Green Bay Packers v. 49ers: Instant Takeaways from Last Second Win

What a final drive by Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams, and Mason Crosby. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but the Green Bay Packers played an all-around solid game and came away with a huge road victory over San Francisco. Green Bay is now 2-1 on the season.

Here is a rundown of my instant takeaways from the Green Bay Packers’ performance.

– I was very concerned about the Green Bay Packers’ OL against this 49ers’ pass rush, but for the most part, they held up well.

– With that said, Nick Bosa and the other edge rushers did find some success, but that’s to be expected from a talented group against a young OL.

– When it comes to Yosh Nijman specifically, who made his first NFL start, it was a rough opening drive for him as Nick Bosa had his way. Over the course of the game, he was called for two penalties as well, but overall, he appeared to do alright with some assistance.

– The Green Bay run game didn’t log any big runs or average a huge amount per carry, but they stuck with it — mostly — and just like against Detroit, we saw that the run game can still be very effective even without gaudy numbers. With that said, with 7 minutes left, why did Rodgers take three deep shots in a row?

– Credit to the Green Bay Packers’ run defense–they were able to contain the San Francisco running backs. Kenny Clark built off of his performance last week with a huge game and we saw some flashes from Tyler Lancaster as well. Overall it was a nice game for the interior defensive line group.

– The amount of ground that Jaire Alexander had to cover on that interception of his was ridiculous.

– The 49ers won the coin toss and chose to defer, but on the road and against a good team, I was happy to see the Green Bay Packers’ offense start with the ball.

– In my “Big Questions” preview article, I discussed how Rodgers and Co. could potentially take advantage of these Niners’ CBs if the pass rush didn’t get to him first, and we saw exactly that tonight. San Francisco had very few answers for the Packer passing game.

– I did like LaFleur’s decision to go for it on fourth and one inside the five-yard line. However, the play itself was doomed from the snap.

– San Francisco wasn’t flagged a lot, but when they were, they were costly.

– Kyle Shanahan went into his bag of tricks for some of those play calls. Admittedly I was nervous to see Shanahan’s offense against the Joe Barry defense, but Barry and the defense were ready. The 49ers offense averaged less than five yards per play.

– It can go unnoticed, but the blocking abilities of Allen Lazard, Marcedes Lewis, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Robert Tonyan are so important to the success of this Green Bay Packers offense.

– Preston Smith hasn’t logged a ton of stats this season, but I thought he’s been much better compared to what we saw from him in 2020–especially against the run.

– Aaron Rodgers was so good once again. That touchdown pass to Valdes-Scantling was an absolute dime and what is there to say about that final drive? More heroics from No. 12.

– 37 seconds is more than enough time.

– Mason Crosby is absolutely clutch. He has now made 22 straight field goals.

– And Davante Adams was his usual spectacular self. Coming back into the game after that vicious hit to then make those big receptions on the final drive was something else.

– The Packers have struggled on the west coast the last few seasons, but they certainly came to play tonight. And they absolutely had to.

– Krys Barnes left the game with a concussion in the first half. In his place were Ty Summers and Oren Burks, and we saw Jimmy Garoppolo find success over the middle of the field.

– That kick return by the 49ers before half resulted in such a huge momentum shift. The 49ers eventually found the end zone and then scored coming out of half to make it a three-point game.

– Also, on that touchdown drive, that was intentional grounding by Garoppolo. LaFleur was absolutely furious with the officials as he should have been.

– LaFleur has discussed how well Corey Bojorquez is with directional punting and we saw that on display during his first two attempts. Huge kicks that pinned the 49ers’ return man along the sidelines. Bojorquez has been a massive upgrade.

– After seeing this Packers defense play passive during the first half against Detroit, it was great to see them continue to be aggressive with Barry sending a number of blitzes from different players.

– De’Vondre Campbell continues to be a major upgrade at linebacker. As I said last week, he isn’t the flashiest player by any means, but he has been very solid.

– It was another quiet week for Randall Cobb.

– For the most part, the Packer defense was able to keep Deebo Samuel in check. They did the same with George Kittle. Both players are still going to put up numbers, but Green Bay kept them from taking the game over.

– Considering the inexperience along the offensive line and the 49ers pass rush, I was surprised to see as many five-wide sets from the Green Bay Packers offense.

– Eric Stokes was flagged twice; however, one was not a penalty whatsoever, and the other could have been a no-call. But what I liked that I saw was that he continued to play physically.

– This officiating crew had a rough night. After some questionable calls, a missed intentional grounding penalty, and a phantom roughing the passer call, they somehow do not call helmet to helmet after Davante Adams takes a big hit.

– Green Bay was 3/5 in the red zone, time of possession was fairly equal, and the Packers won the turnover battle 2 to 0. The Niners were 4/4 in the red zone.

– What a win.