Packers news and notes, 8/22: Trenches dominate vs. Ravens in joint practice

Green Bay’s defense was able to stop Baltimore’s offense on all three of their two-minute drill attempts on Thursday.

After the Denver Broncos bested the Green Bay Packers last week in both joint practice and the preseason game, which the Packers held their starters out of, the team needed a win. On Thursday, the team received just that — a win — as they dominated the Baltimore Ravens throughout their joint practice, particularly in the trenches.

Before we get into the details of practice today, it’s worth noting here that Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said in his pre-practice presser that “we’ll see” if the starters will play against the Ravens in Green Bay’s single home preseason game of the summer on Saturday. When asked follow-up questions, LaFleur simply repeated, “We’ll see,” so don’t expect to hear much news on the subject before the team hits the field this weekend.

If you weren’t able to make the Packers’ final open practice of training camp, here’s what you missed from practice today:

Offense

Early on in the day, it looked like this joint practice was going to be a repeat of last week’s effort against the Broncos. Quarterback Jordan Love failed to connect on his first three passes of practice, but he quickly heated up. According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Ryan Wood, Love finished the joint practice with an 18 of 30 for 216 yards, four touchdowns and one interception stat line. We can all pump the breaks on the buyer’s remorse around Love’s contract for at least a couple of weeks. Love even drove the team 53 yards in the competitive two-minute drill at the end of practice to set up a game-tying field goal.

As Packers.com’s Mike Spofford noted, much of the Packers’ offensive success today boiled down to the offensive line successfully blocking up the Ravens’ pass-rushers. Considering how disguise- and blitz-heavy the defense is, that’s a huge sign that the unit is game-ready, at least when the third-stringers aren’t facing starters like they were in Week 2 of the preseason.

The play of the day, among the starters, was receiver Christian Watson winning a jump ball over Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton, a former first-round pick who stands at 6’4”. It’s also worth noting that the second-string quarterback remained Sean Clifford, who completed a bomb to Malik Heath over 2024 first-round pick Nate Wiggins.

Defense

Like they did on the offensive side of the ball, the Packers won in the trenches defensively. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh even praised Green Bay’s defensive line after seeing them in action following Thursday’s practice. Packers.com’s Wed Hodkiewicz noted that defensive tackle T.J. Slaton, who has been starting over first-round pick Devonte Wyatt, “has been outstanding.” Defensive end Kingsley Enagbare, who started over first-round pick Lukas Van Ness when Preston Smith was out of practice with an illness this week, registered a pressure with the second-team unit, per The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman, while fifth defensive end Brenton Cox Jr. recorded a sack in the same period.

In the first two-minute drill for the first-team defense, defensive tackle Kenny Clark sacked Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. The Packers ultimately forced Baltimore to try a field goal of more than 60 yards, which All-Pro Justin Tucker missed. In total, Green Bay successfully defended all three two-minute drill series that Baltimore’s offense attempted today.

On the subject of personnel, the most interesting thing the Packers did today was rotate rookie safeties Javon Bullard and Evan Williams. While Bullard has received most of the “starts” over the last few weeks, it appears that Williams is still in the running for the Week 1 job. Helping his case is that posted an interception on long-time veteran quarterback Josh Johnson in practice.

Special Teams

After a poor showing earlier this week, the Packers’ kickers were pretty lights out on Thursday. Returning starter Anders Carlson was five of five on the day while free-agent signing Greg Joseph was three of four. On the summer, according to Packer Report’s Andy Herman, Carlson is now 59 of 72 (82 percent) and Joseph is 57 of 73 (78 percent).

Herman also noted that a couple of roster bubble players, linebacker Kristian Welch, safety Zayne Anderson, cornerback Robert Rochell and cornerback Corey Ballentine, were on the first-team kick return unit versus Baltimore. Remember, Harbaugh comes from a special teams background, which means this was probably the closest that Rich Bisaccia’s unit will get to regular season reps before the bullets are live versus the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 1.