GREEN BAY — Things just went from bad to worse.
“You score seven points in this league, you’re probably not going to win many games,” said Packers coach Matt LaFleur after the Packers lost to the Eagles 10-7 at Lambeau Field on Monday Night Football.
The Packers have allowed only 39 total points and 780 total yards in losses to Cleveland, Carolina and Philadelphia. According to OptaSTATS, they are the first NFL team to allow fewer than 40 points and fewer than 800 yards over their first three losses of a season since the 1940 Lions.
The Packers offense was an eyesore last week vs. the Panthers, now the offense just looks broken. In the first half, the Packers were 0-for-5 on third down, they were behind the sticks twice in the first half and the horrible decision by Jordan Love to try and throw a pass late in the first half which ended up being a fumble and taking points off the board.
“We’re not getting into a rhythm,” said Love, who was 20-for-36 for 176 yards with a passer rating of 68.8 — by far his worst game of the season. “We’ll have a good play here and then a negative play. Whether it’s a turnover, penalty, drop sack, you know, it’s a lot of things.”
It certainly is a lot of things. The offensive line has been a leaky faucet most of the year and we all heard the drop, drop, drop last night. Love was only blitzed nine times last night, but the Eagles pressured the third-year starting quarterback nearly 50 percent of the time. It was the same story on the ground. Josh Jacobs tallied 74 rushing yards, but 56 came after contact.
Remember a couple years ago when this same offense was making opposing defenses look silly through misdirection, play-action and presnap movement? Where has all that gone?
Obviously Love gets frustrated by seeing two safeties deep in an effort to stop the explosive play. But he has to understand that it’s OK to beat teams with 1,000 cuts. Get a four-yard completion here followed by a five-yard completion there. It’s not sexy, but it moves the chains and it builds confidence in your offense.
And to make matters even worse, with the Eagles clinging to a three-point lead with 1:30 left, Philadelphia knew exactly what play the Packers were going to run on fourth-and-1 from the Green Bay 44. They snuffed out the run to the right by Jacobs and ended a promising drive that could’ve given the Packers at least the tie.
The Packers are 5-3-1 and now their backs up against the wall. After cruising to a 2-0 start that had many folks in Wisconsin screaming for the Super Bowl, they have now fallen into an abyss that could be tough to get out of.
With so many injuries at wide receiver, winning one-on-one battles is nearly impossible. Which is why LaFleur needs to bring back movement to this offense. He needs to scheme guys open. And please, no more handoffs out of the pistol in short yardage situations.
But most importantly, LaFleur needs to start trusting Love. Remember, the Packers paid Love $55 million a year for a reason and LaFleur needs Love to showcase that — whether he believes he can do it or not.
This team has the firepower to win the NFC North but it also has the inconsistency to only win two more games if the offensive approach doesn’t get changed.