Offense Fizzles in Adams’ Return

After missing four games, Davante Adams caught seven passes but none went for 10-plus yards.

The Green Bay Packers came into Sunday’s game against the Chargers with one of the hottest offenses in the field. Aaron Rodgers entered the game coming off the best two-game stretch of his career.

It all fizzled, inexplicably, with the return of Davante Adams.

Adams, who had missed the past four games with toe injury, caught seven passes but they gained only 41 yards. His longest play went for only 9 yards. With too little impact from Adams, too many pre-snap penalties, too much pressure on Rodgers and no running game, the Packers were trounced 26-11.

“They kicked our ass today,” Adams said.

While the team got punched in the face, Adams’ toe came out no worse for the wear, he said.

“It felt good,” Adams said. “It felt good to be out there with squad, obviously. It had been a long time. It wasn't the product that we wanted to put out there but it was good to get back out there.”

Adams wasn’t sure he’d be cleared to play until Sunday morning.

Adams was on a rep count, which was evident early. He was not on the field for the first two third-down plays. Both plays resulted in sacks.

Those plays were emblematic of the team’s offensive issues as a whole. The Packers had just 50 yards of offense in trailing 9-0 at halftime. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers didn’t reach 100 passing yards until the fourth quarter. It wasn’t just Rodgers and Adams. Receivers Geronimo Allison (two catches, 21 yards), Marquez Valdes-Scantling (zero catches) and Jake Kumerow (zero catches) and running Aaron Jones (one catch, minus-1 yard), who all had been key players without Adams, caught a combined 3-of-10 passes for 20 yards.

“Real sluggish. It wasn’t clean,” Adams said. “We went out there and they basically just gave it to us. The whole game, we were flat, couldn’t really figure out how to beat their defense. They were running the same coverages pretty much the whole game, and we couldn’t really figure out a way to consistently move the ball. We hurt ourselves in second-and-shorts, got to some second-and-long and then third-and-long, and then it becomes tough. So you’ve got to stay ahead of the chains and don’t hurt yourself, and that’s what we did for the majority of the time.”