The Green Bay Packers didn’t just beat the New England Patriots in Week 9. They walked into Foxborough and delivered the kind of road performance that makes people stop and re-evaluate what this team can be when it cleans up the mess around the edges.
The final was 45-27, and Green Bay made it look even more lopsided than that. Jordan Love threw for 372 yards and three touchdowns, Christian Watson and Matthew Golden combined for 335 of those yards, and the Packers forced four turnovers while sacking Drake Maye four times. That’s the kind of complete outing that starts to look a lot bigger than one regular-season win.
Love was the headliner from the opening drive. He opened the scoring with a 13-yard rushing touchdown, then spent the rest of the afternoon carving up New England’s defense. He finished 23 of 29 for 372 yards, three touchdowns and a career-best 153.2 passer rating.
The Patriots tried to rattle him by bringing pressure, and he didn’t blink. Love absorbed five hits and still kept answering.
According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, he went 11 of 11 for 170 yards and a touchdown against the blitz. That’s not just surviving pressure - that’s punishing it.
Watson and Golden kept stretching the field and kept the Patriots in trouble. Together, they caught 17 passes for 335 yards and two touchdowns. Love’s connection with those two is turning into the kind of problem defenses hate seeing on the schedule.
He’s now firmly in the MVP mix, and the numbers back it up. Through nine games, Love has 2,618 passing yards, 19 touchdowns and six interceptions, plus two rushing touchdowns. That comes with shaky protection, the league’s 32nd-ranked rushing offense and a league-leading number of dropped passes.
The defense had its own statement to make, and Evan Williams was right in the middle of it. He entered Week 9 as PFF’s highest-graded safety and played like it, finishing with an interception on the sideline, six tackles and a pass breakup. PFF also credited him with four pressures, which tied for the team lead, and he allowed just one completion for eight yards in coverage.
The numbers were strong, but the tape sounded even louder. Williams was everywhere, and his interception was the kind of play that jumps off the screen. He’s the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Month for October, and he’s making a real push to go back-to-back.
Green Bay’s defense as a whole looked like it’s moving into dangerous territory. Since the Week 3 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, the unit has been trending up, and against New England it looked like a group ready to take over a game. The Packers sacked Maye four times, hit him nine times and picked him off three times.
They also kept piling up takeaways. Green Bay came into Week 9 already ranked No. 2 in the NFL in that category, and the Patriots added four more to bring the season total to 19. By PFF’s initial count, the Packers generated 24 pressures, with Williams and Karl Brooks posting four apiece, Brenton Cox Jr. and Isaiah McDuffie getting three each, and four more players finishing with two.
And this was all without Micah Parsons on the field yet. The Packers’ defense fell apart after Parsons was injured last season, but this version has climbed all the way to championship level without him. If Parsons is back by Thanksgiving, as expected, that’s a frightening thought for the rest of the NFC.
There was one more box Green Bay needed to check, and Trey Smack checked it. The rookie has had a rocky first two months, but he came through in a game where the weather could have made things ugly.
Strong wind gusts were expected, the broadcast said he had struggled in pregame warmups, and none of that mattered once the game started. Smack made all seven of his kicks, including three field goals and a 51-yarder, plus all four extra points.
It’s only one game, but for a kicker who needed a clean one, this was exactly that.
In Other News...
Josh Jacobs Leaves Packers With A New Backfield Concern
Josh Jacobs return to the Packers backfield has already been interrupted again, this time by a hand injury in Green Bays game against the New England Patriots. The veteran running back had only just gotten back into the lineup after missing several games because of suspension, making his third game of the season a notable one for a unit that has been trying to settle into a rhythm.
The injury came on a play in which Jacobs hand got caught up during contact, and he was later seen jogging to the locker room. For a Packers offense that has leaned on him for stability and physicality, the concern now shifts to how long he can stay available and what the backfield looks like if he cannot finish the game. [Read more 🡒]