Going Home

By: Lawrence Lang

The Green Bay Packers head home for their home opener against the New Orleans Saints and look to head to 2-1 on the season. The Packers come home after a week two loss to the Atlanta Falcons 25-24. In that game, Jordan Love looked good again, going 14/25, 151 passing yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and only being sacked once. Jayden Reed had a pair of touchdowns on four receptions for 37 yards, and Dontayvion Wicks had one touchdown on two receptions and 40 yards. With Aaron Jones out for game two with a hamstring injury, AJ Dillion was running back one and was shut down by the Falcons’ defense, only having 15 carries for 55 yards in total; the Packers had 21 carries for just 84 yards rushing. 

The Packers were up 24-12 heading into the fourth quarter, and the offense and defense played lackluster football. In the final quarter, the offense put up no points, and the defense allowed 13 points, which led to the Falcons winning. Now, being no stranger to watching the Packers do this, a few key notes are to be noted. Whenever they have a lead in recent memory, the Packers like to play conservative football, which means running the ball more to kill the game clock instead of trying to pass it more and putting up more points to keep their lead. Second, the Packers also failed to stop the run game in this game. Bijan Robinson led the way with 19 carries for 124 yards, Tyler Allgeier had 16 carries for 48 yards, and quarterback Desmond Ridder had 10 carries for 39 yards and a touchdown. In total, the Falcons run game had 211 rushing yards. The Packers’ defense is like a coin when it comes to stopping the run game; either you flip it, and they can stop it, or the other outcome happens, and they struggle all game to stop it.  

As for the Saints, they come into Green Bay 2-0 after a Monday Night Football win on the road over the Carolina Panthers 20-17. Quarterback Derek Carr went 21/36, 228 passing yards, and an interception. Then, the man of many positions, quarterback Taysom Hill, had nine carries for 75 yards, one being a 19-yard run. Tony Jones Jr. had 12 carries for 34 yards and two touchdowns, and Jamaal Willimas had nine carries and 29 yards rushing. Receiving end Chris Olave had six receptions for 86 yards, and Rashid Shaheed had four catches for 63 yards. In all honesty, there is no real standout for the Saints in this game besides Jones Jr. Carr looks right with a 58% competition percentage, but in two games, he only has one passing touchdown. Two games are only outscoring their opponents 36-22; granted, that throws two games, but if you want to be in that Super Bowl conversation, and if Carr wants to be in that MVP conversation, Carr will need to start stepping up. 

All eyes will be on Love, as this will be his first home opener as the starter. A couple of game-time decisions for the Packers will be Running Back Aaron Jones, Wide Receiver Christian Watson, Left Tackle David Bakhtiari, and Left Guard Elgton Jenkins. Bakhtiari has made news recently about the controversy about how NFL stadiums are going with astroturf instead of natural grass as Canada, Mexico, and The US get ready to host the World Cup in 2016, so it looks like I might not see much of Bakhtiari this season depending was the Packers are playing and if it’s a natural grass field or astroturf. The Love era at Lambeau Field begins with a 4:25 P.m. Sunday Kickoff.