After a last-second loss to the Cleveland Browns, the national media seems to be jumping off the Green Bay Packers bandwagon. Going into Week 3, everyone had the Packers ranked as a top-three team in the NFL.
Now? No one does.
Let’s take a look at where the Packers rank in a couple of league-wide power rankings, along with the commentary that comes with them.
With less than four minutes left, the Packers led 10-0 at Cleveland. In the last four minutes they gave up 13 points and lost. It doesn’t mean they’re a bad team, or won’t be in the No. 1 spot again, but that’s a really bad loss after a great start to the season.
A season ago, the Packers tied for fourth in the NFL with 31 takeaways and ranked third in interceptions with 17. They have a grand total of two takeaways this season: Evan Williams’ interception in Week 1 against the Lions and Xavier McKinney’s interception on Sunday. McKinney’s pick was essentially a punt by the Browns, who threw a deep shot on fourth-and-8 with just 12 seconds left in the first half. The Packers spent training camp stressing punching the ball out and causing fumbles, but they haven’t forced one yet.
Where is the offense? The defense has been dominant, but they aren’t getting enough from the offense. It cost them in Cleveland.
Maybe Micah Parsons and Co. − specifically his teammates − were looking ahead to Dallas this week … even though this franchise hasn’t lost to the Cowboys in nearly nine years? While all the focus this week will be on Parsons, the Pack’s potentially makeshift O-line better ensure it can protect QB Jordan Love and find RB Josh Jacobs at least a sliver of daylight in Big D.
No sugar-coating it: That was easily one of the worst — and strangest — losses of Matt LaFleur’s career. The Packers were looking to ice the game on Brandon McManus’ short field-goal try with less than 30 seconds left in a tie game. That cannot turn into a loss in regulation, but somehow it did. The floodgates opened after Jordan Love’s awful interception, inviting a host of questions about whether this offense has what it takes to make the Packers Super Bowl contenders. Love was under heavy pressure all game, taking five sacks against a very good Browns defense. Zach Tom and Aaron Banks both left the game with injuries, and Green Bay has to find some blocking answers up front. But still, the breakdowns were too glaring to ignore, even if the Pack had pulled this game out.
Anyone who crowned the Packers as the new best team in football may have done so prematurely. What we saw from Green Bay over the first two weeks wasn’t exactly a mirage, but championship-caliber teams find ways to win mistake-filled games on the road.
Yes, injuries along the offensive line made things incredibly difficult for Jordan Love and the Packers offense, but Green Bay still should have moved to 3-0. A late, ill-advised interception by Love and a blocked go-ahead field goal let Cleveland back in the game.
The good news is that Green Bay isn’t going to face a defensive front as disruptive as Cleveland’s every week. The bad news is that the Zach Tom and Aaron Banks injuries loom large.
Every team has a weak link. The Packers can’t afford for the quarterback to become theirs.
A matchup against Schwartz and the Browns defense eventually thwarted Jordan Love’s efficient start. But even while often flummoxed, Love drove the Packers into field goal range Sunday before a block set up Cleveland’s game winner in the biggest upset of Week 3. Still, Love will be fine. Nothing to see here.
Losing to Cleveland? Really? That Browns defense may be strong, but if the Packers want to be serious contenders, they have to do better than 10 points and 230 yards.
The Dallas Cowboys are missing Tyler Booker with a high ankle sprain for the Micah Parsons reunion, in addition to CeeDee Lamb. Parsons has been sprinkling that A and B gap pressure into his repertoire this season in small bursts. It may be time to really pick it up to embarrass his former bosses.
For the most part, the teams that analysts believe are better than the Packers are the Philadelphia Eagles, Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Chargers and the Detroit Lions, despite Green Bay beating Detroit in Week 1. Conor Orr of SI, who has generally been lower on the Packers the entire season, has the team ranked as the seventh-best team in the NFC alone, behind the Eagles, Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers. Of those seven teams, the only ones with better point differentials than the Packers right now are the Seahawks and Lions.
Holy overreaction.
