Packers Lose to Eagles After Another Horrific Offensive Performance

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers, their once-powerful offense a shell of itself, lost 10-7 to the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.

One week after losing 16-13 at home to the Panthers, the punchless Packers fell from first place in the NFC North all the way to third place. They are 5-3-1 and in seventh place in the conference.

The only thing warm by the end of the night might be the seat under coach Matt LaFleur's seat.

Only once under LaFleur have the Packers scored fewer points in a game – 38-3 against the Saints in Week 1 of the 2021 season.

Green Bay got the ball with 2:18 to go, facing a do-or-die drive to force overtime. On third-and-10 from their 10, Jordan Love threw a superb pass to Christian Watson for a gain of 25 to the 35 at the 2-minute warning. The ball got over linebacker Nakobe Dean to Watson between two defensive backs for the longest play of the game.

The drive stalled, though. On third-and-10, a short pass to Luke Musgrave gained 9. That set up fourth-and-1. It was a shotgun handoff to Josh Jacobs, who didn’t have a prayer as Musgrave and Jordan Morgan lost their blocks. The Packers were guilty of an illegal formation, anyway.

Almost incredibly, though, the Packers still had a chance. On fourth down, Hurts went deep and threw incomplete, so the Packers started at their 35 with 27 seconds to go and no timeouts. Love threw an incomplete bomb to Watson on first down but hit Bo Melton for 19 on second down, giving Green Bay a first down at the Eagles’ 46 when Love clocked it with 5 seconds to go.

The Packers tied for a quick out but the Eagles took that away by alignment. So, that set up Brandon McManus for a 64-yard field goal. On a cold night, it was a prayer. And it wasn’t answered, landing left of the mark and in the middle of the end zone.

Love was 20-of-36 passing for 176 yards. He failed to throw a touchdown pass in back-to-back games. Jacobs carried 21 times for 75 yards.

Green Bay’s defense held Saquon Barkley to less than 3 yards per carry and Jalen Hurts to less than 200 passing yards, but the Eagles did what good teams do.

They found a way to win.

The Packers allowed 13, 16 and 10 points in their last three losses, a damning indictment of LaFleur’s offense.

With the Eagles leading 10-7, a slugfest of defenses delivering haymakers and offenses punching themselves in the face all came down to the final 5:45.

The Packers forced the Eagles into third-and-12 on Evan Williams’ tackle for loss and Keisean Nixon’s pass breakup. However, Hurts had time and hit DeVonta Smith at the sideline against Nixon for 16. Moments later, Barkley plowed up the middle to convert a third-and-2.

Green Bay’s defense got a stop, though, due in part to Micah Parsons pressuring Hurts into a throwaway on second down. That set the stage for the final moments.

All night, with neither offense able to put together more than a few plays at a time, it felt like just one play would decide it. Leading 3-0, the Eagles made two on back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter.

First, on third-and-7, Hurts’ checkdown to Barkley left him one-on-one with Carrington Valentine. Barkley beat Valentine with a spin move and sprinted up the left sideline for a 41-yard gain that included 45 yards after the catch.

On the next play, Hurts went play-action for a 36-yard touchdown to his favorite receiver, the speedster Smith, who won a jump ball against Williams to make it 10-0 with 10:35 to go.

With Romeo Doubs questionable with a chest injury, Matthew Golden inactive with a shoulder injury and Tucker Kraft on injured reserve, a 10-point deficit seemed like an impossible hill to climb.

At that point, 10-0 might as well have been 100-0. Or a million. The Packers had only 160 yards, with Love 10-of-18 for 68 net yards when sacks were included.

But the Packers, at times lining up with Savion Williams, Malik Heath and Bo Melton as their receivers, finally broke the ice on Jacobs’ 6-yard touchdown run with 5:49 remaining.

Love’s 10-yard completion to Dontayvion Wicks on third-and-8 provided one big first down, and Luke Musgrave drew a 21-yard penalty for pass interference on linebacker Jihaad Campbell to set up Jacobs, who extended his touchdown streak to six games.

The Packers not only avoided their first shutout since the final game under interim coach Joe Philbin in 2018, they were back in the game.

It only took two-and-a-half quarters, but the Eagles drove to a field goal to open the second half to take a 3-0 lead. Hurts’ 22-yard pass to tight end Dallas Goedert, followed by a third-down conversion to Goedert, set up Jake Elliott’s 39-yard field goal.

The Packers were on the move to answer until they shot themselves in the feet. On third-and-9, Love threw a strike to Romeo Doubs. It would have been a good catch but the ball bounced off his hands. On fourth-and-9, LaFleur aggressively went for the first down.

Last week, on fourth-and-8 against Carolina, LaFleur’s aggressiveness went up in flames. It did this time, too, but it certainly wasn’t LaFleur’s fault. Or Love’s Love threw a perfect pass to receiver-turned-cornerback-turned-receiver Bo Melton, but the ball bounced right off his shoulder pads for a turnover on downs.

The Packers wasted another opportunity early in the fourth quarter. On second-and-6 from Philadelphia’s 35, Love went play-action and threw a strike to Christian Watson for a gain of 22 to the 13. However, extra lineman Darian Kinnard lined up at tight end and was covered by Melton, resulting in a brutal illegal-formation penalty.

On second-and-11, Love threw incomplete to Doubs – cornerback Quinyon Mitchell had his arm wrapped around Doubs but no flag was thrown. The Packers punted, Melton went too far downfield and into the end zone, and failed to re-establish himself in the field of play, meaning a touchback rather than the ball downed inside the 5.

So, it was 3-0 with 12:46 to go.

The teams battled to a 0-0 draw in the first half.

The Packers were outgained 125-83 and were 0-for-5 on third down. Love was 6-of-10 passing for 39 yards. With three sacks, the Packers had a mere 20 net passing yards.

Both teams squandered scoring opportunities.

On their opening drive of the game, the Eagles drove 16 plays and to the cusp of the red zone. On third-and-8, Hurts took a well-timed quarterback draw for 10 yards. However, before he was taken to the turf, Edgerrin Cooper punched out the ball. Keisean Nixon recovered; it was Philadelphia’s fourth turnover this season.

The Packers had their chance late in the first half. Starting at their 32 with 1:54 on the clock, Love completed four consecutive passes and turned a sack into a 9-yard gain.

However, after Love’s 5-yard completion to Romeo Doubs gave the Packers a first down at the 27 with 38 seconds to go, Love showed poor pocket presence on back-to-back sacks. On the second, Love was wrapped up by Dean but tried to push the ball forward to Jacobs to avoid a sack. Instead, he lost the ball, with the Eagles recovering.

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY PACKERS NEWSLETTER

More Green Bay Packers News