The Green Bay Packers were able to survive a poor performance against the Houston Texans on Sunday.
“They kicked our (butt),” head coach Matt LaFleur said, about Demeco Ryans’ defense effort toward his offense Oct. 20. “I never got settled as a play caller.”
This week, the Texans are not the team the Packers are going to face, but they will play a team from their division.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are coming off a 32-16 win over the New England Patriots.
Jacksonville’s win helped them improve to 2-5. This weekend’s game is not going to be easy; no game in the NFL is. However, the Jaguars are one of the bottom feeders of the NFL.
Green Bay is the better team and should win.
What are the keys to doing that?
Here’s what we came up with.
Packers vs. Trap Game/Letdown
The Oct. 20 game was clearly emotional. Tempers flared prior to the game when Stefon Diggs got into a shouting match with Keisean Nixon.
The defense clearly had some extra juice knowing the type of team they were playing.
The offense was fired up. They just made a lot of mistakes and struggled to consistently move the ball.
This week is a potential letdown in two ways, the first of which is that the Packers are coming off an emotional victory over a good team and now are facing a team that is less talented.
Secondly, this is the game before they play the Detroit Lions at home in two weeks – a divisional showdown that could be for first place in the division.
Jacksonville has not had a good season but has enough talent to beat teams that do not play their best football. If the Packers are caught looking ahead, they could get stung by a motivated Jaguars team returning to U.S. soil for the first time in two weeks.
Turnovers
The Packers, remarkably, were able to win the Oct. 20 game despite being minus-3 in the turnover battle. The Packers talk about taking the ball away every week. LaFleur talks about valuing the football.
Jordan Love threw two interceptions and Nixon made an inexplicable mistake on special teams to give the Texans seven points.
The Packers’ defense, so adept at taking the ball away early in the year, did not have a takeaway in the 24-22 win over the Texans.
They did, however, play what was perhaps their most complete game in the passing game.
CJ Stroud struggled all game long. The pass rush, which has struggled most of the season, was able to keep Stroud under duress.
This weekend’s game should give the Packers more opportunities to take the ball way. Trevor Lawrence and Jacksonville’s offense put the ball in harm’s way much more often than Houston does.
In addition, Jacksonville’s defense does not take the ball away. The turnover battle is something Green Bay has been so good at winning this year.
One way to lose the game against an inferior opponent is to lose that battle.
Offensive Tackles vs. Pass Rush
Rasheed Walker and Zach Tom held up well enough against Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter.
Both players did get a sack on Love but did not wreck the game like they’re capable of.
This week, they face a different type of challenge.
Josh Allen is a good player for the Jaguars as a former first-round pick.
Travon Walker was once picked first overall in the draft. He’s enjoying a breakout season with five sacks on the year.
Through seven games, the Jaguars have 14 sacks. They are able to get after opposing quarterbacks.
Green Bay has done a good enough job at taking care of Love in the pocket but will need to do that this week. If Love has time, he should be able to find some receivers roaming in the secondary that has struggled this season for the Jaguars.
Green Bay can’t look beyond Jacksonville
