Josh Jacobs’ Struggles and More Packers-Panthers Pregame Notes

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers had one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL last season. This season, they do not.

Getting it going against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday will be a challenge. While Carolina was destroyed on the ground last week by the Bills, that was an outlier.

Green Bay’s ground game showed signs of life at Dallas before the bye and at home against the Bengals after the bye. In road wins against the Cardinals and Steelers, though, Josh Jacobs didn’t have a prayer on most of his carries.

“Really by everybody just locking in on their details and fundamentals, man,” Jacobs said. “If you’re supposed to get a certain guy, go get that guy. Running hard, a combination of things, but really just everybody being on the same page.”

Blocking the wrong guy? After seven games?

“It’s always a concern if you have mental mistakes,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “It’s not like there are a ton of them, but when they show up, yeah. I would say in a normal NFL game some of that happens, especially if you’re motioning a lot, just how defenses react to that, but you got to make sure you pass that communication along. Hopefully, we can get all that stuff cleaned up and we can get this run game going a little bit.”

Of Jacobs’ 447 rushing yards, 368 have come after contact, meaning he’s averaging about 0.6 yards before contact and 3.0 yards after contact. Of the top 20 in rushing, only Cleveland’s Quinshon Judkins and Las Vegas’ Ashton Jeanty have a worse before-contact-to-after-contact ratio.

“It’s definitely frustrating but, at the end of the day, I can only control what I can control and I can only bring what I do,” Jacobs said of the lack of explosive runs. “I can only trust the guys that they’re going to do what they’re supposed to do. Eventually things are going to hit. We still feel it. We be close on a lot of things. It might be one mental error here or one mental error there or whatever. We just need to be locked in and be focused on what we need to do.”

Under Pressure

The Packers have a strong pass rush and the Panthers have a beat-up offensive line. Panthers quarterback Bryce Young won’t be easy to sack, though.

According to NextGen Stats, Young’s been sacked on 11.5 percent of his under-pressure dropbacks. That’s the fourth-best in the league, and less than half of the 25.5 percent as a rookie in 2023.

According to Pro Football Focus, Young ranks 24th in completion percentage when pressured – Jordan Love is better than only Titans rookie Cam Ward – but Young has thrown six touchdowns vs. one interception.

“We’ve got to get in the QB lanes. We’ve got to make it as hard as possible for him,” Packers defensive end Micah Parsons said. “I have a good history with Bryce, and I understand he’s an elite competitor. He’s one of them Bama guys. I know how he prepares and I know how he’s going to come in and try to exploit our team.

“When he’s on, he’s on and we don’t want to see that happen, so we’ve got to get after the quarterback and most importantly we’ve got to stop the run.”

Dominator

Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero spent the 2016 season on the staff of longtime Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers.

“Talk about a PhD in football right there,” Evero told reporters in Carolina this week.

He shared a story from that season, when he was a quality control coach.

“One week I somehow screwed up a couple of things,” he recalled, “and afterward he pulled me aside and was like, ‘Hey, that’s not acceptable; we’re going to have to do a little bit better than that.’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, sir, it will not happen again.’ And so it did not. So, the level of detail that he commands is pretty impressive.”

Capers is the Panthers’ senior defensive assistant.

Hands-On Approach

The Panthers spent the week preparing for an in-your-face Packers secondary.

“You go and talk to the scout team players this week and say, ‘Hey, if we’re in man coverage and you’re in press, I don’t want soft pedal. I want you to get into his grill and challenge us to throw a flag,’” Panthers offensive coordinator Brad Idzik told reporters this week.

Will the Panthers get those flags? Maybe not.

Referee Land Clark’s crew averages 11.57 accepted penalties per game, the fewest for any crew. It’s thrown a total of 11 for pass interference (four), defensive holding (four) and illegal contact (three). For contrast, Carl Cheffers’ crew has thrown 24, including 14 for pass interference.

Historic Lambeau

The Packers have won three in a row against Carolina at Lambeau Field, including 24-16 in 2020 and 24-16 in 2019. Carolina’s last win in Green Bay was 35-31 on Nov. 30, 2008. DeAngelo Williams had four rushing touchdowns.

Panthers coach Dave Canales is excited about the challenge.

“Creating the moment, creating the opportunities, so that the guys can understand in different modes, having a championship mindset is all of these games matter," he told reporters this week. "All these games are helping us prepare for what it takes to win late in the season. What it takes to win late in the postseason is you’ve got to be able to play in hostile environments, and this is going to be a really loud environment.

“We treat it like any other road game. At the same time, let’s appreciate football history. Let’s understand where this league started and the evolution of it and our part and our contribution to that as well is to push football forward, to play excellent football, great quality football the way that it’s always been played. It’s a physical game, a violent sport. It has been since the beginning. So, make sure that we’re playing the type of football that we can be proud of.”

Packers-Panthers Need to Know

Kickoff: Noon Sunday

TV: Fox Sports, with Adim Amin (play-by-play), Greg Olsen (analyst) and Pam Oliver (sideline).

Will you be able to watch the game? Most of the country will watch Lions-Vikings.

Radio: The game will be broadcast on the 54-station Packers Radio Network, with the longtime broadcasting duo of Wayne Larrivee and Larry McCarren on the call. Their broadcast also can be heard on Sirius Satellite Radio on Channel 83 or 226 or through the app.

Sports USA will have a national broadcast, featuring Josh Appel (play-by-play) and Brandon Noble (analyst).

Injury report: Three players are out and Quay Walker is questionable.

Weather: It will be about 48 degrees at kickoff but the story could be winds to 20 or 30 mph.

“It’s just something that you’re expected to play in when you come to Lambeau,” special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said. “It’s certainly different in our stadium than it is on the practice field because of the bowl but it’s the same for both and hopefully we do a good job figuring it out.”

Prediction: The Week 9 picks.

Packers Huge Favorites

The Packers are 13.5-point favorites at FanDuel Sportsbook. If that holds, it would be the third-largest spread during the coach Matt LaFleur era; the Packers were 14-point favorites against the Saints in 2024 and the Bengals a few weeks ago.

Only the Rams (14.5 vs. the Saints) are bigger favorites this week.

The public isn’t buying it, with 96 percent of the money on the spread on Carolina.

Green Bay has an 86.1 percent chance to win, according to numberFire.

The Packers are 9-1 straight-up as double-digit favorites under coach Matt LaFleur. The one loss was last year’s finale against the Bears, when Green Bay lost 24-22 as 10-point favorites. Jordan Love was injured in that game and LaFleur gave some of his top players lighter-than-normal workloads.

Looking ahead, the Packers are three-point favorites for the Monday night showdown against the Eagles, who were gifted a bye by the NFL to get ready.