The Green Bay Packers have now fallen to 4 and 8 after losing to the Philadelphia Eagles 40 to 33 . It has been a very disappointing season for the Packers considering all of the talent that is on this team. There have been so many things that have gone wrong this season for Green Bay and they just haven’t been able to overcome them.
Injuries
Injuries have been a big thing for this Packers team this year. Every week, we have had to worry about David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins. Both are coming off ACL injuries and have fought hard every week to be able to play. The past four games, we have also been without De’Vondre Campbell. This Packers defense has really missed their signal caller as they have struggled to stop the run without him. Eric Stokes and Romeo Doubs both sustained ankle injuries against the Detroit Lions a couple weeks ago which will most likely keep Stokes out for the rest of the season, while the Packers are hopeful to get Doubs back this week against the Chicago Bears. One injury that doesn’t get talked about enough is Rashan Gary. Gary tore his ACL in Detroit and the Packers haven’t been able to produce any type of pressure on the quarterback without him. The defense has had to blitz the quarterback in order to get any type of pressure. This defense has really struggled without him the past couple of weeks. The most talked about injury for this team is obviously Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers hurt his thumb in week five against the New York Giants while trying to throw a Hail Mary on the last play of the game. You can tell by just watching him that he has struggled a lot with accuracy and seems to be in pain after every play. This past game against the Eagles, Rodgers got hit in the ribs which knocked him out for the rest of the game and Jordan Love took over for the remainder. It looks like Rodgers will play this week against the Chicago Bears, but won’t be anywhere near 100 percent. Every team has to deal with injuries every year, but this year the injuries have really piled up the Packers.
Coaching
This season has not been a good one for this coaching staff. Matt Lafluer has been very inconsistent when calling plays for the offense, and defensive coordinator Joe Barry is coaching his way out the door. Joe Barry has had a lot of talent to work with this season. There have been some games this season where he has had this defense looking like the best in the NFL and there are some weeks like this past week against the Eagles where they look like one of the worst. This defense all season hasn’t been able to stop the run. Not all of it has been on him though. According to Matt Lafleur, this past week the Packers defense had 22 missed tackles which led to 363 yards rushing for the Eagles offense. That is one of the worst outings I have seen from a Packers defense in a very long time. A game like that isn’t on Joe Barry, but has been really bad in big situations. His scheme is supposed to keep everything in front of you and not allow big plays. That has not been the case. There has been so many blown coverages this season that just can’t happen. I have been talking about it all season, but my biggest issue with Joe Barry is how far off the receivers he has his corners play. He has them play at least 10 yards off the ball each play and it allows easy short passes. If Joe Barry continues to coach like this the rest of the year, it’s hard to imagine him being in Green Bay next season.
Matt Lafleur coming into this season knew he was going to have to run the ball in order for this team to be successful. Every week this year, he would also talk about how they need to get Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon the ball more and they would fail to do so the following week. This team doesn’t have the most elite talent at receiver so that is why you run the ball. The Tennessee Titans are the perfect example of that. Everyone knows they are going to run the ball with Derrick Henry, but they don’t care. They run it anyway and set up the play action. Matt Lafleur has done a good job in the past few years before this season in calling the plays. This offense was explosive and put up a lot of points. Maybe it was because he had Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams and that connection was just special. We will find out in a season or two if his success on offense was because of that connection or if he is actually a good play caller.
Playing Only One Half of Football
The Packers have blown a lot of leads this season. They have only played a half of football in most of the games they have been in this season. They blew a 17 to 3 lead against the Giants, a 14 to 3 lead against the Commanders, and against the Bears and Buccaneers, they scored a combined three points in the second half. In most games, the Packers have looked like one of the best teams in the NFL in the first half. In the second half, they look like a completely different team. It has been talked about all season and they just haven’t been able to play a complete game of football. There also hasn’t been a game where both sides of the football were able to play a complete game. There have been games where the offense has looked great and the defense looks terrible, and there have been times where the offense hasn’t moved the ball all game, but the defense keeps them in the game. You can’t be this inconsistent in the NFL and expect to win games.
The Packers have five games left this season and have a 48 percent chance to make the playoffs if they win all five. It is looking like it will take a miracle to make the playoffs this season. The Packers will go to Chicago to take on the Bears this week. No matter how the season is going for either team, it is always a big game when these two play. Hopefully the owner of the Bears in Aaron Rodgers can take the Packers into Chicago and come out with a win.
