Green Bay Packers @ Chargers: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

The Green Bay Packers came out sluggish and unprepared which resulted in a fairly easy win for the L.A. Chargers. Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from their performance.

From the first snap through the rest of the game, this Green Bay Packers team was lacking some serious energy. Meanwhile, a desperate Los Angeles Chargers team was fighting for their playoff lives and it resulted in an ugly performance from Green Bay.

The defense once again struggled to stop plays up the middle, the offensive line couldn’t keep Aaron Rodgers upright, and there were just way too many penalties for the Packers to overcome.

As I do every week, I highlight the good, the bad, and the ugly from Green Bay’s performance and as I’m sure you can imagine, finding some “good” wasn’t easy. But anyways, let’s dive into this game and quickly move on.

The Good

Allen Lazard

Davante Adams returned to action but it was Allen Lazard who led the team in receiving yards. He would catch three of the four passes thrown his way for 44 yards at nearly 15 yards per catch. Lazard continues to be a reliable option for Aaron Rodgers and he needs more targets moving forward.

Tough day for the NFC North

This positive didn’t happen in the Green Bay Packers’ game but the rest of the NFC North lost on Sunday as well. So the Packers still sit alone at the top of the division, with a one game lead over Minnesota while Detroit and Chicago are below .500.

Injury free

Really the only thing that could have made Sunday’s game any worse would have been an injury to a key player. But luckily on Monday morning, it appears that the Packers got out of Los Angeles without any serious injuries.

The Bad

Offensive Line

As good as the offensive line unit has been all season, Sunday was by far their worst performance of the season. They had no answers for the Chargers’ edge rushers – Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram who wreaked havoc on Aaron Rodgers all day. In total, the Chargers would record 14 pressures, three of which were sacks. I also have to mention the false start and holding penalties early on that derailed any sort of momentum that the offense was trying to build.

Special Teams

This offseason the Green Bay Packers brought in a new special teams coach and there are a number of new faces on the special teams unit, however, we are seeing the same old results. When the Chargers were up 12-0 and the game still felt within reach, they would block J.K. Scott’s punt and a few plays later, their offense would score.

Then in the second half, an offsides penalty on a field goal kick resulted in Los Angeles going for it on fourth down instead of settling for three and they ended up in the end zone. Fortunately, those four points didn’t determine the outcome of the game. And of course, there is the return game which instead of being a weapon, is just a liability.

The Run Defense

Coming into this game the Green Bay Packers’ run defense was already ranked in the bottom third on the NFL, but facing a Chargers team that had struggled to move the ball on the ground all season, we hoped this would be a matchup that the Packers front-seven could take advantage of. However, that wasn’t the case at all.

Believe it or not, prior to this game, the Chargers hadn’t recorded over 40 rushing yards as a team in four straight games. But against the Packers, they would total 159 rushing yards at 4.2 yards per carry and control the game.

Lack of a Pass Rush

Early in the season this Packers defensive front was regularly getting after the quarterback, coming away with key sacks and forcing turnovers. However since the Raiders game, teams have been getting the ball out of the quarterback’s hands quickly, which doesn’t give the Green Bay defensive front much of an opportunity to make play.

Moving forward, Mike Pettine has to start sending more pressure and making the quarterback uncomfortable. There have been way too many four man pass rushes which allows the quarterback to sit in the pocket and pick the Packers’ secondary apart.

The Big Play

This has been an issue for this Green Bay defense all season long and once again we saw it against the Chargers. The Packers would give up two big plays to receiver Mike Williams, one over 40 yards and another over 50. This is a trend that has to stop.

The Ugly

The Packers’ Sense of Urgency

Whether it was traveling to the west coast, the time change or who knows what else, as I mentioned above, from the first snap of the game this Green Bay Packers team was lethargic and had zero sense of urgency. It’s as if they expected to walk in, get their win and head home. But instead, they were punched in the mouth.

Although the defense was able to hold the Chargers to field goals early on, they couldn’t get off of the field. There was poor tackling, the run defense was non-existent and Phillip Rivers picked them apart over the middle of the field. On offense there were just too many penalties that stalled drives, the offensive line couldn’t slow Bosa or Ingram, and Matt LaFleur abandoned the running game way too early.

There were a number of other factors as well that contributed to this performance but to put it simply, this team was flat for all 60 minutes. They need to quickly learn from their mistakes, burn the tape and prepare for a tough Carolina Panthers team that is coming to Lambeau this Sunday.