Packers Instant Takeaways: Jordan Love takes over for injured Aaron Rodgers

The Green Bay Packers offense put up 30 points for only the second time this season and did so against a very good defense. Unfortunately, the Packers defense couldn’t get a stop or come close to slowing the Eagles’ run game.

Now at 4-8, if there was some hope of the Packers making a playoff push, those are likely all but gone.

As I do after every Packers game, here are my instant takeaways from their performance.

– I imagine all of us have been wondering if the Packers would transition to Jordan Love at any point this season once they are eliminated from playoff contention. Aaron Rodgers had been playing through a thumb injury, but his latest injury may not give Green Bay much of a choice.

– It was a small sample size, but Love looked confident — he was letting it rip — went through his progressions, extended plays, and had a few impressive tosses. An encouraging performance.

– Granted, the Eagles’ offense makes a lot of defenses look bad, but my goodness, the Packers looked completely unprepared. Did they know that the Eagles are a run-heavy team? Green Bay had no answers for Miles Sanders and Jalen Hurts. Sanders had massive running lanes between the tackles, while the edge rushers continued to set poor edges, which Hurts took advantage of. Quay Walker was used as a spy at times, but it either wasn’t enough, or he was ineffective at it.

– On top of that, it’s not as if Green Bay slowed the passing game, either. The Packers’ cornerbacks, especially Rasul Douglas, and the safeties had rough performances as well.

– More missed tackles by Green Bay. Like, a lot of missed tackles.

– Third downs on both sides of the ball were awful. The offense couldn’t convert any, while the defense did well at creating several third and long situations, but it didn’t much matter as they couldn’t get off the field.

– Joe Barry wasn’t good, but neither were the players.

– Darnell Savage left early with a foot injury, but before that, he was not among the starters. In the Packers’ nickel formation, it was Rudy Ford and Adrian Amos deep, with Keisean Nixon in the slot.

– The Packers only have Savage and Tariq Carpenter under contract in 2023, but you can pencil in Ford after he made another play with a forced fumble. He was brought in to be a special teams player, but he has been a solid defender as well.

– During the first six minutes of the game, the Packers’ offense, defense, and special teams all looked completely lost. Credit to Green Bay for continuing to fight and making this game competitive. It could have been very easy to just give in.

– Justin Hollins, who was claimed off waivers on Wednesday, had a nice debut with a run stop, a sack, and a pressure. He’s already been more effective than Jonathan Garvin and La’Darius Hamilton.

– As I wrote prior to the game, the Packers’ best chance of success on offense was going to begin with the run game, and we saw that. The Eagles run defense has been susceptible as of late without Jordan Davis, and the Packers were able to create some wide running lanes for Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon. Early on, anyways, this helped set up some success in the passing game.

– There were more two running back sets than what we’ve seen recently, and Green Bay was much more effective out of those sets than they were earlier in the season. Jones and Dillon were also used more in the passing game as well.

– AJ Dillon easily had his best game of the season. He looked far more explosive than what we’ve seen all year.

– Here’s a stat for you from Rob Demovsky, the Packers’ defense has allowed 60 points this season in the final two minutes before halftime. The most in the NFL.

– The Eagles came into the game as the best in the NFL at creating turnovers, and we saw that as they picked off Aaron Rodgers twice.

– There are some drops here and there still, but Christian Watson continues to make huge strides right before our eyes as a playmaker . His speed is game-changing.

– It looks like the Packers may have actually found a return man in Keisean Nixon, who brings some serious juice to the position.