Packers Report Card: Grades From Win Over Buccaneers Include Gold Star

The report card is in for the Green Bay Packers after they escaped with a 17-14 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

The Packers were desperate for a victory, so they needed to find any way to get to 2-2. Falling to 1-3 would have been a crushing blow considering the Buccaneers were starting an undrafted rookie quarterback making his first NFL start.

Green Bay’s offense was good enough, even if it could not get out of its own way at times. Its defense stole the show, but has some major injury questions to answer moving forward.

Let’s dive into it with this week’s grades.

Pass Offense

Any conversation about Green Bay’s passing offense starts with the guys up front. The Packers retooled their offensive line after last week’s disaster against Atlanta. Laken Tomlinson and Travis Glover were the new starters at guard with Anthony Belton, Jordan Morgan and Sean Rhyan manning their usual positions.

The results? They were positive. No, they were not perfect. Tomlinson was penalized twice, Glover was flagged for holding and Belton was tagged with a false start, but they were able to run a functional offense.

After Jordan Love had taken 31 hits, according to PFF, in the first three games, he took just two vs. Tampa Bay, with Morgan and Rhyan charged with one apiece. That means the two new starters did not give up any. Belton played what might have been his best game as a pro.

There are still plenty of things to work on in this phase of the game. Tucker Kraft, Matthew Golden and Bo Melton each had one drop that was a killer in the situation it came in. Christian Watson was tagged for a pass interference penalty, though it seemed like a soft call.

Love threw a terrible interception when the Packers were looking for a score to ice the game.

Ultimately, the Packers scored just 17 points. They’ve scored more than 20 points just once, and they’ve never scored more than 22 points in a game this season.

This is an offense that was supposed to take a massive step forward this season. To date, that has not happened.

Could it? Sure. They need to clean up their mistakes,

Next week against the Chicago Bears would be a good time to start.

Grade: C-Plus.

Rush Offense

The run game was better than it had been through the first three weeks. That’s also a low bar to clear. Green Bay’s ground game was historically bad through the first three weeks, where a simple 6-yard gain felt like winning the Super Bowl.

They were able to create some explosive runs with Kaleb Johnson and Chris Brooks rumbling for 31 and 27 yards, respectively. They finished the day with 86 rushing yards on 25 carries. That’s not great, but it’s much better than it has been.

That’s the good news.

The bad news? Johnson and MarShawn Lloyd put the ball on the ground on Sunday. Johnson has two fumbles in three games in his three games. Lloyd’s fumble fell harmlessly out of bounds, but that has been an issue for him, as well.

After the game, Matt LaFleur said the bench was a really good teacher as to how he was going to curb Green Bay’s fumbling issues in the backfield.

The problem with that is that the only running back to not cough up the ball on Sunday was Brooks. He left the game with an ankle injury and did not have his pads on in the second half. Johnson and Lloyd were the only other backs that were active.

Could it be time for Pierre Strong next week? It does not seem like any decision is imminent for insight as to when Josh Jacobs could return to the field. This is who Green Bay has in the backfield.

They’ll need to focus on the good things they did while also fixing their ball-security issues.

Grade: C-Minus.

Pass Defense

Green Bay Packers safety Evan Williams clinched the game with this fourth-down pressure. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

This week’s degree of difficulty changed significantly when Baker Mayfield was ruled out with a thumb injury. Credit to Jalon Daniels, who did some nice things in his starting debut. He even had his team in a position to win the game largely due to a litany of mistakes the Packers continued to make on offense.

Daniels had the Bucs offense threatening field-goal range to force overtime when Jonathan Gannon decided he was going to take matters into his own hands.

With Micah Parsons and Edgerrin Cooper on the sideline, he called the number of the guy who has been one of his top players this season. That was safety Evan Williams.

“He always preaches players not plays,” Williams said after the game. “For him to call my number in that situation, it means a lot to me.”

To Williams’ credit, he made the plays. He had one interception early in the game and two pressures on the final series, including a sack on second down and another that forced a game-saving incompletion.

Gannon is going to be calling Williams’ number a lot more with Cooper out for the season and Parsons not set to return for another month.

Overall, the Packers picked off Daniels twice, sacked him three times and only allowed one pass play of more than 20 yards. They kept everything hemmed in.

Next week’s challenge remains to be seen. If Caleb Williams returns to Chicago’s starting lineup, that’s an offense that scored 59 points in the one game Williams started and finished.

Even if it isn’t, Chicago’s offense has been able to create plays with Case Keenum or Tyson Bagent under center.

For this week, however, the Packers pass with flying colors.

Grade: B-Plus.

Rush Defense

The Bucs wanted to run the ball to take pressure off their young quarterback. That stands to reason for any team in that situation.

To Tampa’s credit, it found enough ways to move the ball on the ground, even with Daniels himself. Daniels carried eight times for 55 yards. Bucky Irving rushed 16 times for 61 yards.

In total, Tampa Bay carried 31 times for 141 yards. That’s a 4.54-yard average. The challenge the rest of the season got much stiffer following Edgerrin Cooper’s injury, which is feared to be a season-ending torn Achilles.

On Sunday against the Bears, they will face one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL.

The Packers were fine on Sunday, but they’ll need to be much better next week.

Grade: C-Plus.

Special Teams

What a weapon the Packers drafted with Trey Smack. A rookie kicker always comes into his first season as a major question mark. Yes, it’s only been five games, and his coach, Cam Achord, will be quick to point out that Smack is only as good as his last kick.

Well, his last field goal was a 58-yard bomb that gave the Packers a 10-7 lead at halftime.

Daniel Whelan was uncharacteristically inconsistent on Sunday, but the Packers did not give up any explosives in the return game and he added three more inside-the-20 punts to his tally. They did not create any either, though Skyy Moore’s 11-yard punt return gave the Packers great field position. It was a pretty ho-hum day on special teams, with a big exclamation point from a budding star at kicker.

Grade: B.

Coaching

The move to start Travis Glover at right guard was one that easily could have been met with skepticism. A sixth-round pick in 2024, Glover had not started a game in his first three seasons. In fact, he had been a healthy scratch for more games than he had played snaps on offense in his career. In fact, he hadn’t played in a game this season.

The move paid off. In the absence of Kevin Zeitler, who could be good to go next week, Glover allowed zero pressures and held his own against a defense that was likely licking its chops after the first three weeks of the season.

The only real misstep that LaFleur had was punting on fourth-and-2 from Tampa Bay’s side of the field on Green Bay’s first possession.

Yes, they were facing an undrafted rookie and trusting the defense in a spot like that is defensible. It’s also just incredibly passive. Green Bay could have taken hold of the game early. Perhaps it was a sign that LaFleur did not trust his team in that spot. He was more aggressive as the game went on.

There are things that need to be cleaned up. LaFleur’s team is penalized too much and his best players make too many sloppy mistakes.

The star of the show, however, was defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. Gannon has proven to be an excellent hire. Save for a disaster against the Falcons where the whole team played poorly, Green Bay’s defense has been better than what the raw numbers say.

On Sunday, Gannon and his defense had to slam the door shut with both of his best players missing in action with significant injuries.

Instead of being passive against an undrafted free agent, Gannon wanted to go down swinging. He sent Evan Williams on two blitzes on the last three plays. One resulted in a sack. Another resulted in Williams holding onto Daniels’ foot as his final pass fell incomplete.

Williams was the best player on the field, and they’ll need more from him as the season wears on. The good news is that Gannon has proven capable of adjusting on the fly as he had to do on Sunday when Edgerrin Cooper left the lineup. Gold star for Gannon.

Grade: B-Plus.

Winners and losers, from @JacobWestendorf, following the Packers' victory over the Buccaneers. ⬇️https://t.co/5Jer2ufWu3
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 4, 2026

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