The Green Bay Packers got the result they needed on Thursday night, but they took the scenic route to get there.
They beat the Carolina Panthers in Week 8, improved to 5-3, and head into their mini-bye with a fourth win in five weeks. Jordan Love was right in the middle of it all, dealing with the usual mixture of brilliance and chaos. He finished with 288 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, and outside of what was arguably his worst throw of the year, he was nearly flawless.
There was plenty else to sort through, though, starting with the wildest moment of the night: Christian Watson’s injury scare. Watson hauled in a 53-yard pass, then left in an ambulance and went to the hospital before returning to the game.
He avoided a serious injury after landing hard on the Lambeau turf, and the hospital trip was precautionary to rule out anything serious. The scene was jarring, but the ending was encouraging.
Watson had already dealt with a similar situation last year in Denver, when he landed awkwardly and went to a local hospital with a chest injury, though he did not return to that game. This time, he came back and finished with eight catches for a game-high 113 yards.
The timing of the Packers’ mini-bye could not be better for him. He gets 10 days between games to recover from any discomfort.
Special teams also stayed in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Trey Smack missed an extra point after Green Bay’s first touchdown, drawing boos around Lambeau, though he settled down and made the other three extra-point attempts.
That still does little to change the broader picture. According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, Smack now leads the NFL with eight missed kicks this season, which is the most a Packers kicker has missed through the first eight games since 1988.
The run game, meanwhile, is still a mess. It didn’t matter that Green Bay was facing the league’s worst run defense.
The Packers averaged just 2.5 yards per carry, and that number was helped by an 18-yard run from Savion Williams. Taking the running backs by themselves, Josh Jacobs, MarShawn Lloyd and Pierre Strong Jr. combined for 48 yards on 25 carries.
Jacobs was held to 39 yards on 21 attempts. The problem, as the game made clear again, is up front.
The offensive line remains the issue, no matter who is taking handoffs.
That line has also produced another odd subplot: Kevin Zeitler still hasn’t gotten on the field. The Packers signed him a month ago, and Matt LaFleur said he would be in there once he had ramped up in practice.
But even after Sean Rhyan and Travis Glover went down and Green Bay had to reshuffle the line again, Zeitler stayed on the bench. Aaron Banks returned from injury to start at left guard, while Laken Tomlinson moved to right guard.
Wendell Ferreira of A to Z Sports noted that Tomlinson has played only 65 snaps at right guard in his NFL career, with none coming since 2016.
LaFleur said again this week that Zeitler is ready when needed. The question now is simple: why not use him?
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Packers Win Couldnt Hide A Rushing Problem Getting Harder To Ignore
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Matt LaFleur did not sound especially encouraged afterward, and the concern is bigger than one rough afternoon. Green Bay has yet to top 90 rushing yards in any of its first eight games, a stretch that puts the problem in uncomfortable historical company, and the coach made clear the burden now falls on the staff to sort it out before it becomes a defining flaw. [Read more 🡒]