The 5-2 Green Bay Packers will travel to the 2-5 Jacksonville Jaguars for a game at noon Oct. 27.
Packers Offense vs. Jaguars Defense
After the previous week’s strong start against Arizona, the Packers found things to be much tougher against Houston’s stingy defense.
Jordan Love threw an interception on the first possession of the game. That was his seventh, which ties him for the league lead with famously turnover-happy Will Levis.
He threw another interception in the first half to take an outright lead.
Love needs to take better care of the football. He’s missed two starts and is at the top of the league in turnovers. That’s not going to be a sustainable way to play if the Packers are going to get where they want to go.
The high points for Green Bay’s offense were certainly there. Love threw touchdown passes to Tucker Kraft, Dontayvion Wicks and Josh Jacobs in the Oct. 20 game.
He saved his best for late in the game. With the Packers trailing 22-21 with less than two minutes to play, Love was faced with a simple proposition – lead a scoring drive and win, or lose the game.
Love found Romeo Doubs twice, Kraft twice and Wicks once.
The result was setting up Brandon McManus for a 45-yard field goal to win the game.
McManus drilled the kick, and the Packers were celebrating a win instead of a disappointing loss.
Jacksonville’s defense is not going to be the same type of challenge that the Texans were for Green Bay. Yes, Houston was missing some key pieces, but their star-studded defense had plenty of players to get the job done and make life difficult for Love and company.
Jacksonville’s defense is a little out of sorts. They recently traded Roy Robetson-Harris, who was one of their starters on their defensive line.
Former top pick Travon Walker is having a bit of a breakout season with five sacks.
The Jaguars had 14 sacks going into last week’s game and added two more against Drake Maye and the Patriots.
Green Bay has done a good job of keeping Love clean and will face another stiff test this week with Jacksonville’s front.
Once the back end has to make plays on the ball, however, they do not come away with many takeaways.
The Jaguars have one interception on the season, which is a pace similar to the one set by the 2023 Packers, who did not take the ball away hardly at all.
Love and company should be able to exploit some weaknesses in the secondary — so long as they don’t break the trend of the Jaguars’ defense and take care of the football.
Packers Defense vs. Jaguars Offense
Green Bay’s defense thrives on chaos. They’re coming off facing one of their biggest challenges of the season. Yes, Nico Collins was unavailable for the Houston Texans, but CJ Stroud is one of the top young quarterbacks in all of football.
Green Bay’s defense took that challenge and thrived.
Stroud was held to fewer than 100 yards passing.
The pass rush, which has been MIA for most of the season, sacked him four times and had him under duress for the majority of the game.
Rashan Gary got a sack and is starting to become more productive as the season wears on.
The secondary is the most impressive part of Green Bay’s defense at this point of the year.
Jaire Alexander, Eric Stokes and Keisean Nixon all played well in the win over the Texans. Eric Wilson had a huge day.
Everyone on the team made key plays at key moments.
Green Bay’s defense should have a smaller challenge waiting for them this week as they face off against Jacksonville.
Jacksonville’s offense has been out of sorts for most of the season.
They’ve been up and down but do have some high-end talent.
Trevor Lawrence received a massive contract extension this offseason shortly before Love did, but he has not lived up to the billing thus far.
The group around him is far from stable, but at some point, Lawrence is paid to be a franchise quarterback and mask some of these flaws.
He has not done that.
He’s completing just over 60% of his passes on the season but is coming off an efficient performance against the Patriots, completing 15-of-20 passes and throwing a touchdown while essentially being asked to manage the game.
Lawrence has a talented backfield including Tank Bigsby and Travis Etienne Jr.
Etienne did not play in London against the Patriots, but Bigsby ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns in his place.
At receiver, they’re led by Brian Thomas Jr. the first-round pick out of LSU. Thomas and Christian Kirk make for a talented receiving corps, with Thomas averaging 17 yards per reception.
If there’s a spot where the Packers can get after Lawrence, it’s on the offensive line. Coming into the Oct. 20 game against New England, Lawrence had been sacked 15 times. They kept him clean against the Patriots, but that is likely more of a blip than a trend.
Special Teams
The Packers may begin to see a benefit of the kickoff rules, but with unseasonably warm weather at Lambeau Field on Oct. 20 and heading to Florida this week, it’s unlikely there will be any significant changes in that regard.
Maybe as the weather continues to turn, the ball won’t be able to boom through the back of the end zone, but that could be mid-November at this rate.
It’s possible the Packers could give Nixon an opportunity as a punt returner if kickoffs continue to be a fruitless process.
Nixon took a couple of punt return opportunities against the Cardinals two weeks ago and had a 39-yard return that helped set up one of Green Bay’s touchdowns. That appears to be a touch-and-go type of situation.
He was back deep to return a punt in Sunday’s game but made a massive blunder. He did not signal for a fair catch, nor tell his team to get out of the way, which led to a fumble and easy points for the Houston offense on the ensuing possession.
Green Bay’s kicking situation took a massive turn last week. Brayden Narveson was released after struggling against the Cardinals, and the Packers signed veteran kicker Brandon McManus.
What did McManus do for his debut?
Nothing other than make all of his kicks including a game-winning 45-yard field goal as time expired.
Would the Packers have won that game a week ago? Who knows?
With McManus, we now know they have a veteran kicker who can make the kicks he’s supposed to.
Daniel Whelan continued what has been a strong season for him with another solid day against the Texans. That included a huge day as a holder as he saved a bad snap from Matt Orzech on McManus’ game-winning kick.
The Jacksonville Jaguars’ special teams finished ninth in last season’s special teams rankings for Rick Gosselin.
Their return game, led by Bigsby and Devin Duvernay, is particularly strong.
Kicker Cam Little is kicking at over 90% this season.
Can secondary get big plays against Lawrence?
