The Green Bay Packers are back in the win column, and they avoided losing to Joe Flacco for the second time in three games. Facing the Cincinnati Bengals at Lambeau Field, Matt LaFleur’s team struggled to get out to a big lead in the first half, but both teams’ offenses woke up a bit in the second half. Green Bay never went on defense with less than a two-possession lead in the second half, eventually holding on for a 27-18 victory.
The game was a bit of a breakout for Matthew Golden, who led the team
with 86 receiving yards on three catches. Golden added 16 yards on the ground for his first game of over 100 yards from scrimmage. Meanwhile, Josh Jacobs had a big day, with 18 carries for 93 yards and two touchdowns and another five receptions for 57 yards.
It was a tale of two halves for Green Bay’s defense, however. They completely shut down the Bengals in the first half, but struggled mightily after halftime, allowing all 18 points after the break. The vaunted Packers pass rush managed just one sack on Flacco all game long, as the new Bengals quarterback picked on Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine throughout the second half.
Ultimately, the kicking game made a difference in this game. Lucas Havrisik, in for Brandon McManus, was perfect for the Packers, hitting two field goal attempts and all three of his extra points. Meanwhile, the Bengals asked a lot of Evan McPherson, who missed attempts of 56 and 67 yards in the contest.
The Packers had a promising drive on the opening series of the game, driving down into the red zone. They got an explosive pass to Romeo Doubs on the first play of the game and then a 4th-down conversion on a Jordan Love quarterback sneak, but Love made a big mistake. While scrambling to avoid pressure, he chose not to throw the ball away and instead tried to force a pass to Doubs along the sideline. The ball was tipped and intercepted by safety Geno Stone, erasing a promising start to the game.
The Packers clearly had a plan to feature rookie Matthew Golden early and often in this game, however. After forcing a quick three-and-out on defense, the Packers got Golden three touches on their next drive, with two 8-yard carries and a 20-yard catch-and-run. The drive stalled out short of the 20, however, bringing on Lucas Havrisik — active in place of a banged-up Brandon McManus — for a 43-yard field goal attempt. Havrisik put it right down the middle, finally giving Green Bay a lead less than a minute into the second quarter.
Finally, on their fourth drive, the Packers found the end zone. Golden hauled in a huge play to get the offense moving, a 35-yarder on a picture-perfect throw from Love up the left sideline, and a big catch-and-run from Jacobs went for another 29 yards and set up the offense inside the Bengals’ 10-yard line. Jacobs would punch into the end zone from three yards out a few plays later to push the lead up to 10-0.
While the Packers offense was figuring itself out in the first half, the defense was having no trouble dispatching Joe Flacco and the Bengals. Cincinnati picked up just a single first down and gained only 21 net yards over its first four drives. Following their fourth punt, the Packers had a chance to extend their lead to three possessions at the end of the first half, getting a 25-yard catch by Tucker Kraft and a 12-yard carry from Jacobs to cross midfield at the two-minute warning. They could not pick up another first down, however, punting on 4th and 5 from the Bengals’ 42 with just over a minute left.
Cincinnati managed to pick up a few first downs, reaching their own 42 with 22 seconds left but using all three of their timeouts, then gained a few more yards to reach midfield and spike the ball with one second left. Evan McPherson set up for a 67-yard field goal with the wind at his back. McPherson’s first attempt bounced in off the crossbar, but Matt LaFleur snuck in a timeout to ice him. The official attempt fell short, and Keisean Nixon — lined up back in the end zone to attempt a return — made a valiant effort to take it back for a score but was stopped just outside the 30 to take the game into halftime.
In the first half, the Packers had the football for nearly 22 minutes in the first half and out-gained the Bengals 240 to 65 yards in total, but Cincinnati got off to a good start in the third quarter. They more than doubled up their yardage and time of possession on that drive as they closed back to within a field goal. Xavier McKinney made a touchdown-saving tackle on Tee Higgins before a false start penalty and a sack by Lukas Van Ness pushed them back. But then a completion over the middle set up Cincinnati for a 4th-and-goal from the three, and Flacco found Tanner Hudson in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.
That Bengals drive took up 10:14 of the clock as the Packers finally got the ball back with less than five minutes remaining on the clock in the third quarter.
They did so with the Bengals’ top pass-rusher, Trey Hendrickson, ruled out for the game with a back issue, and his absence was notable. But Jordan Love was throwing the ball quickly on that drive, picking up multiple first downs on the drive to Doubs. Jacobs added a pair of carries for first downs as well, reaching the red zone as the game moved over to the fourth quarter. On the first play of the final frame, Jacobs cashed through the middle of the line, barreling through the secondary for a 14-yard touchdown to re-establish a ten-point lead for Green Bay.
Green Bay’s defense got a stop on the next drive, but only after giving up some chunks of yardage to get the Bengals into field goal range. Flacco found Chase and Higgins a big play apiece, but the defense held and McPherson hit from 45 yards out to make the score 17-10.
After a long Bo Melton kickoff return, the Packers’ offense started near their own 40-yard line, and Doubs hauled in a nice 15-yard catch to start the drive and get across the 50 after just one play. Love picked up another first down on 3rd-and-2, evading multiple pass-rushers and cutting back upfield to move the chains, then Jacobs picked up a big gain of 16. Finally, Love found Tucker Kraft with a short pas,s and the tight end bullied his way through the Bengals and into the end zone for a 19-yard touchdown, a huge insurance score that gave Green Bay its first two-touchdown lead of the day.
Once again, Cincinnati drove on the Packers’ defense, dinking and dunking their way down the field as Flacco got the ball out of his hands quickly. On 4th-and-5 from the 19, the Packers brought an all-out blitz, and Flacco hit Chase with a lofted ball to the goal line, and he made a contested catch for a Bengals touchdown. Head coach Zac Taylor called for a 2-point conversion, and a pressured Flacco eventually found running back Chase Brown wide open to close the gap to six points at 24-18.
After a nice return from Savion Williams, Love took a sack on second down to set up a third and long. But he rolled out and found a wide-open Golden for his third big catch of the game, a 31-yarder that set up the Packers to start running off the last few minutes of clock. Love was under pressure on 3rd-and-2 coming out of the two-minute warning, though, and his heave fell incomplete, so the Packers had to settle for a 39-yard field goal from Havrisik to get the game back to a two-possession lead at 27-18.
That left the Bengals with just one timeout and 1:52 on the clock to score twice. Two quick passes underneath got Cincinnati into Packers territory, but a spike and a couple of short passes sent Evan McPherson out for a long field goal on 4th and 6 from the 38-yard line. McPherson’s kick went wide right, allowing the Packers to seal the victory with a couple of kneel-downs.
The Packers move to 3-1-1 on the season and will travel west to face the Arizona Cardinals next Sunday afternoon. Cincinnati drops to 2-4 and will host the Pittsburgh Steelers in week 7.
