The Green Bay Packers pulled out a narrow win against the New England Patriots winning 27 to 24 on a Mason Crosby game winning field goal in overtime. Going into this game, Green Bay was favored by nine and half points. The Patriots went into this game without their quarterback Mac Jones and after their second drive of the game, their backup quarterback Brian Hoyer was taken out of the game with a concussion. If someone told you that the Packers were going to play a team with their third string quarterback, you probably would’ve thought that the Packers were going to blow them out. That was not the case.
The Packers coming into this game were coming off a big win against the Buccaneers. This was the first of four games where Green Bay was going to be favored. The Patriots gave the Packers a run for their money. The Packers offense got off to a slow start and took a little bit to get going. It looked like the Packers would go into halftime ahead seven to three until Aaron Rodgers threw a pick six and instead they were behind ten to seven. The offense in the second half really got going. They took their opening drive of the second half all the way down the field and scored a touchdown. The defense really struggled though. They couldn’t stop the run which really set up the play-action pass. This has been a problem for the Packers defense so far this year. They have struggled to stop the run this season and need to find a way to fix that. At the end of the fourth with the game tied at 24, Aaron Rodgers took a shot to the end zone to Romeo Doubs. It initially looked like Doubs made a great catch to possibly clinch the game, but the ball popped out at the end. They had to punt and the defense made a stand to force the game into overtime. The Packers had to punt the ball on the opening drive of overtime, but the defense got a big stop to force New England to punt it back. This is when Rodgers took the offense down the field hitting Doubs and Cobb with a mix of the run game to set up Mason Crosby for a game winning field goal as time expired.
This game disappointed a lot of Packers fans. Many thought this would be the game that all three phases of the game played well. It wasn’t the case and the Packers had to pull off another close win. A big problem that tends to happen in these games is the Packers offense being way too inconsistent. When the offense gets going, they seem unstoppable. That’s until they have a play that doesn’t go their way. In the past three games, the Packers have fumbled the ball and haven’t done anything after. With the defense, they haven’t been able to stop anyone on the opening drive of the game. They get off to slow starts, but then look pretty good the rest of the game. The other issue is stopping the run. Against a team with a third string quarterback, the Packers were still getting run on. They should’ve stacked the box and made rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe beat them. The Packers can fix these issues and have a good chance to do so in the next three games before they play the Buffalo Bills. If the Packers can fix these problems, this team could be very tough to beat.
