spark.”
2. Bewildered by attacking offsides? That’s correct, guard Runyan
If you have ever seen an NFL game and can remember an instance of offensive offsides being called, put your hand up. If you saw that called twice in a single game prior to Sunday, please raise your hand.
That is exactly what happened on two of the Packers’ fourth-down plays in the first half, thwarting their bold, go-for-it strategies on each one.
On their first possession, the Packers had a fourth-and-1 at their own 41-yard line, and Love held the ball for a 2-yard gain. However, the play was called back by referee Clete Blakeman’s crew because Jon Runyan was offsides and lined up in the neutral zone. (Yosh Nijman, the left tackle, was mistakenly identified as the infringer.)
Love’s gain was erased by the flag, which instead resulted in a Daniel Whelan punt.
On a fourth-and-inches play from the Green Bay 49-yard line, Love gained the first down via a quarterback sneak akin to the “tush push.” Runyan was flagged for offsides once more, and the Packers punted once more.
According to Runyan, whose father Jon Sr. works in the league office, officials have been cracking down on linemen on the Philadelphia Eagles’ “tush push” sneaks.
“(The officials) told me that my head can’t be crossing the football — in the neutral zone, technically,” Runyan said. “But, I mean, I’ve been doing that ever since I played football in short yardage, even though the center’s head is across the ball.”
3. Two rookie seventh-round picks came through on defense
With safety Rudy Ford sidelined due to a calf injury and seasoned cornerback Rasul Douglas now playing for the Buffalo Bills, the Packers looked to Anthony Johnson at safety and Carrington Valentine at corner. And the seventh-round rookies did not disappoint.
Valentine recorded a team-high three pass break-ups against Rams backup quarterback Brett Rypien. Valentine had started three games earlier in the season when All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander lost time due to a back issue.
“Man, (No.) 37 played like a top-tier corner in the league,” Alexander said of Valentine. “It’s exciting to see. We’d seen it in camp — he’s young, he’s hungry, he wants to make plays, he wants to be the best. And I can’t be more happy to play alongside somebody like that.”
Despite having played just eight defensive snaps in the team’s first seven games of the season, Johnson was selected to start in Ford’s place. He did so alongside another backup, Jonathan Owens, who is playing because starter Darnell Savage is out with a calf injury of his own.
The highlight of his performance was when Johnson deflected a Rypien pass that was meant for Cooper Kupp after Alexander tipped it.
“I saw the quarterback’s eyes and saw where he was going, so I broke that way,” Johnson recounted. “As I’m running that way, I see the corner route is coming (by Kupp) and I’m going to close (on the ball). And then Ja flies out of the air, tips it up, and I’m like, ‘Oh, there it is. It’s mine.’”
Along with acknowledging Owens and fellow substitute Isaiah McDuffie for stepping up in place of an injured Quay Walker (groin), LaFleur also praised rookie defensive linemen Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden for their extended play following the departure of Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark due to a shoulder injury that, according to LaFleur, is not expected to be a long-term one.
“I feel like it’s just a statement that we made today,” Valentine said of the backups. “We really dove into the film and we all really jelled together. I’m really happy, because I thought that was a true display of who we are.”
4. Watson and Love finally made contact down the field. They must now do it more.
Of all the offensive problems the Packers have encountered, which are numerous, Love is most irritated by the team’s ineffectiveness with the long ball.
That would explain why he was upset with himself for not throwing a touchdown to Christian Watson on a downfield pass early in the game and why their 37-yard pass late in the fourth quarter proved to be so crucial in setting up the Packers’ winning score.
When Watson landed hard on the Lambeau Field turf at the conclusion of the play, he hurt his back and chest, but he still attacked the disputed ball brilliantly and came down with it, something Love had not done for him on previous 50/50 balls.
“I just put it up there and Christian went up and made a great catch, a great contested catch,” Love said. “I think just for everybody — for him, for myself — it’s a confidence booster to be able to go out there and make that play. It’s huge. It’s a big-time catch for him. It’s exactly what we needed in that situation.”
Love accepted full responsibility for the ball that was underthrown before.
“(Watson) had a step on the DB, perfect route, perfect look for it, and it was just an underthrown ball — something I was frustrated with,” Love said. “I wanted to make sure I made it up to him for that.”
5. Call them what you will, the Packers needed some lessons learned, and they did.
Although defensive coordinator Joe Barry stresses the value of forcing turnovers (which he prefers to refer to as “takeaways” because offenses typically don’t just give them to you), the Packers led all NFL teams in takeaways heading into Sunday’s games. Prior to Sunday, they had only forced six turnovers in their first seven games.
Rypien turned out to be the defense’s perfect fit.
Prior to the game, Rypien had thrown 140 passes in his NFL career, played 281 snaps, lost five fumbles, and thrown eight interceptions. On Sunday, he added one of each.
He started by misfiring the snap, which resulted in an unsightly turnover. He then tried to pass the ball, but De’Vondre Campbell grabbed it out of his hands and recovered it at the Rams’ 41-yard line. The error resulted in the game’s first touchdown for the Packers.
Then, early in the fourth quarter, with his team behind 10-3 but still very much in the game, Rypien attempted to fit the downfield pass to Kupp between Alexander and Johnson, and Johnson caught the ricochet.
“I think there were some instances that we can play better around him,” Rams coach Sean McVay said of Rypien’s struggles. “We can put him in better spots and then he can certainly do some things in terms of his ability to play at a higher clip consistently throughout. I think it’s all about a team effort. Collectively, we can do a better job.”
