Green Bay Packers v. 49ers: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from the Green Bay Packers’ performance against the San Francisco 49ers.

Much like their last trip to the west coast, this Green Bay Packers’ team looked unprepared and the San Francisco 49ers punched them in the mouth as they cruised to an easy 37-8 victory. Now with that loss, the Packers are 8-3 and they are tied with the Minnesota Vikings for the NFC North lead and they currently sit as the three seed in the NFC playoff picture behind the 49ers and the New Orleans Saints.

As I do every Monday morning, I’ve put together my good, bad, and ugly from Green Bay’s performance. Some Monday’s are more fun than others, and I’m sure you can guess which category this week fell into. So if you’re willing, let’s take a look back to last night’s game.

The Good

Za’Darius Smith

As I’m sure you can imagine, there wasn’t much good that came from this game, but as he’s done for most of the season, Za’Darius Smith dominant. Smith had a favorable matchup against Justin Skule who was filling in for the injured Joe Staley and had allowed 13 pressures and three sacks over his previous three games. In total, Smith would finish with six tackles, 1.5 of which were for a loss, 1.5 sacks, and three quarterback hits. Not to mention that he had another fantastic sack celebration.

The Bad

Geronimo Allison

It’s evident that inside 1265 Lombardi Avenue they love Geronimo Allison because he continues to get significant snaps when instead he should be seeing less playing time. Last night Allison caught three passes for nine yards and had a crucial drop on third down early in the game, while also being penalized for a block in the back.

Drops have been an issue for Allison all season but he’s also just been unproductive. Over their last four games, Allison has nine receptions for 43 yards with no touchdowns. That averages out to an incredibly low 4.8 yards per catch. And for whatever reason, Matt LaFleur continues to use him on wide receiver screens when he just doesn’t have the athletic ability to make something happen in those situations.

The Ugly

The Entire Offense

Although it got out of hand at the end, the Green Bay Packers’ defense was holding their own early on and keeping them in this game. However, the offense was horrendous. Aaron Rodgers would pass for just 104 yards and we saw him revert back to holding the ball too long. Meanwhile, Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams would average just 3.4 yards per carry, and the receivers not named Davante Adams really struggled to get open.

As a team they would go just 1-15 on third downs, totaled 198 yards on offense, allowed five sacks, and of course, that early fumble quickly put them behind. This game felt very similar to the Los Angeles Chargers game from a few weeks ago, and as the headline reads, this was just an ugly performance.

Special Teams

The Green Bay Packers’ moved on from Ron Zook and the special teams unit appears to somehow gotten worse. They came into last night’s game have -8 total punt return yards this season and they finished the game at -11. How is this even possible? Then we have J.K. Scott who got off to a nice start this season but has struggled as of late, and in perfect conditions against San Francisco when the Packers really needed him to flip the field on a few occasions, he didn’t even come close.