The Green Bay Packers overcame two horrific early injuries, a disappointing overall performance on offense, an avalanche of penalties from all three phases and a 17-7 deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the New York Jets by a 20-17 final score in overtime on Sunday.
The good coming out of the comeback win is that even the ugliest of wins still count as wins, and the Packers finally snapped their losing streak -- which dated back to last season -- by flipping the script and orchestrating an unlikely win in the fourth quarter and overtime. But the Packers played really poor football for most of Sunday at MetLife Stadium, and Matt LaFleur's team is fortunate in many ways to have survived the performance and be returning to Green Bay with a 1-1
record.
But again, is it better to control a game for 50 minutes, meltdown and lose, like in Week 1, or sleepwalk through three quarters, wake up and win, like on Sunday? That's an easy choice. But it's still fair to say the Packers have a lot of work to do moving forward.
Highlighting the good, the bad and the ugly coming out of the Packers' Week 2 win:
The Good
The final 16 minutes: After falling behind 17-7, the Packers went on a 13-0 run over the final 11 minutes of the fourth quarter and the five minutes of overtime -- finally providing the ever-elusive winning finish. It certainly wasn't a perfect final 16 minutes; the Packers had multiple opportunities to win the game outright in regulation and failed. But in the extra session, the Packers took over, pressuring the Jets into a three-and-out and then calmly moving down the field for the game-winning field goal. Credit where credit is due. In the rain and on the road, the Packers could have folded up shop after MarShawn Lloyd fumbled in the fourth quarter. But the defense got a stop to minimize the damage, the offense finally put a drive together and Skyy Moore provided a highlight special teams play to erase the deficit. Maybe the Packers can build on the final 16 minutes of Sunday and finally put together a competent 60 minutes of play come Thursday night at Lambeau Field.
Bonus: Lukas Van Ness. He was dominant. It's been a long time since we've seen a Packers edge rusher not named Micah Parsons affect the game against the run and pass as consistently as LVN did on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
The Bad
The penalties. Most weeks, committing 14 accepted penalties (and the Packers had several others declined!) for 133 yards would easily fit into "The Ugly" section of this recurring post, but not this week. Injuries take the cake coming out of Sunday. But the flag fest at MetLife Stadium nearly sent the Packers to an 0-2 start. Green Bay committed penalties on six of 12 offensive possessions, helping stall numerous drives. Five different defensive players had a penalty and three different players were penalized on special teams, so this was a three-phased failure of composure, focus and fundamentals. The Packers are fortunate the Jets were also in a penalty mood; Aaron Glenn's team had 156 penalty yards, including a 15-yarder on the final drive of overtime setting up the field goal and 61 yards of pass interference penalties drawn by Matthew Golden.
Bonus: That three-play sequence after Skyy Moore's 63-yard punt return. Inside run, inside run, pass on third down. The Packers played that series scared, despite starting the drive in the red zone with a chance to take the lead. They were lucky it didn't end up costing them the game.
The Ugly
The injuries. Much of the game was aesthetically ugly from a football standpoint for the Packers, but nothing comes close to watching players get carted off on back-to-back plays to start the game and finishing the contest with nearly a dozen injuries. It's scary stuff to see a player secured to a backboard after one play and then see a different player carted off with an air cast on his leg on the very next play. Jayden Reed could miss significant time, while Zach Bako-Bewele could miss the rest of the season. Brutal. Throw in another injury to Aaron Banks, plus the short week coming up before playing the Falcons on Thursday night, and the Packers are in rough shape. The hope will be that Bako-Bewele's injury isn't the fatal blow to an offensive line that could be the fatal flaw of the 2026 Packers.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Good, bad and ugly coming out of Packers' Week 2 win over Jets
