Our weekly "studs and duds" post is getting pared down this week to only "duds." The Green Bay Packers got a handful of good performances during Thursday night's 35-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the home opener, but melting down along the offensive line, giving up 27 straight points, allowing almost 500 total yards and losing at home by three touchdowns doesn't leave much room for "studs."
Fans inside Lambeau Field agreed and booed the players and coaches at several points on Thursday night.
The biggest duds of Week 3 for the Packers:
Duds in Week 3 vs. Falcons
LG Jager Burton: Turns out, a rookie fifth-round pick who came into the season as the third-string left guard was NOT the fix for the offensive line. Burton had a nightmare first start, allowing 10 total pressures,
including five quarterback hits and six quick pressures, and he committed a false start penalty on a play where the Packers were not planning to snap the ball. This performance showed why Burton wasn't the go-to option during the first two weeks. He did not look ready for the bright lights of NFL regular season play on Thursday night. Will the Packers let him learn on the job, or does he go back to the bench to figure things out?
RG Jacob Monk: The first three weeks has shown more than enough evidence that Monk is not an NFL caliber starting offensive lineman. The only blocks he's consistently executing are pulls in front of power runs. Everything else is a real adventure. He's getting beat 1-on-1 over and over again. PFF credited him with giving up six pressures, including three hits on Jordan Love. The Packers have to make a change at right guard.
QB Jordan Love: He missed some throws, and he put the ball in harm's way at least three times, although a couple of the turnover-worthy plays came late in garbage time. Yet it's hard to place much blame on his shoulders given the complete destruction happening in front of him on every other play. Love got hit 13 times, and he was under pressure on almost half of his dropbacks. He also has no run game to help him, and pass-catchers keep dropping the football. How can a quarterback operate in these conditions? Ideally, your $220 million franchise player would elevate everything around him. But there isn't a player in the world who is pulling the rabbit out of the hat in the situation Love is currently in. He's fortunate he hasn't been hurt yet.
CB Brandon Cisse: The night started out fairly well, with Cisse targeted on a pair of incomplete passes into his coverage in the first quarter. From there? Michael Penix Jr. completed his next five passes against Cisse for 111 yards, including a 68-yarder to Drake London. PFF charted London with three catches for 100 yards against the second-round pick. Cisse also missed a tackle against the run and had an illegal contact penalty. Learning moments for the 21-year-old corner.
TE Tucker Kraft: The Packers had Kraft run 40 routes. He caught four passes on eight targets for only 26 yards, and he dropped two passes. One of his catches came on the circus play where Love threw down the line of scrimmage on a busted play (due to Jacob Monk's terrible block attempt). Over the last two games, Kraft has run 60 routes and has 40 total receiving yards. He looks like a shell of his former self coming off a major injury.
LB Edgerrin Cooper: He left with a concussion in the second half. Save for one disruptive play in the backfield, Cooper was not up to the challenge of containing Bijan Robinson and the Falcons run game. He was excellent during the first two weeks, but the Falcons consistently got the best of him on Thursday night.
RT Anthony Belton: Don't let the struggles of the guards distract from Belton's disastrous night. He gave up six pressures, including three quarterback hits. He allowed a couple of flyby pressures where he was too slow getting to the edge and the pass-rusher raced past him for a quick pressure. On a positive note, Belton did not have a penalty. The 2025 second-round pick looks too lumbering to consistently handle the speed of NFL edge rushers. On field goal protection, the defender who blocked the field goal slipped through between Belton and Jonathan Ford.
DL Devonte Wyatt: No. 95 has been awfully quiet through the three games since his contract extension. Like Tucker Kraft, he's coming off a major injury. But Wyatt is simply not making plays for the defensive front. He played 34 snaps against the Falcons and finished with one pressure and one stop against the run. Where is the impact? The Packers need a lot more from a guy they just paid $57 million.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: 8 duds from the Packers' primetime loss to the Falcons in Week 3
