Packers-Jets Takeaways: Scores, Trends and Opinions From Week 2 Clash

The Green Bay Packers have never reached the playoffs after losing their first two games. On the heels of their embarrassing Meltdown in Minnesota, they’ll need to get back on track on Sunday against the Jets.

Follow along for the latest from rainy MetLife Stadium

Second Quarter (15:00 remaining)

Packers 0, Jets 0

The first-quarter MVPs were easy for the Packers.

Edge Lukas Van Ness had three tackles, including a chase-down tackle of Jets quarterback Geno Smith and a big third-down sack late in the first quarter.

Punter Daniel Whelan was exceptional. He had three field-flipping punts, with a 61.3-yard average and two muffed punts that the Jets were fortunate to recover.

First Quarter

Packers 0, Jets 0 (5:38 remaining)

Holding by Kamal Hadden on the punt return. Holding on Christian Watson on a first-down run. Watson missed a block on a receiver screen. What a hot mess.

Fortunately for the Packers, Daniel Whelan flipped the field and J. Michael Sturdivant drew a holding penalty on the return

Packers 0, Jets 0 (7:43 remaining)

The more things change, the more things stay the same. On third-and-4, Karl Brooks jumped offside to hand the Jets a first down. On third-and-9, Javon Bullard broke up Geno Smith’s deep pass but was penalized for taunting.

Green Bay’s defense got off the field, only for Kamal Hadden to be flagged for holding, forcing the Packers to start at their 8.

Anthony Belton is in at right tackle.

Packers 0, Jets 0 (13:34 remaining)

The opening plays could hardly have gone worse. On what was either a broken play or a play the Jets totally snuffed out, Jordan Love scrambled on first down and was sacked by rookie David Bailey.

On second down, a receiver screen to Jayden Reed resulted in a short gain but Reed taking a helmet/shoulder-to-helmet hit from veteran linebacker Demario Davis. With the entire Green Bay bench gathered near him, Reed spent several minutes on the turf before he was carted off the field.

On third down, Love was wide open over the middle and dropped the ball for what would have been a big gain over the middle. While in pass protection against Bailey, right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele was injured and carted off the field with an air cast on his right leg.

Packers Have Their No. 1 Line

The Packers will field their No. 1 offensive line on the field against the Jets.

Based on pregame warmups, the Packers are rolling with left tackle Jordan Morgan, left guard Aaron Banks, center Sean Rhyan, right guard Jacob Monk and right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele. The big change from last week is at guard, with the veteran Banks healthy and replacing Donovan Jennings, who struggled last week at Minnesota.

The starting line was also the most-used combination during training camp. So, it’s not just that the team has deemed them its best players, it should be their most cohesive unit.

Banks started 57 games the past four seasons, including 14 games last year after the Packers signed him to a four-year, $77 million contract in free agency. Last week, Morgan made his second career start at left tackle, Jennings made his first NFL start, Sean Rhyan made his ninth career start at center and Monk made his first career start at guard and second overall.

Green Bay’s line was overwhelmed last week by the blitzing Vikings. The stability and strength brought by Banks should help.

“You can't keep dwelling on it or else it's going to trickle over,” Rhyan said on Thursday. “It's kind of like a play. If you have a bad play you can't dwell on it. It could turn into two, three, four bad plays. So, we're just kind of keeping it last week and f***king move on.”

One thing to watch will be Banks’ long-term presence on the field. The Packers have to win this game, to be sure, but they also have to be aware of the impact of the MetLife turf on Banks’ knee with a short turnaround coming up for Thursday night’s home opener against the Atlanta Falcons.

If the Packers go to the bullpen, will it be Jennings? Rookie Jager Burton? And is there a place somewhere on the line for last year’s second-round pick, Anthony Belton?

With less than one hour until Packers-Jets kickoff, here are:

🏈Inactives: https://t.co/YRRbTb2uOf
🏈Predictions: https://t.co/lr9jcK8Rxk
🏈10 key players: https://t.co/9Hhw40vHae
🏈Why they'll win: https://t.co/UdOzAFzeBn
🏈Why they'll lose: https://t.co/bieUXOgm9x
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 20, 2026

Pregame: Three Big Things

One: The Packers are coming off a horrific loss, but that’s ancient history now. The Packers can’t turn back time. They can only turn the page. On defense, this was the message from linebacker and defensive captain Zaire Franklin:

“I think just focusing on daily improvement. I think we had a great message this morning about just focusing on going 1-0. A lot of times, you’re not going to climb a mountain looking at the top of it. You climb it just thinking one step at a time. I feel like we’re just going to continue to focus on the day to day, week to week and let the chips fall where they may.”

Two: One reason why the Packers lost to the Vikings was their complete inability to protect quarterback Jordan Love, who took a beating as the protection unit continually allowed blitzers to run free into the backfield.

For center Sean Rhyan, the emphasis this week is obvious.

“F***ing protect J-Love and f***ng move the ball. Keep it simple, keep it easy,” he said.

By the official stats, Love was hit 15 times last week. No other quarterback was hit even 10 times. The Jets (probably) won’t blitz like the Vikings did, but they do have quality pass rushers with Will McDonald and rookie David Bailey off the edge.

“I’m not going to freak out or overreact or anything like that,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “This is the first game of a 17-game season, so we’ve just got to make sure we keep improving. We keep focusing on the things that we can control, and that’s the biggest thing, is guys just have got to make sure they’re — on a weekly basis, on a daily basis — just trying to improve a little bit at a time. And I think over the season that’ll become big.”

Three: It will be easier for the Packers to protect their fourth-quarter leads if they have bigger fourth-quarter leads to protect.

Last season, the Packers were a mediocre 14th in the red zone with a touchdown rate of 57.6 percent. The Packers enter Sunday’s game ranked 29th in the red zone (25.0 percent) after going 1-of-4 vs. Minnesota.

“That’s an area where we’ve got to improve on. Wasn’t up to our standards,” Jordan Love said. “I think we called some pretty good plays down there; just comes down to executing and making plays. That was the unfortunate part. We had a couple missed opps down there.

“We’ll see. We’ll get this run game going down there and, obviously, in pass situations, we’ve got to hit. I think there’s a couple instances where protection holds up, we had some opportunities and we weren’t able to hit those.”

The Jets did not give up a red-zone touchdown last week against the Titans.

Packers Close as Favorites

The Packers opened as 3.5-point favorites against the Jets and that’s where the line closed at FanDuel Sportsbook. The over/under is 44.5. Almost 60 percent of the money is on Green Bay to cover.

Jordan Love’s over/under is 254.5 yards. Jets running back Breece Hall is the betting favorite to score a touchdown. He’s followed by Packers running back MarShawn Lloyd, Packers receiver Christian Watson and tight end Tucker Kraft.

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