How to Save the Packers’ Season

Hey, how’s everyone doing? Yeah, me, too.

Honestly, I wonder if there’s a weird cosmic phenomenon at work here. Last year, Rodgers goes down in week 1, and this year Love? As Mr. Rodgers might say, you should look into that. And yes, I know, Love won’t miss the whole season, but it probably won’t matter. 

I mentioned this possibility in a recent column, so I’m feeling a little jinxy, too. It was soon after the Denver and Baltimore preseason games, in which it became painfully clear that neither Sean Clifford nor Michael Pratt were up to the task of being a pro backup in a worst case scenario, and suggested that Brian Gutekunst get on the phone with Ryan Tannehill’s agent instead of playing Russian Roulette with Love’s health. Perhaps Gutey misheard me, because he traded for Malik Willis instead and I thought, well, at least he got someone who has more upside than the other two guys. Or maybe Willis could become a Taysom Hill type of player. But is he ready enough now to keep the Packers from going 0-6? Color me dubious.

So here we are, using our mental GPS to try to figure out the best way forward and save the season. My basic take is that the interim QB matters little now (more on that in a minute), and the team should focus on getting a couple of other things on better footing:

First though, there’s been some chatter about how the Philadelphia game proves that the Packers should play their starters in pre-season. Seeing how shaky the Packers looked on both sides of the ball Friday night, I understand the impulse, but it’s a big ball of wrong. The vast majority of teams without rookie quarterbacks sit their ones for most or all of the pre-season for good reason. Why expose critical, highly paid players to injury before action that matters? If the answer is, well, it didn’t save Jordan Love from getting hurt, one thing has nothing to do with the other. 

Sure, when you are doing something new, pre-season reps help. But teams don’t want to give away their schemes ahead of meaningful games anyway, for obvious reasons. The primary function of plain-vanilla pre-season games is competition to finalize rosters. 

Speaking of new, the biggest disappointment Friday night — aside from  Love’s injury — was the performance of the highly touted, new-scheme defense. It looked a little different than Joe Barry’s product, but it didn’t produce different results. The simple fact is that if the Packers have even a remote chance of making the playoffs, the defense has to steal a couple of games until Love returns and is not impaired. Friday’s play provided little encouragement on this front, though we do need to acknowledge that it’s not simple to switch to a new system and expect everyone to execute it perfectly immediately. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of time now.

The worry here is that it’s still unclear what this defense is supposed to be. It’s fine to throw around vague bromides like moving downhill instead of backing up, and pinning ears back to bring pressure, but those aren’t schemes. I struggled to figure out what Hafley was trying to do as first the Philadelphia run game, and then the pass game, frequently shredded his troops.

The reality is you can’t “pin your ears back” with running quarterbacks. You have to do the one thing the Packers did well, which is to keep that QB contained. What was odd, though, is that Hafley didn’t try to sometimes sell out on blitzing, which was what tripped up Jalen Hurts last year. Then, the D-line and especially the linebacking corps couldn’t stop Saquon. And then A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith did their damage. 

The new safety crew was decent, and Philadelphia left Eric Stokes largely alone, instead picking on Jaire Alexander, who looks nothing like the player from two years ago. Meanwhile, Quay Walker was basically left on an island, getting little help from Isaiah McDuffie. Walker has taken a lot of heat, and I’ve not been a big fan of his from the beginning, but he actually had one of his better games. He just can’t do it alone. Edgerrin Cooper has to step up, pronto. This scheme needs strong linebacker play to work. The Colts are coming to town with another running quarterback.  

A second key: This offensive line is not built to run block. A few holes opened for Josh Jacobs late in the game, and Emanuel Wilson had a couple of nice bursts, but for the most part the line was ineffective. I’ve said many times that this is a roster construction problem, and the team needs a road grader. It’s unclear where that comes from, but the Packers cannot win — regardless of who plays quarterback — if they can’t run the ball. It was also interesting how much more effective Jacobs was running from a deep set. 

Which brings us to the QB issue. So far, it looks like the Packers are going to bank on Love coming back within a month. I’m not sure that is a safe bet. Regardless, the team seems disinclined to sign someone who would take a couple of weeks to learn the playbook. But did anyone see what Joe Flacco did last year?

So whether it’s Willis or Clifford, it comes down to who will make the fewest mistakes. Again, the goal needs to be to steal a game or two while Love is out. That’s the only hope of salvaging this season. GPG.