‘Sense of Relief’: Packers Beat Bengals 27-18

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers looked nothing like the team that dominated the first two games of the season, but they did just enough to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 27-18 on Sunday.

The victory was not clinched until fill-in kicker Lucas Havrisik booted a 39-yard field goal with 1:52 to play to make it a nine-point game.

The offense? It delivered just enough production against one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

The vaunted defense? It played one half of good football against a 40-year-old quarterback who arrived in Cincinnati less than a week ago.

The Packers, historically huge favorites, didn’t cover the massive spread but earned a critical win. They are 3-1-1, winning for the first time since playing their last home game against Washington one month and one day ago.

“I feel a sense of relief right now,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “We always try to take it one game at a time, and the bottom line is you’ve got to find a way to win the game. And you see it each and every week around the league, a lot of these games are going down to the wire.”

The Bengals fell to 2-4 with their fourth consecutive loss. Demolished the last three games, new starting quarterback Joe Flacco kept them competitive, especially in the second half.

“Just sick after that loss,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “You see pieces that we can lean into and continue to grow, but losing this game on the road there is no consolation there. We expected to win. I thought we should have won that game. Credit to them. They did all the things that they needed to do to get this win and we just came up short.”

Jordan Love was 19-of-26 passing for 259 yards, with rookie Matthew Golden catching three big passes for 86 yards. Josh Jacobs rushed for 93 yards and two touchdowns. The Packers outgained the Bengals 409-268 but they didn’t force any turnovers, had just one sack and allowed three consecutive scoring drives in the second half.

As is becoming a disconcerting bad habit, the Packers let an inferior team hang around. Green Bay dominated the first-half action but led only 10-0 at intermission. It also took a 24-10 lead with 7:33 remaining but had to hold on for the victory.

Cincinnati’s touchdown and two-point conversion cut Green Bay’s lead to 24-18 with 4:11 remaining. That meant the Packers absolutely, positively needed to put together a drive.

After Love ran into a sack, it was third-and-8. With the game – and, dare it be said, perhaps the season on the line – Love bought time to his left. With defensive end Joseph Ossai bearing down, Love floated one to Golden, who beat veteran cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt for a pivotal 31-yard gain to the Bengals’ 29.

“We had a concept called – a deeper concept – and I felt the pocket kind of moving and a lane to get out, so I started moving left,” Love said. “MG was taking it deep and kind of saw me working the scramble, and so he was able to put his foot in the ground and come back down. Just threw it up for him; he made a great play.”

That set up kicker Lucas Havrisik, who was signed on Saturday to replace injured veteran Brandon McManus and delivered a pressure-cooker 39-yard field goal in what might be his only game with the team.

“What was going through your head?” LaFleur said. “It was probably the same thing going through mine.”

The Bengals, completely outclassed in the first half but trailing only 10-0, got the ball to start the second half and drove 78 yards in 17 plays for a touchdown. On fourth-and-goal from the 2, Flacco threw a touchdown pass to tight end Tanner Hudson. On the goal-to-go sequence, the Bengals overcame a false start and a sack by Lukas Van Ness against the vaunted Packers defense.

Green Bay delivered the critical answer, though. The Packers drove 66 plays for the touchdown, never facing third down along the way. An 18-yard catch by Romeo Doubs, an 11-yard run by Jacobs and a 12-yard pass to Doubs moved the ball into scoring position. Moments later, left guard Aaron Banks, back in the lineup after missing the last game-and-a-half, blocked two defenders to give Jacobs a runway to the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown.

With a 17-7 lead with 14:56 remaining, the Packers appeared to be in good shape.

The Bengals, so inept offensively during the first half, drove to a field goal to make it 17-10 with 10:37 to go. The Packers were fortunate; on third-and-8, Andre Iosivas dropped his third pass of the game.

The Packers delivered the knockout 3 minutes later. Or so it seemed at the time. On third-and-2, Love faked the handoff to Jacobs and booted to his right. The Bengals defended it perfectly. Fortunately for the Packers, Love made something out of nothing, juking two defenders for a 4-yard run.

That might wind up being the play of the game. On the next snap, Jacobs ran for 16 by breaking a tackle near the line of scrimmage. On the following snap, Love’s bootleg to Tucker Kraft turned into a 19-yard touchdown because he broke a tackle along the sideline and then barreled through a hard hit near the goal line. That made it 24-10 with 7:33 to play.

The Bengals weren’t dead yet, though. Flacco and Chase beat Keisean Nixon three times, including on a back-shoulder pass on fourth-and-5 for a 19-yard touchdown. The two-point pass from Flacco to Chase Brown made it 24-18 with 4:11 remaining.

But the Packers made enough plays to finally put the game away.

“I was proud of our guys,” LaFleur said. “You always get punched in the face in this league, and our guys kept responding and that’s what we need to be. You have to go through those moments in order to be that. Bottom line, we found a way and I’m happy, and we’ll move on to Arizona.”

The Packers led 10-0 at halftime, with the defense dominating and the offense alternating spurts of explosive play through uninspiring and unimpressive stretches.

Green Bay got the ball to start the game and wasted no time in moving into scoring position, with Love scrambling for one first down and gaining another on a no-tush-push sneak, but Love through a terrible interception on third down.

After Green Bay’s defense forced a three-and-out, the offense got on the board. Starting at the 4, Golden had a run for 8 yards, a catch for 20 and a run for 8 before Lucas Havrisik’s 43-yard field goal.

The way Green Bay’s defense played – or the way Cincinnati’s offense performed – 3-0 might as well have been 30-0. Through four possessions, the Bengals had one first down and had been outgained 199-23.

Late in the first half, the Packers turned a brief smattering of boos into cheers. On second-and-10, Love had tight end Luke Musgrave open but threw it probably 10 yards over his head. That’s when some fans started booing. On third-and-10, though, Love went deep to Golden for a gain of 35 to the 35. The pass was perfect, and so was the route, with Golden stacking cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt.

On the next play, the rush closed in on Love but he found Jacobs over the middle for a catch-and-run gain of 29 to the 6. One play later, Jacobs was in the end zone with a 10-0 lead.

The quarterback battle was a rout. Love was 12-of-17 for 158 yards while Flacco was 8-of-15 for 40 yards. All-Pro receiver Ja’Marr Chase had two catches for 14 yards and one run for minus-3.

More Green Bay Packers News