Green Bay Packers v. Texans: The good, the bad, and the ugly

After the Green Bay Packers victory in their first preseason game, there are a number of takeaways from what we saw. Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from game one.

Game one of the preseason has now come and gone and overall it was a solid performance from this Green Bay Packers team as they beat the Houston Texans, 28 to 26.

However, wins and losses this time of the year are meaningless. What we do want to keep our eyes on are how individual players look, as well as if there are any major team issues, such as penalties or turnovers.

While there are a number of takeaways from this first game, I’ve decided to breakdown what we saw into three categories: the good, the bad and the ugly.

This is a series that I will plan to do after every game this season, so I hope you enjoy!

The Good

My intention for these articles is to have just one for each category but right off the bat, I am going to cheat and have two in this section.

Ty Summers

For someone who was a surprise starter in this game, Ty Summers sure took full advantage of the opportunity with a fantastic performance.

The start to Training Camp was a bit slow for Summers but he has continued to improve with each practice. And last night, that speed and ability to move sideline-to-sideline that made him one of the most athletic inside linebackers in this year’s draft class was on full display.

Summers was covering tight ends, chasing down the scrambling Joe Webb, and was clogging the hole on running plays. In the first half alone, Summers would finish with nine tackles and would total ten for the entire game.

With Oren Burks injured, the Green Bay Packers need someone to step up at inside linebacker and Summers may just be the one to do so.

Turnovers

I had to briefly discuss turnovers as an honorable mention for this category because coming away with four – including three in the first quarter – was very nice to see. As a team, they would come away with two interceptions and two fumbles.

Forcing turnovers has been somewhat of a struggle for the Green Bay Packers in recent seasons and if their defense hopes to be as good as many think they can, turnovers need to be more prevalent.

The Bad

J’Mon Moore

It was a rough rookie season for J’Mon Moore as his inconsistent hands were a big reason that he didn’t see much of the field in 2018. Through Training Camp he has looked solid, however, not to the level of Jake Kumerow and Trevor Davis, but we have seen improvements from him.

But in last night’s game, we saw more dropped passes and even the catches that he did make were bobbled. With Kumerow, Davis and Darrius Shepherd all performing well, it feels as though Moore has an uphill battle ahead of him if he hopes to make the final 53-man roster.

The Ugly

Tackling

Of course, we need to remember that it’s only been one preseason game and a majority of the minutes were played by young, inexperienced players. So missed tackles are going to happen.

With that said, this is a Green Bay Packers team who has struggled in this area in the past and watching it once again last night was enough to make you cringe.

The defensive front did a very nice job at creating consistent pressure last night, but a failure to contain Houston Texans’ quarterback Joe Webb led to him in the open field and the Green Bay defense struggling to bring him down.

As I said above, it’s still early so no reason to smash the panic button, but it is noteworthy and is an area that we hopefully see improve over the upcoming games.