Thoughts from the Green Bay Packers at the Philadelphia Eagles (1/12/2024)

 Here are my thoughts from today's 22-10 Green Bay Packers' playoff loss at the Philadelphia Eagles.

This game felt like a broken record. Slow start on offense, game changing errors and a lack of discipline at key moments put the Packers behind early and derailed any opportunity to mount a comeback. It's the same formula that led to their six losses during the regular season and, in this case, made their postseason run short and sweet.

The defense put in a valiant effort. As was mentioned in commentary, it felt as though the Packers should have been much further behind at the half than they were, but the defense held the Eagles to just 10 points despite everything going wrong on offense. They even finally found their pass rush, though it was too little, too late.

One of the biggest game changers was losing Elgton Jenkins early. Green Bay had a lot of injuries in this game, but the loss of Jenkins arguably had the biggest impact as the backups struggled against the league's best defense, putting Jordan Love under duress and drawing multiple flags.

On that subject, I was surprised at the number of backup linemen with little game experience. On one hand, it should be a good thing because it means your preferred starters were playing but the play of the reserves showed the negative part of that. Last year, in comparison, the Packers were rotating linemen just to rotate them, giving them game experience.

This was just an awful game by Love. His accuracy at times was bad. He should have had at least one more interception to go with the three he did have and his overthrow to Malik Heath on a short pass essentially killed Green Bay's hopes of coming back. I'm still trying to figure out where he was trying to throw the ball on the second interception. The team is only going to go as far as he can take them and getting him playing to his potential needs to be an offseason priority.

The long list of injuries made me doubtful the Packers could have gone far beyond this game either way. They ended the game with three healthy receivers as well as two key injuries on the offensive line. For a moment, it also looked like Love was hurt again. That did not bode well for a game on the road against the rested Detroit Lions, though I would have still preferred they at least get the opportunity.

While a disappointing exit, there's still reason to be optimistic for next season. Most "experts" figured a 3-year rebuild after the Packers moved on from Aaron Rodgers and others. They are in season 2 and have made the playoffs twice. It's the youngest team in the league and the talent is there. Another year of maturity and maybe an additional playmaker or two could be just enough to get them over the final hurdle.