Instant Takeaways from Bakhtiari’s Green Bay Packers Season Debut

The Green Bay Packers couldn’t quite come away with the win in Detroit, but that’s okay, it’s not as if this game mattered.

As always, I have my instant takeaways from the Green Bay Packers performance.

– The starters played longer than what I was hoping for, but for the most part, Green Bay escaped injury-free–although Marquez Valdes-Scantling did leave in the first half with a back injury. Chandon Sullivan left the game in the fourth quarter as well.

– Don’t read too much into the outcome or the Packers’ overall performance. Green Bay had nothing to play for and ran some very vanilla schemes while Detroit pulled out all of the stops.

– Heading into the playoffs, however, this Green Bay Packers defense needs to be ready for some trick plays because they showed today that they weren’t, and other teams may try to take advantage of that.

– With that said, this defense really missed De’Vondre Campbell in the middle. The Lions found a lot of success attacking between the numbers.

– This Packers’ offense has started slowly in most games this season, so it was nice to see them put together a long opening drive that ended with seven points. They were also 4/4 on third downs that drive as well.

– Davante Adams now holds the Green Bay Packers single-season receiving record.

– Jordan Love looked so much more comfortable this time around compared to the Kansas City game. The ball was out quickly, and he was able to extend plays and create on a few occasions as well—although that last interception wasn’t good.

– Green Bay’s starting OL was Bakhtiari-Runyan-Myers-Patrick-Kelly. Patrick was the Packers’ primary right tackle in 2020, where he allowed the 12th fewest pressures among guards, according to PFF ($$).

– For the most part, Josh Myers has looked the part this season, but it’s important to remember that he has only four full NFL games under his belt.

– Bakhtiari looked good out there, as did the starting OL. I know this Lions’ pass rush isn’t very good, but Aaron Rodgers had all day in the pocket. Bakhtiari did leave in the middle of a possession, my guess is that he was on a very strict snap count, but we will see what he and LaFleur have to say following the game.

– Mason Crosby’s missed extra point was his first miss since the bye week. But overall, the special teams unit was solid again–good coverage on the fake punt, a good return by Amari Rodgers, and Juwann Winfree got his hands on a punt.

– Dean Lowry capped off his best season with another strong performance. He was a force in the middle, logging his fifth sack and 40th pressure of the season per PFF.

– Allen Lazard continues to play at a really high level, catching five of his six passes for 75 yards and two touchdowns. Over the previous four games, Lazard had 16 catches with an average of 13.4 yards and three touchdowns.

– Amon-Ra St. Brown came into this game red-hot for the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay defense had a very hard time slowing him down from the slot. St. Brown had a lot of success over the middle and turned short, quick passes into YAC.

– Unfortunately, Preston Smith couldn’t get his 10th sack of the season, which would have earned him a $750,000  bonus plus an increase in his 2022 base salary of $500,000.

– This was an impressive performance by Patrick Taylor. As I wrote in my Final Thoughts article, I’ve always liked his fit in this offense, and we saw the potential that he brings.

– This has been a rough rookie season for Amari Rodgers and his final regular-season game finished that way as well. A bobbled pass ends in an interception and for some reason, he decided to take the final kickoff out of the end zone.