The Green Bay Packers were on the receiving end of a 35-14 drubbing in their home opener, losing to the previously winless Atlanta Falcons who had not ran a single play in the red zone before Thursday night.
It was a much more worrying defeat than the one they suffered to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1, and there is plenty to be concerned about coming out of this loss.
Here are five takeaways from a humbling night in Green Bay:
The offensive line is unfathomably bad
Even in a worst-case scenario it was difficult to imagine Green Bay’s offensive line being so bad that it would tank the entire team, but that’s where we are right now.
It is one thing to be allowing pressure on the quarterback, but the biggest issue is that they are still not consistently blocking the right people, allowing free
rushers at Jordan Love throughout the game again.
They cannot run the ball either, which is not helped by a group of running backs that have offered pretty much nothing. Can the O-line be fixed in any real way this season? There is not much reason to believe it can, and it might just be a long, long year on offense as a result.
It’s on everyone
At times like this, fans are looking for who is to blame. The answer is everyone.
The O-line issues are an example of a perfect storm. It is partly on the coaches for not being able to get the line to execute their assignments, partly on Brian Gutekunst for providing this group of options, and partly bad injury luck with their two most expensive players not available.
There will be calls to fire this person or that, but realistically none of that is likely to happen during the season, and the head coach and GM were just handed contract extensions and firing either of them now will not save this season. We have to let it play out until year’s end.
Bijan Robinson does damage
Not letting Robinson take over the game had to be priority number one for the Packers defense, and they did not get it done. Atlanta’s ability to run the ball at will was in stark contrast to Green Bay’s issues on the ground.
It was exacerbated by a really poor tackling performance by the Packers, which allowed solid gains to rupture into explosives. The Falcons’ successful run game made life easy for Michael Penix and kept the playbook wide open. That must be nice.
Packers can’t lose the fine margins anymore
In previous years, Green Bay could sometimes get away with blocked field goals on special teams, drops and failed fourth down attempts on offense or drive-extending penalties on defense, as their offense could always bail them out with enough point-scoring drives.
They are not good enough to lose as many pivotal plays as they did tonight and still win. There were several inflection points where one play going the Packers’ way could have helped them turn the tide before the game got out of hand. They seemed to lose every single one.
It’s a long season
That might sound like a threat right now, but it is just a reminder that so much can change throughout a season, and although at this moment it is hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel for this Packers team, it is not impossible that they find a way to turn it around.
The Packers have not lost more than eight games since 2018. They have talent at pretty much every position (other than the O-line). They are probably not going to look as bad as they were tonight for the rest of the season. Hopefully this is rock bottom and the only way is up from here…
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: 5 takeaways from Packers' 35-14 loss to Falcons: It's on everyone
