You’re going to see some insane stats from the Green Bay Packers win over the New York Jets, because they managed to win the game while having a shaky offense, getting no turnovers and also being penalized heavily. On paper, they never should have won that game.
One of the major factors in why they were able to survive that overtime game with a win was receiver Skyy Moore. Moore had four kick returns for 116 yards (29.0 average, long of 43), four punt returns for 92 yards (23.0 average, long of 63)
and also added two receptions for six yards on offense. Perspective: the Packers’ longest kick return last year was 36 yards, while their longest punt return was 20 yards.
For what it’s worth, Moore was also the offensive substitute for Jayden Reed, who left on a backboard, as the team’s slot receiver on Sunday.
In total, Moore had 214 total yards (even with just six yards of total offense), while the rest of the Packers combined had 193 yards on the day. You can’t understate how much Green Bay needed Moore to move the football into scoring range in Week 2. There’s no chance they would have won against the Jets if they hadn’t gotten an all-time returner performance from Moore.
Previously, I was a little skeptical that Moore would hold down the kick returner job (I thought he was for sure going to be the punt returner, though) once second-year third-rounder Savion Williams returned from the injured reserve, potentially as early as Week 5, but it’s going to be impossible to take him off the field now. For what it’s worth, Moore didn’t return kicks last week (Bo Melton and Kaleb Johnson got kicked to), and he had two punts for 17 yards against the Minnesota Vikings.
It will be interesting to see if the Packers lean out of three-receiver sets in favor of two-receiver sets, though, as Green Bay’s receiver rotation has been very rigid this season. The X position has only been played by Matthew Golden and Melton, the Z position has only been played by Christian Watson, Williams (IR) and J. Michael Sturdivant and the slot position has only been played by Reed and Moore, dating back to the preseason. Maybe the team will adjust some of that, allowing a player like Melton or Sturdivant to play some slot reps moving forward, which would allow Moore’s legs to be fresh for returns.
At the moment, there is no timetable for when Reed will be back on the grass after his injury on Sunday.
