Packers Report Card: Grades From Packers’ Escape from New York

The Green Bay Packers beat the New York Giants 27-20 on Sunday, but the unimpressive nature of the victory is reflected in our weekly grades.

Green Bay Packers safety Evan Williams (33) celebrates after making the game-saving interception against the New York Giants. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Like Snake Pliskin, the Green Bay Packers escaped from New York with a 27-20 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday.

To call the victory underwhelming might be an understatement.

The Packers won, but did not play well in any of the three phases of football. Their defense could not get off the field against Jameis Winston and the hapless Giants offense. Their offense could not get out of their own way and struggled to protect Jordan Love. On special teams, there were two missed extra points on a windy day.

More on all of that and the rest of our grades in our weekly Packers report card.

Pass Offense

Jordan Love’s final stat line may not look gaudy, but that does not really reflect how well he played.

Love completed just 13 of his 24 passes for 174 yards and what turned out to be a game-winning touchdown pass to Christian Watson. Of his 11 incompletions, we counted nine that could be debated as drops by a harsh grader: Romeo Doubs for three, and Watson, Dontayvion Wicks, Luke Musgrave and John FitzPatrick for one each. Pro Football Focus had just three in its initial grading.

Either way, Love’s performance was called “gritty and tough” by his coach, Matt LaFleur. That performance was required because Love left the game briefly in the first half with a shoulder injury. Malik Willis completed both of his passes, including a touchdown to Watson to put the Packers on the board in the first quarter.

Regardless of Love’s final tally, his receivers did him no favors, and he had limited help in pass protection, as well. The offensive line gave up 10 pressures, according to PFF, and that included one ugly rep from Jordan Morgan against Dexter Lawrence in which Rhyan was tossed to the turf.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson (9) makes a touchdown catch against New York Giants cornerback Korie Black. | Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

Ultimately, with the Packers trailing 20-19 in the fourth quarter, Love helped the Packers avert disaster by finding Watson in the right corner of the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown to put the Packers ahead for good.

Love’s play on its own pulls this grade up, but this is a group that needs to get significantly better with the meat of its schedule on deck.

Grade: C

Rush Offense

This is a tougher phase of the game to grade, because Green Bay lost its star running back, Josh Jacobs, after its second possession of the game with a knee injury. He did not return and his status for next week against Minnesota is in doubt. It’s not believed to be a “bad” injury, a source said.

Prior to his exit, Jacobs ran seven times for 40 yards, including a 15-yarder on a backward pass, and had more room to roam than he’d had in recent weeks. Without Jacobs, it was The Emanuel Wilson Show. Wilson ran 11 times for 40 yards, including a well-blocked, 11-yard touchdown on Green Bay’s first possession of the second half.

Bo Melton added one rush for 17 yards. Malik Willis ran for 16 yards on a keeper. Chris Brooks had one carry for 8 yards. Jordan Love scrambled twice for 7 yards, but would be wise to start sliding as his second scramble resulted in a shoulder injury.

Add it all up and the Packers ran 23 times for 128 yards, a 5.6-yard average about equal to the Giants’ NFL-worst mark for the season. Their running backs ran 18 times for 80 yards, which is almost 4.5 per carry.

That’s not going to confuse anyone with the 1960s Packers with Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung leading the way, but it was more effective than they had been in recent weeks.

Of course, they were facing the Giants, who were one of the two worst teams in the NFL against opposing run games coming into play on Sunday. Next week, they face a much stiffer test against Brian Flores and Minnesota’s defense. The Vikings are allowing a 16th-ranked 4.20 per carry.

Grade: B

Pass Defense

Micah Parsons saves the day again.

Green Bay’s pass rush was mostly anemic against Jameis Winston and a Giants offensive line that had allowed Jaxson Dart and Russell Wilson to get pummeled throughout the year.

The Packers only sacked Winston twice, though they both were critically important.

One was shared by Parsons and Isaiah McDuffie, coming on fourth-and-3 from Green Bay’s 10 late in the third quarter. The other was a strip-sack at the end of the game by Parsons to preserve the victory.

Apart from that, the pass rush was mostly silent.

It appears the plan from the opposition is to dedicate as many blockers as they can to Parsons and force other guys to beat them. So far, the other guys have not been up to the task.

Rashan Gary and Devonte Wyatt, in particular, need to be more impactful. Perhaps the return of Lukas Van Ness could give the pass rush a jolt.

Green Bay Packers safety Evan Williams (33) catches an interception to preserve a victory over the Giants. | Yannick Peterhans / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In the secondary, they struggled. Winston continued to put the ball in harm’s way, but the Packers’ defensive backs were unable to come down with any of his errant passes. Carrington Valentine dropped two potential interceptions. Keisean Nixon might have one but it hit the finger of safety Xavier McKinney. Javon Bullard had one jarred out of his hands by McDuffie on a tip.

Only Evan Williams could save the Packers’ defensive backs from an agonizing film session on Monday wondering how they could not pick off Jameis Winston at least once. Williams’ interception in the left corner of the end zone ruined the Giants’ chance to win the game with 36 seconds remaining.

“We had opportunities all day,” Williams said. “I guess we’re going to be doing some ball drills when we get back. It just felt good to finally be able to close it out. Put a period at the end of that sentence.”

The interception aside, this was an underwhelming performance against another backup quarterback who lined up with only one wide receiver with more than three catches this season.

Grade: C

Rush Defense

Green Bay’s run defense made a statement in last week’s 10-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

No, they did not win the game, but they slowed down Saquon Barkley, holding him to 60 yards on 22 carries.

The Giants clearly wanted to emphasize their run game to keep Jameis Winston from making mistakes and shorten the game against Green Bay’s offense.

They were successful. Tyrone Tracy averaged 4.6 yards per carry. Devin Singletary added 44 yards on 16 carries.

The yards-after-contact numbers are not going to be pretty, either. Tracy and Singletary, who combined for eight missed tackles by our counts, excelled at pushing the pile. Perhaps the most embarrassing play of the day came on a 10-yard quarterback sneak by Winston.

The final numbers aren’t awful. The Giants ran the ball 38 times for 142 yards. Their longest rush of the day was only 17 yards with an average of just 3.7. Despite all those runs, the Packers were only credited with one tackle for loss, by linebacker Edgerrin Cooper.

They did not create enough negative plays in the run game to set up obvious passing situations.

Next week, they’ll face Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason against another team who will likely want to make things easier for its starting quarterback.

The Packers’ front will need to be better.

Grade: C

Special Teams

After facing questions for weeks about the kicking situation, Brandon McManus was on the sideline due to a leg injury and Lucas Havrisik was put back into action after spending the last month on the bench.

Havrisik came into the game perfect on field goals and extra points, including a franchise-record 61-yard field goal against the Cardinals. His first kick in Sunday’s game was an extra point he missed badly to the right. Later, he missed an extra point well to the left, though at least part of the blame for that falls on the operation. Matt Orzech’s snap was errant and Daniel Whelan got the hold down with the laces facing in.

Green Bay’s kicking situation remains a mess, and it continues to leave points on the field.

The Giants had kicking issues of their own, missing a PAT after a personal-foul penalty bailed out the Packers out of only having 10 men on the field for an extra point that would have given the Giants a 14-13 lead before halftime.

The saving grace for this unit is their excellent punter.

Whelan punted four times, including a 61-yard bomb that set the Giants up with poor field position. He’s about the only thing that is reliable from Green Bay’s third phase of the game.

Grade: D

Coaching

Some of the coaching grade was established before the game.

Brandon McManus was ruled out after revealing he had tightness in his kicking leg on Saturday. McManus has continued to kick for the last month despite being listed on the injury report with a quad injury.

Lucas Havrisik remained on the roster as McManus continued to miss kicks while kicking hurt. It stands to reason that a kicker with an injury to his kicking leg could be a significant issue. That becomes even more exaggerated when the injured kicker cannot put the ball through the uprights.

Furthermore, the Packers did not let receiver Malik Heath travel with the team due to what was called a coaching decision by the team. Matt LaFleur said he’s going to keep what led to that decision in house.

The reality is, that’s the third year in a row that LaFleur has suspended or benched someone due to a coach’s decision. Jaire Alexander and Romeo Doubs were suspended for conduct detrimental to the team in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Now, Heath was not allowed to travel with the team.

Is that a troubling trend or a series of one-offs?

In the actual game, the Packers were underwhelming against an inferior opponent once again.

Jeff Hafley and his defense had a chance to make a statement on the opening drive, but the Giants drove right down the field for an opening touchdown.

Rich Bisaccia’s issues were laid out above, including an extra point where they only had 10 men on the field. That’s unacceptable for a unit that claims it takes their phase of the game incredibly seriously, especially at this point of the year.

Grade: C 

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