Packer Central

Packers, Eagles Tied 0-0, Thanks to Edgerrin Cooper’s Forced Fumble

The Green Bay Packers (5-2-1) lead the NFC North and the Philadelphia Eagles (6-2) lead the NFC East and the NFC overall. They will battle in a primetime showdown at Lambeau Field.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) warms up prior to a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lambeau Field.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) warms up prior to a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lambeau Field. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – In a battle between division leaders, the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles battled to a 0-0 draw after the first quarter.

The Eagles were on the move with an interminable opening drive that included conversions of third-and-1 on a Tush Push by Jalen Hurts, third-and-10 when Hurts was chased out of the pocket by Micah Parsons but completed a pass to running back Will Shipley at the sideline, and third-and-5 on an easy completion.

Finally, on third-and-8, Green Bay made a play. Hurts took a quarterback draw for 10 yards but, just as he was about to hit the turf, Edgerrin Cooper punched it out at the 14. Keisean Nixon picked up the loose ball and ran 22 yards to the 36.

The Packers started the game with the ball and picked up two first downs on their opening drive, including an old-school quarterback sneak by Jordan Love on fourth-and-1. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni – whose team famously false starts on its tush pushes, including on its first possession – was furious that the Packers weren’t called for a false start.

It didn’t matter. On second-and-9, Love hung around the pocket too long and was sacked by Jalyx Hunt for a loss of 11, which not only killed the drive but doomed any shot at a long field goal.

Daniel Whelan’s punt pinned the Eagles at their 9.

Here are some pregame notes.

Some pregame fireworks after the national anthem.
Some pregame fireworks after the national anthem. | Bill Huber/Packers On SI

Packers-Eagles Line Movement

The Packers have been favorites all week. With about an hour until kickoff, the Packers were 1.5-point favorites at DraftKings. However, at FanDuel Sportsbook, the line flipped to Packers as 1.5-point underdogs.

NumberFire says the Packers have a 68.8 percent chance to win.

Red-Hot Quarterback

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is on a heater.

Against Minnesota in Week 7, he had three touchdown passes with a perfect 158.3 passer rating. A week later, the game before the bye, he threw four touchdown passes – including the 100th of his career – with a 141.5 passer rating against the Giants.

Only Aaron Rodgers (2011) and Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner (1999) have recorded three-plus touchdown passes and a passer rating of 140-plus in three consecutive games.

Hurts has 15 touchdowns and only one interception.

“I think they’ve done a good job of opening up their pass game more this year than last year,” Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said. “I think they’re playbook has expanded in their pass game; I think they’re doing more. He’s spreading the ball out, he’s using the back into the backfield.

“What I do see is he’s throwing on time and he’s getting rid of the ball fairly quickly, and then when he doesn’t do that, you see what he does really well. He retreats in the pocket, he runs around and makes plays with his feet but he keeps his eyes downfield and he looks to take shots and hit explosives. The biggest thing I’ve seen, and I just feel like he has a really good feel right now of where to go early in the down and the ball’s coming out with better timing and rhythm than it did last year. That’s probably the biggest change.”

Red-Hot Running Back

Packers running back Josh Jacobs has scored a touchdown in five consecutive games.

Since entering the NFL with the Raiders in 2019, Jacobs has 71 rushing touchdowns in 98 career games, second-most in the NFL during that span. He has at least one rushing touchdown in 49 career games.

If he runs for a touchdown against the Eagles on Monday or the Giants next week, he’d become the sixth player since 2000 with a rushing touchdown in 50 of his first 100 career games. He’d join LaDainian Tomlinson (64 games), Adrian Peterson (60), Shaun Alexander (58), Ezekiel Elliott (52) and Derrick Henry (50).

Jacobs has rushed for 25 touchdowns in a season-and-a-half with the Packers. The previous record for most touchdown runs in his first two seasons was Eddie Lacy’s 20 in 2013 and 2014.

In NFL history, only Michael Turner (27) and Hall of Famer Jim Brown (26) scored more rushing touchdowns in his first 25 games with a team.

Jacobs has a rushing touchdown in eight consecutive home games, a club record.

Special Challenge

When he looks at the opponent, Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said, “I don’t see any holes.”

That will challenge his unit, but he’s counting on something more than scheme and fundamentals.

“They’re a hell of a group to play against and it’ll be a good challenge, just like most weeks but this one in particular, because of coming out of the playoff game and the way we performed,” Bisaccia said on Friday. “The first two plays – the first kickoff return we fumbled, the second kickoff return we got a hold. After that, I thought we got our grip back a little bit and played pretty good – had a good punt return.

“I’m kind of banking on us being pissed off about how the playoff game went and how we’re going to respond to that going into this game, how we’re going to respond to what happened last week going into this game. So it’ll be an interesting contest playing against a group like this that covers like this and is a physical, physical unit.”

Bisaccia pointed to running back Will Shipley as a significant challenge.

“Shipley’s been outstanding on the back end on kickoff returns; he’s also the personal protector,” he said. “Makes tackles, he’s hard to block on their kickoff team.”

Eagles punter Braden Mann is second in average and Packers punter Daniel Whelan is third.

Big Challenge for Packers Offensive Line

In the playoff loss at Philadelphia, Green Bay’s offensive line was overrun. In response, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst signed left guard Aaron Banks to a huge contract, moved Pro Bowl left guard Elgton Jenkins to center and drafted offensive tackle Anthony Belton in the second round.

Through eight games, the offensive line has been a disappointment. Josh Jacobs hasn’t had much room to run and Jordan Love has faced too much pressure.

It won’t get any easier against the Eagles, who feature Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Moro Ojimo at defensive tackle and just added outside linebackers Nolan Smith (injured reserve) and Jaelan Phillips (trade) to the pass rush.

“It’s a big challenge,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “Obviously extremely talented. They just added Jaelen Phillips, they’re getting Brandon Graham back and we’ll see what happens with Nolan Smith.

“They have a really physical front, big guys, they can rush the passer, they can play the run. I think their linebackers are excellent so, yeah, they’re a really good defense. It’s going to be a great matchup. I’m excited about it just to see how we respond. Playing against a defense like that, that’s going to be very telling.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.