Week 1 Grades: Packers Lose to Vikings

The Green Bay Packers couldn’t pass the ball effectively vs. the Minnesota Vikings, nor could they stop them from throwing the football. That is a losing formula every week.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – That the Green Bay Packers lost to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday wasn’t exactly a surprise. It’s a matchup-driven league, and the Vikings had a huge one in their favor with Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter against backup offensive tackles Yosh Nijman and Royce Newman.

“That’s an excuse, so we don’t like to say that,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said afterward. “There guys are NFL players. There’s expectation for whoever’s in there that they’re going to play well. ”

What was a surprise is how the Vikings dominated the other marquee matchup, with Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson running circles around the Packers’ baffled secondary.

Poor play by the makeshift offensive line, lackluster play by Green Bay’s defensive front, surprisingly shoddy pass defense, minus-2 in turnovers and some suspect coaching decisions after an entire offseason to come up with a winning game plan added up to a 23-7 loss that felt so much more lopsided.

“Some of the mistakes that we made led to big-time plays on both sides of the ball, so that’s going to be the emphasis is just cleaning up some of the communication errors and making sure guys are doing their responsibility,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday.

“There was plenty of things on both sides that we’ve seen throughout the course of the offseason. It wasn’t like there were these new plays in either of those phases that came up. There were plays that for whatever reason the communication was off and the execution was off, and then we’ve got guys covering for another guy and that’s how bad things happen.”

Here are our Week 1 unit grades.

Passing Offense

Za'Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter celebrate Hunter's second-half sack. (USA Today Sports Images)

The last two seasons, Aaron Rodgers threw 38 touchdowns with zero interceptions in 12 games against the NFC North. He ended last season with seven consecutive games of two-plus touchdowns and zero interceptions, the second-longest streak in NFL history.

Those streaks went up in flames. Rodgers was just 22-of-34 passing for 195 yards. He didn’t throw a touchdown pass – Christian Watson’s drop of a 75-yarder on the first play foreshadowed the rest of the afternoon – and one “dumb” interception. Rodgers even lost a fumble, something he didn’t do last year. He went 2-of-6 on passes thrown 10-plus yards downfield and, according to Pro Football Focus, just 2-of-7 for 15 yards when pressured. That’s losing football every week.

The right side of the offensive line, guard Jake Hanson and tackle Royce Newman, weren’t up to the task. Zach Tom finished the game at left guard for Jon Runyan (concussion) and got dusted by Dalvin Tomlinson for a pressure. Receivers Sammy Watkins and Randall Cobb turned their six targets into 32 yards.

Grade: F.

Rushing Offense

.AJ Dillon finds room to operate. (USA Today Sports Images)

With Week 1 complete, the Packers are fifth in the NFL with 6.17 yards per carry. AJ Dillon did the heavy lifting with 10 carries for 45 yards and Aaron Jones maximized his five attempts by gaining 49 yards. Reverses/end-arounds to rookie receivers Romeo Doubs (11 yards) and Christian Watson (7 yards) were effective, too, and were a nice wrinkle. Of the team’s eight rushing first downs, seven came to the left. A 10-yard run by Jones was the only quality run to the right.

The only real flaw was Dillon getting stuffed on fourth-and-goal from the 1. Credit to Za’Darius Smith for crashing inside to tie up Dillon’s legs, but there wasn’t enough push from the middle of the line, either.

Grade: B.

Passing Defense

.Rashan Gary sacks Kirk Cousins. (USA Today Sports Images)

Green Bay’s pass defense was awful. How can such a high-profile group let Justin Jefferson get so open again and again? Jefferson’s a great player but it’s not like had to run great routes or make great catches. He just found himself open through Green Bay’s porous zone. The 36-yard touchdown catch was embarrassing. The game was played in Minneapolis; the nearest defender was located at the Spam Museum in Austin.

Unlike Rodgers, Cousins was 5-of-6 on passes thrown 10-plus yards downfield. He even was productive under pressure, completing 7-of-13 for 136 yards, according to PFF.

Cornerback Rasul Douglas was excellent. Officially, the Packers had one sack (Rashan Gary) and eight quarterback hits (two apiece by Gary, Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry and Preston Smith). PFF credited Gary with six pressures and Clark and Smith with five each.

Grade: F.

Rushing Defense

.Kingsley Enagbare tries to tackle Dalvin Cook. (USA Today Sports Images)

Run defense was the great unknown entering the season. Without live tackling, it was hard to judge during training camp – even for coordinator Joe Barry.

“You truly don’t know until you have to go get someone down to the ground,” Barry said on Thursday. “But stopping the run and playing the run is something I know our guys take a lot of pride in and we put a lot of work into it. It starts with stopping the run every single week and this week’s no different.”

The Packers didn’t stop the run. Dalvin Cook (20 carries for 90 yards) and Alexander Mattison (eight carries for 36 yards) averaged 4.5 yards per carry apiece. They each converted a third-and-short. Clark, Jarran Reed and De’Vondre Campbell each had tackles for losses. In totality, nobody on the front played poorly. It was just one player here and one player there and Cook finding the void. The reliable Campbell missed a couple tackles. With the running game clicking, Cousins was 10-of-13 with two touchdowns on play action.

Grade: C-minus.

Special Teams

.Mason Crosby kicks an extra point. (USA Today Sports Images)

The Packers signed veteran punter Pat O’Donnell in free agency and he was tremendous. He punted four times and pinned the Vikings inside the 20 on three. Had Rudy Ford not missed a tackle on powerful returner Jalen Reagor, the Packers would have allowed 0 return yards.

The protection on those punts wasn’t good, though. The Vikings played for the block and got almost got home three times. “Definitely way too leaky,” LaFleur said, noting too many players “going rogue” from a fundamentals and responsibilities perspective.

Ford, Keisean Nixon and Rasul Douglas had strong performances as gunners. Amari Rodgers had a 12-yard punt return but got stuffed on his lone kickoff return. Jack Coco’s long-snapping debut went off without a hitch, and Mason Crosby made his only kick after missing training camp.

Grade: C-plus.

Coaching

.Matt LaFleur fell to 4-3 vs. the Vikings. (USA Today Sports Images)

How did LaFleur forget about Jones? On an offense without an abundance of proven playmakers, Jones should have been No. 1 in the game plan. Meanwhile, how did Barry’s defense and Jerry Gray’s secondary perform so poorly against Jefferson?

Neither team played their starters during the preseason. It was a surprise to see the Vikings – with new coaches and new schemes – look so much further ahead. If forced to guess, you would have thought Kevin O’Connell was the fourth-year head coach who decided to play his top players in August.

Grade: F.