Pete Dougherty and Dominique Yates evaluate the Green Bay Packers’ loss to the Eagles
Pete Dougherty and Dominique Yates summarize the Green Bay Packers’ 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil.
SÃO PAULO – Jaire Alexander went through his list of mistakes.
His eyes. When Philadelphia Eagles receiver AJ Brown broke deep, Alexander wasn’t looking at the receiver, but into the backfield. His alignment. The Green Bay Packers cornerback should have been 7 or 8 yards from the line of scrimmage. He was only 5.
It was a conglomeration of sloppy technique. You can’t get away with that in the NFL. Impossible against one of the best receivers in the league. Brown faked an out route to the right sideline. Three steps later, he planted his right foot in the ground and sprinted quickly up the field. Alexander had no chance. He was caught off guard when Brown raced past him and caught a ball from Jalen Hurts for a 67-yard touchdown a minute into the second half.
“I had really bad eyesight,” Alexander said. “My eyes weren’t aligned properly.”
It would be easy to blame Alexander. And he did. But rewatching the touchdown reveals a recurring pattern from Friday night’s 34-29 loss to the Eagles. At the snap, the Packers rushed four defenders. Kenny Clark stumbled as he crossed the line of scrimmage and slipped under right guard Mekhi Becton’s block. Rashan Gary was blocked by right tackle Lane Johnson. Preston Smith’s bull rush against left tackle Jordan Mailata fizzled. TJ Slaton had his hands full with double coverage.
Hurts had about 3 seconds to get his feet in a clean pocket and throw. Too much time for such a talented quarterback. Alexander could have played Brown perfectly by keeping his lead deep and outside and keeping his eyes on his target. It might not have mattered. This was basically a layup.
There were too many layups on Friday night. The Packers went into their 2024 opening game believing their defense was a strength. They finished the game with two sacks but only five quarterback hits. Coach Matt LaFleur didn’t mince his words when asked about his defense’s performance, immediately pointing to the lack of pressure.
“They beat us up,” LaFleur said. “I would say it felt like Jalen had a lot of time to throw the football. I think when you don’t get a pass rush, and this is a really good offensive line, I just expected more from our pass rush tonight.”
The Packers never really had a chance to get more out of their pass rush. On a night when new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley revealed how he will run his unit, the Packers were living in the past. Two years ago, they were stuck in the mud against Hurts in a late November game in Philadelphia. Hurts had seven carries for 102 yards, and that was just the first quarter. On the third play of the game, he scrambled for 24 yards, converting a third-and-10 attempt. On the second and 11th attempts, he ran for 23 yards. On the third and second attempts, he ran for 42 yards.
At the end of the night, Hurts had 157 yards on 17 carries. He had only 153 passing yards. The Packers weren’t going to allow Hurts to repeat those numbers, no matter who their defensive coordinator was.
So they sacrificed the pass rush to keep Hurts in the pocket.
“Our plan,” Clark said, “was to keep him in the pocket and let him beat us with his arm. A lot of our attacks were really power rushes, we really tried to contain him. We didn’t try to overdo the attacks, get too far forward. We probably limited it until the fourth quarter, but we still have to put pressure on him.”
The Packers’ plan worked as intended. Hurts ran 13 times on Friday night, but only managed 33 yards, averaging 2.5 yards. His longest run was 8 yards. The Packers probably expected their defensive line to be talented enough to win enough one-on-ones to generate some pressure. It rarely happened.
Gary had a sack when the Eagles left him unblocked. Nickel corner Keisean Nixon had a sack when he beat Hurts at the line of scrimmage and lost 6 yards on a running play. Otherwise, it was a shutout.
The Packers felt they had no choice but to pressure Hurts rather than contain him.
“You have to work on locking him down,” Gary said. “I don’t know how many times he ran. I have to watch it. I have to see our running routes on certain plays that he ran. I think we made him the quarterback most of the game, but with a guy like him, four is one. You have to communicate. You have to make sure you don’t get too high. You have to make sure we have all our running routes to the quarterback. That’s really all. With a quarterback like him, you just have to lock him down and let him be the quarterback.”
It sounded a lot like former Packers cornerback Tramon Williams’ statement about the defense wanting to start former Chicago Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky at quarterback in the 2018 opener. Only Hurts is not Trubisky. The two are light years apart in talent.
Hurts, the quarterback, completed 20 of 34 passes for 278 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. His two interceptions were poor throws, both short. Safety Xavier McKinney intercepted the first pass by sliding over to the right seam to undercut the ball. Alexander intercepted the second when Hurts’ pass to Brown in the end zone fell short. But Hurts made more than enough plays with his arm to win, especially when running back Saquon Barkley provided balance on the ground with a workhorse 109 yards on 24 carries.
The Packers kept Hurts the runner in check. Asking the secondary to cover this group of Eagles receivers longer with a quarterback who can deliver like Hurts backfired.
“It’s super difficult,” Alexander said. “We have to cover a little longer, but that’s part of our job. It’s just part of it. But yes, it’s definitely difficult.”
