Here’s What Happened at Day 1 of Packers-Patriots Joint Practices
GREEN BAY, Wis. – New England Patriots coach and noted NFL historian Bill Belichick brought a deep appreciation of the Green Bay Packers to Day 1 of joint practices on Wednesday.
“They're the oldest franchise in the league, going all the way back to [Curly] Lambeau starting the team and all the success they had with [Don] Hutson, [Clarke] Hinkle, [Cecil] Isbell and all those guys. Then, [Vince] Lombardi and most recently with [Brett] Favre, [Aaron] Rodgers and now with Matt [LaFleur]. You know, his first three years here, double-digit wins every year.
“It's a great program, a lot of history to the game here. Third-oldest sporting field behind Fenway [Park] and Wrigley [Field], so it's very moving to walk out of the locker room down onto the field when you think about all of the great, great players and coaches that have done that through the years. Great part of football, great part of tradition, and it's an honor to be part of it and be here.”
On the field, the Jordan Love-led offense had a good day against New England’s powerful defense while the Packers’ defense looked strong in mostly controlling the action on that side of the ball.
“I think it was a good day,” Love said. “A lot of things to clean up, to work on and then, obviously, a lot of good things. I think it was just good for us to go against a new defense, see some new looks. They threw a lot of stuff at us today. It’s just really good for our development to keep seeing new looks, different things and just go back and look at the film and see what we did.”
Here’s everything you need to know.
Bill Belichick at Packers joint practices (Photo by Sarah Kloepping/USA Today Sports)
Jordan Love’s Day
Jordan Love went 16-of-28 passing with three touchdowns and, critically, zero interceptions against a team that finished one off the NFL lead in picks last year.
Two of the touchdowns came during a red-zone period with a seam route to tight end Luke Musgrave and an out to Romeo Doubs against first-round draft pick Christian Gonzalez.
On the touchdown to Musgrave, Love broke it down: “We can kind of a corner-post concept, and I think they went man-ish, quarters, and the corner took the safety out and Luke was just 1-on-1 with the corner right there. I got it out a little early before he came out of his break, just put it up and he went up and made a great catch right there in the end zone.”
His biggest play of the day came during an unscripted, move-the-ball series. After a deep shot to Romeo Doubs was broken up by cornerback Jack Jones, a wounded duck incompletion to Jayden Reed, a checkdown thrown behind AJ Dillon and a sack, Love unleashed a perfect deep ball to Christian Watson. The ball beat Gonzalez by a step, and Watson turned upfield and sprinted for a 75-yard touchdown.
Love’s final period was a 2-minute drill. He went 5-of-7 in setting up the offense for the necessary field goal, but Anders Carlson was wide right from 40 yards. Doubs caught three of the passes and Watson took a shot from cornerback Marcus Jones but hung on to covert a third-and-3. The second of the incompletions was a time-wasting throwaway to run the clock to 3 seconds.
Player of the Day
I spent most of the day watching the defense. That unit mostly dominated the Mac Jones-led offense. Even Green Bay’s backups made plays. Among them was sixth-round pick Karl Brooks, who is fighting for a roster spot on the defensive line.
Brooks, who created plenty of havoc at Bowling Green, had at least two sacks and combined with Brenton Cox to stuff a run on third down during a 2-minute drill.
Even with Kenny Clark out, the defensive line had a strong day. Devonte Wyatt had a sack during 2-minute and Jonathan Ford was a menace against the run.
Play of the Day
The Jordan Love-to-Christian Watson touchdown is an obvious choice but let’s go to the backups-vs.-backups 2-minute drill. On third-and-1 from New England’s 26 and with 17 seconds on the clock, rookie quarterback Sean Clifford and undrafted rookie receiver Malik Heath were on the same page for what may or may not have been a touchdown.
The play was supposed to be an out, Heath said, but because Patriots cornerback Jack Jones was playing press coverage, Heath took the route upfield. Clifford’s pass was perfect, with Heath making a tumbling catch near the goal line. One official called him down at the 1, one called it a touchdown. During their discussion, time ran out on the period.
“Great ball by the quarterback,” Heath said. “I just had to come down with it. Set him up on the release. It was one of their starting corners. It was my opportunity; I had to make a play. I was in (the end zone), for sure.”
Packers Injury Report
David Bakhtiari got another day off as the team takes it easy on the veteran left tackle’s knee. The intention is for him to practice on Thursday.
Cornerback Jaire Alexander, who’s been limited to individual drills for more than a week due to a groin injury, took part in some team drills.
New Injuries: LB De’Vondre Campbell (ankle), WR Bo Melton (hamstring).
Old Injuries: CB Eric Stokes (PUP list foot), LB Tariq Carpenter (back), RB Lew Nichols (shoulder), CB Corey Ballentine (stinger), S Innis Gaines (quad), RB Tyler Goodson (shoulder), OT Caleb Jones (ankle), OT Luke Tenuta (ankle), TE Tyler Davis (knee), DT Kenny Clark (back).
Returned From Injury: None.
Lineup Notes
- Happy birthday to safety Tarvarius Moore. A free-agent acquisition from the 49ers, Moore had a strong game at Cincinnati on Friday and took the first-team reps alongside Darnell Savage in the wide-open battle at safety.
Moore had a good day. While star receiver DeVante Parker got behind him once (the pass was incomplete), Moore delivered air-tight coverage the rest of the day. He set up a sack by Preston Smith by eliminating a checkdown. He also took away a deep ball to force a checkdown and filled a gap to stop a run.
- Sticking with safety, Jonathan Owens and rookie Anthony Johnson formed the No. 2 tandem. Rudy Ford, who started six games last year and opened camp with the 1s, has been relegated to third-team duties.
- The day started with Smith and first-round pick Lukas Van Ness as the No. 1 outside linebackers. Justin Hollins got first-team reps, too, and Kingsley Enagbare had a sack.
- With De’Vondre Campbell banged up, Isaiah McDuffied worked with the 1s at inside linebacker alongside Quay Walker.
- The No. 1 offensive line had David Bakhtiari at left tackle, Elgton Jenkins at left guard, Josh Myers at center, Jon Runyan at right guard and Zach Tom at right tackle.
Christian Watson during ball security before the joint practice vs. New England (Photo by Bill Huber/Packer Central)
Practice Highlights
- Cornerback Jaire Alexander didn’t participate in the 11-on-11 periods at last week’s practice at Cincinnati. He sat out the first series of team drills on Monday, as well. However, after a punt period, Alexander was with the No. 1 defense. He broke up the first pass thrown his way.
- During a special-teams period, rookie kicker Anders Carlson made all four field-goal attempts. However, he missed both shots during live periods.
In 2-minute, his 40-yarder drifted just to the right. During an end-of-game/half sequence, the offense snapped the ball with 22 seconds left and gained a few yards. The offense then rushed on the field. Carlson’s 43-yard attempt into a stiff wind was short – and not just a little short. It only got a few yards into the end zone.
For comparison, the Patriots executed a similar end-of-game scenario with 38-year-old kicker Nick Folk’s 40-yard field goal perhaps getting over the crossbar. (The kick was ruled no good but appeared to have made it over the bar.)
- How about a red-zone jet sweep to tight end Luke Musgrave? Not sure if that will be a staple of the offense but it shows how much the Packers want to get the ball in his hands.
“Yeah. We did do that,” Love said with a smile. “When you’ve got a guy that’s as fast as that, like Luke, just try to find different ways to use hm.”
- During the opening period, the Patriots tried two running plays. Second-year defensive tackle Jonathan Ford stopped them both near the line of scrimmage.
- Cornerback Rasul Douglas broke up three passes. On one, he sagged off standout tight end Hunter Henry. Patriots quarterback Mac Jones thought Henry was open but it was all a trick. Douglas retreated in an instant and almost snared the interception.
- Rookie cornerback Carrington Valentine was all over a deep shot to star tight end DeVante Parker.
- Starting linebacker Quay Walker blew up a screen. He had an excellent day.
- Undrafted rookie outside linebacker Brenton Cox had a sack and a couple pressures. On the sack, fellow undrafted outside linebacker Keshawn Banks was there, as well. A couple plays later, recently acquired Aarron Mosby had a sack.
Packers Training Camp Schedule
The Packers and Patriots will practice against each other again at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. If you plan on going, get there early. Fans who showed up at 9:30 a.m. couldn’t get a spot in the bleachers. On Saturday night, the teams will kick off their preseason game at 7 p.m.
Quote of the Day
Receiver Christian Watson on rookie tight end Luke Musgrave:
“From the moment he stepped on the field, I’ve been in awe of the kind of stuff he can do: running down the seam, playing outside, running go balls, beating corners down the field. He’s definitely been a specimen out there and I’m excited to see what he continues to do.”
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