Green Bay Packers v. Chargers: Studs & Duds

These are the studs and the duds from the Green Bay Packers’ ugly loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Green Bay Packers came into Sunday’s matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers on a four game winning streak and 7-1 overall. However, a flat and lack-luster performance in all three phases of the game led to an ugly loss.

Whether it was from playing on the west coast, the time change, or maybe this team was a little to full of themselves, they just simply were not prepared for this game. Now, they’ll have to regroup, refocus and move on as they’ll have another tough test this upcoming Sunday against the Carolina Panthers at Lambeau Field.

But before we start looking ahead too much, let’s take a look back at the studs and duds from Sunday’s performance in Los Angeles.

Studs

Allen Lazard

Despite Davante Adams being back on the field and leading the team with 11 receptions, it was Allen Lazard who led the Green Bay Packers in receiving yards with 44. And once again, he was also very efficient, hauling in three of the four passes thrown his way.

Coming into the season, the big discussion amongst Packer fans was, who would step up and be the second receiver behind Adams? It was fair to assume that it would either be Geronimo Allison or Marquez Valdes-Scantling. However, Allison has struggled for much of the season, especially with the drops and MVS didn’t have a single catch in L.A. and has just six total catches in the last five games.

Since getting his opportunity in the fourth quarter against Detroit, Lazard has made a few big catches, has been a reliable target, and perhaps most importantly, he has Aaron Rodgers’ trust. While no one would have guessed it at the beginning of the season, it looks like Allen Lazard is wide receiver two on this team and moving forward, he needs more targets.

The Smiths

The Green Bay Packers’ defensive front was exposed once again, particularly up the middle, as the Chargers were able to run all over them. However, I want to acknowledge Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith who both recorded a sack in yesterday’s game. Coincidentally, each player has already tied their previous career highs in sacks just nine games into the 2019 season. These two free agent signings by GM Brian Gutekunst have been absolute home runs as both players have been key and are on their way to career highs.

Duds

Matt LaFleur

Although coach Matt LaFleur wasn’t on the field taking snaps, I do have to include him in the dud section. It was clear right from the start of the game that this Green Bay team wasn’t engaged. As a result, there were too many penalties, and Aaron Rodgers was under constant duress. With the Chargers in control early, the Packers would rush the ball just 11 times the entire game despite being down by only nine in the third quarter. The other mistake was that Aaron Jones would touch the ball just nine times.

LaFleur is still a rookie head coach that is learning, and he, like the rest of the team was flustered early on and they got away from what had made this team successful through the first eight weeks. I expect that he will learn from this and the team will be ready to go next week, however, he lands in the “duds” category today.

The offensive line unit

As good as this Green Bay Packers’ offensive line unit has been this season and against some very good competition might I add, their performance in Los Angeles was brutal. Early on there were false starts and holding penalties that negated positive plays, which put Rodgers and the offense in multiple third and long situations. The offense never had much of a chance to get anything going in that first half.

And when there weren’t penalties, they struggled giving Rodgers a clean pocket to work from. The Charger edge rushers – Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram were absolute monsters yesterday and even David Bakhtiari and Bryan Bulaga were being bullied. When it was all said and done, the Chargers would total three sacks, seven quarterback hits and six tackles for loss.

Run Defense

Believer it or not, the L.A. Chargers had one of the worst rushing offenses in the NFL prior to yesterday’s game as they averaged roughly 70 yards per game on the ground this season. However, this Packers run defense has had their issues as well and they were on full display on Sunday. After not eclipsing 40 total rushing yards in four straight games, the Chargers would rush for 159 and by the end of the game, this Green Bay defense was gassed.

Special Teams

I’m almost at a loss for words at this point when it comes to the Green Bay Packers’ special teams unit. They have a number of new players contributing and also have a new coach but it is the same inept play. Against the Chargers they would allow a blocked punt, jump offsides on a field goal attempt that instead resulted in a touchdown, and of course, outside of one decent return by Tremon Williams, they were unable to create anything in the return game.

Blake Martinez

Now, not everything that has gone wrong in the running game or across the middle of the field on short to intermediate routes is Blake Martinez’ fault as some like to think, but he certainly isn’t helping by any means either. Martinez makes a lot of tackles but they don’t often happen around the line of scrimmage and coverage isn’t exactly his strong suit. In a contract year with other Packer players that need to be paid as well, he is making it difficult to justify bringing him back unless it is on a team-friendly deal.