Three Matchups That Could Hand Packers a Killer Second Consecutive Loss

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers are licking their wounds after losing to the Minnesota Vikings. Could Sunday’s game at the New York Jets, who went just 3-14 last season, provide the winning elixir?

The Packers must win these three matchups to earn a critical victory in what’s essentially a must-win game.

Packers DC Jonathan Gannon vs. Jets QB Geno Smith

New Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon and new Jets quarterback Geno Smith have a history.

And it’s not good for Gannon.

In 2023 and 2024, Gannon was coach of the Cardinals and Smith was quarterback of the Seahawks. Seattle won all four games. Smith either topped a 100 passer rating, completed better than 70 percent of his passes or both. Combined, Smith completed 70.8 percent of his passes with six touchdowns, two interceptions and a 104.4 passer rating.

“He’s a good player, man,” Gannon said. “You’re not going to trick him. He’s very intelligent. He’s, obviously, got a huge arm and he’s a mobile guy even being a little later in his career. He can beat you with his legs. You got to be careful about doing certain things with him because when he gets out, he can generate explosives with his legs.

“I’ve always been a big fan of Geno. He always plays well, for whatever reason, against me, us or whomever I’m with. Big-time challenge ahead.”

In last week’s loss to Minnesota, Carson Wentz came off the bench to complete 63.2 percent of his passes with three touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 123.5 passer rating.

Wentz had better weapons to throw to, but Smith isn’t exactly throwing to a bunch of chumps with Garrett Wilson, Adonai Mitchell and his fleet of tight ends. Wilson opened his career with three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons but missed most of last season. Mitchell has only 825 receiving yards and two touchdowns in 34 career games but is an elite size-speed player.

“Dynamic guys, for sure,” Packers safety Evan Williams said. “AD, I don’t feel like he’s gotten the film quite out yet of what he’s capable of, but definitely a guy that’s dynamic out there. When he’s at the catch point, he makes a lot of plays. A big, physical guy. And then Garrett, in my opinion, he’s one of the best in the league. He’s so fluid in and out of his routes, makes everything look the same. His change of direction is on par with the best in the league. Those are two guys that you definitely got to be aware of in any situation.

“As a back end, we love these challenges. Love going against top receiver corps.”

As will be the case until Micah Parsons returns, the Packers will need to cobble together a strong pass rush to make Smith uncomfortable. He was 16-of-20 against Tennessee with a clean pocket.

Packers OL Coach Luke Butkus vs. Jets Coach Aaron Glenn

The Jets under coach Aaron Glenn are not a big blitz team.

According to Sumer Sports, the Jets blitzed on 28.2 percent of the passing snaps last week against Tennessee (five-plus rushers on a passing play). That ranks 13th out of 32 teams, which is right in line with last year, when they ranked 14th with a blitz rate of 27.5 percent.

Of course, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores blitzed the Packers straight off the bus last week. By the end of the game, the Packers looked like a weary fighter before the knockout came on a fumble and interception.

Blitzing is not in Glenn’s DNA.

“I just like to put our guys in positions and I like to get in the head of the coordinator, and that's all I think about,” Glenn told reporters on Wednesday. “There are some weeks when you blitz quite a bit, there's some weeks when you just play in coverage.”

Watching film, however, is in his DNA. It will be fascinating to see how Glenn changes things up given Minnesota’s success and the complete inability of Luke Butkus’ offensive line to figure anything out.

“Minnesota, that's kind of their lifestyle there,” Jets defensive coordinator Brian Duker said. “They're a little bit one-of-one as far as their style of play, so I don't know how much that translates week-to-week. Sometimes, things that are good for one defense aren't necessarily good for another, because they play you differently, things of that nature.”

The focus this week was more internal, center Sean Rhyan said, to make sure that the miscommunications and missed assignments that ruined them last week aren’t an issue this week.

“F***ing protect J-Love and f***ing move the ball. Let's keep it simple, keep it easy,” Rhyan said. “Just kind of more worried about us this week, making sure we're doing what we need to do in order to keep J-Love clean and move the ball.”

Biggest Challenge of Season

Under former Packers safety Chris Banjo, the Jets have one of the best special-teams units in the NFL. Last season, they finished second in the Packers On SI NFL Special Teams Rankings and third in EPA per play, according to Sumer Sports.

They got off to a hot start against the Titans. Tennessee’s All-Pro returner, Chimere Dike, was completely bottled up. The Jets came out of Week 1 ranked first in punt coverage and third in kickoff coverage.

Individually, Isaiah Williams had punt returns of 15 and 14 yards and punter Austin McNamara is third in net average.

The Packers were either good or bad on special teams. Bo Melton had a long kickoff return, Skyy Moore saved a bunch of field position when he fielded a bouncing ball for a 12-yard return into Vikings territory and Trey Smack went 3-for-3 on field goals, including a 59-yarder. However, the Packers gave up a 68-yard kickoff return and Smack missed an extra point that probably factored in coach Matt LaFleur’s doomed fourth-down decision.

“I tell our guys don’t anticipate calls to ever be called in the game,” special teams coordinator Cam Achord said when asked about potential penalties on the Vikings’ long kickoff return. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to get the guys on the ground, whether that’s at the 25, the 30.

“We’ve got to get off blocks and we have to do everything we can to get off blocks. From a coaching aspect, I’ve got to design more drills to work getting off blocks, whether that be contact drills, using our hands better, striking better. It goes back to the fundamental things for me, and that’s what we’ve got to go back to is doing that to make sure we’re able to get off the blocks so we can make the tackles.”

As for Banjo, he went undrafted out of SMU in 2013 but made Green Bay’s roster. He played in all 16 games in 2013 and 2015 and wound up playing in 131 games in 10 NFL seasons.

“It means a lot when you talk about how fortunate I was to be able to play for a team like that, that organization, that history,” he said. “But in regards to coming up this week, honestly, they're just another opponent. Looking forward to our guys putting our brand on tape that we talk about and holding our standard to where we see it being.”

In its annual review of Week 1 rosters, the NFL determined the Packers were:

🏈Young
🏈Inexperienced
🏈Beefyhttps://t.co/0qKKQtmF9R
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 18, 2026

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