Packers Eagles Week 1 Recap

[Music] welcome back to another episode of the pack whaty said podcast I'm one of your co-hosts Maggie joined as always by Perry Goldstein and we're officially on the other side of week one after months and months of anticipation wondering what this team would look like we saw them out in Brazil against the Eagles last night and unfortunately the Packers didn't get it done didn't get the win but we are going to talk about all of it so Perry let's just let's just start with the elephant in the room and get the news out of the way Jordan love ACL intact seems to be an MCL sprain still waiting on the severity of that to see what that looks like um but doesn't seem to be anything too longterm the rough estimates from the internet make it seem like two to six weeks yeah I don't do Twitter doctor not thing I guess it's you know because I actually work at a hospital um not into that so um best case scenario given what we saw in the field he looked like he was in an immense amount of pain um had to wait 10 hours for him to get back to the us to have a final timetable um I actually just got a Tom peliso breaking news as we're recording this um Jordan Love's initial timetable for return is the three to six week range per sources um some optimism he could return sooner than later pending a second opinion so the next three opponents that he will most likely miss which makes sense given an MCL sprain Colts at home Titans away Vikings at home um okay this is like I just said probably best case scenario given what we saw um amazing that his everything is intact um it was just really hard to see it happen with five seconds left in the game yeah just like have everyone almost make it out of there healthy especially with the way the field conditions were all game that was really hard to watch everyone slipping and sliding um both sides of the both both teams um Eagles and included in this as well obviously and then for him to go down with literally 5 seconds on the clock just brutal 10 hours on the plane probably the worst 10 hours of his life not knowing like what the fate of his season was going to be but um MCL sprain I've actually had one before they're really painful they probably feel worse than they actually are and 3 to six weeks feels about right and given the way athletes bodies are um and the type of care that he can get highend care getting him back within three weeks would be totally reasonable and awesome so the Packers just need to try to win uh a game or two wi without him yeah and I mean I think you know we'll we'll get into the finer details of the game but we had said we expect it to be a SLO we expect there to be points scored like these are two really prolific offenses really talented units here and at kind of just you know was what we saw it was a shootout the defenses needed to kind of settle down you mentioned that the field conditions guys were slipping I was talking to the people I was watching the game with about how frustrating it had to be for everyone involved to just there were some M tackles obviously that is something that the Packers will need to clean up but some of that was just you know the field itself and we saw the change when they switched out the cleats going into the second half but yeah just a lot of week one football I think is kind what this boils down to a lot of easy mistakes that are fixable Andy Herman put out a list of 37 things on Twitter that could have been fixed and the Packers still lost by one score you know so a lot of self-inflicted wounds and we'll dive into what that looks like but very winnable game unfortunate anytime you have a winnable game that you don't win especially now that Jordan's going to be out for a little bit of time but still a lot to be excited about going into the rest of the season yeah I think to put a PO bow on oh speak words to put a bow on Jordan uh before um I respond to some great points you just made um I'm just glad that he's made it we we have the answers now because I think the waiting part is the worst um and that he's back at Lambo and can get the care from Doc and the rest of the staff and now we can move forward and game plan we'll be getting Malik Willis for at least three weeks so that'll be interesting to talk about um but to your other overall thoughts on the game um you did see a noticeable difference when I'm sure they switched their cleat to second half I mean especially in the Run game The Run game picked up from both sides of the ball um but to me a game where the Packers beat themselves which is what this really was um Miss cues on offense dropped passes you know just being slightly off from one another from not playing together probably a symptom also of the starters not playing it all in preseason which is like a bit of that give and take that you get when you don't play your starters in preseason um it's really frustrating to watch in the moment because like you said this was an absolutely winnable game they still only lost by one score however when you take a step back from it and we've slept on it because we're recording this on Saturday you also can come away from this game and say okay well they're going to learn from this they're not going to hopefully repeat these mistakes again and they won't look like this in week two three Etc and they will be better we saw a lot of glimpses of this like very high-powered highflying offense that they can be and I'm sure we will make note of those um you're in the show so it's frustrating because you're like just get the ball and oh stop with the you know stupid penalties and all those things but um I it's not um poison in the well it's it's something that you is I don't expect to be repeated and therefore these this kind of game if they did had it again next week or in four weeks or in eight weeks I fully expect them to win and as my last point they still put up almost 30 in a game where they didn't play nearly their best football so it they still played this if this is not their best ball and they're still putting up high numbers on a a very good football team the Eagles are a very good football team to start the season I feel okay about the way things are going to go yeah and I mean I think not to compare the two sides but nobody watched the Chiefs and Ravens game and said oh that's it for the Ravens you know like do you expect that to be a playoff matchup and as I was watching this game I was like wow this is going to be really fun again in January like that's just how it felt and now that we got the Jordan love news that we did it very well could be a matchup that we see probably in Philly just the way that we would expect things to shake out but yeah another really good matchup so let's let's talk about some of the more intricate details of this one right because there was a lot like you said to clean up a lot of things that were self-inflicted by the Packers but we don't want to talk about just the negatives so we're also to talk about some of the positives here Jane Reed for starters deserves all of the flowers for his game this week four receptions for 138 yards long of 70 and one touchdown just fantastic for him um Xavier mcken snags the first interception of the season for the Packers as their agent addition on the defensive side of the ball Javon Bullard ties for the team lead and tackles as their first defensive pick in the draft just arrows pointing up for a lot of guys that we're really excited about yes 100% Jaden Reed also had a rushing touchdown absolutely they love using him that way um we saw flashes from Christian Watson we saw flashes from Romeo dobs um we saw a ton of Tucker craft this team has the pieces it's you said it already it's week one they're putting it together they're figuring themselves out they're finding their Rhythm um Josh Jacobs had a bit of a tougher start to the game but bound his rhythm towards the second half I thought the offensive line started opening up some holes for him for sure in the third and fourth quarter um it was really fun to watch him hit those and find his stride so a lot to be excited about moving forward I love the Emanuel Wilson running back to experiment he's so fun he's so fun and not just in the running game but he hits some awesome blocks um so they're obviously trusting him in some really big moments as well uh so that rotation that running back rotation we now you know we've come to know and love from out the floor like these are two guys now um I think that this game we'd be talking about it very differently um if they had converted their two turnovers in the first in the first quarter into touchdowns right and like I said earlier the mistakes that they made I don't think they're going to repeat those in future games if they get two turnovers you mentioned the Xavier mckin um interception already they had a force fumble recovery as well those turn into seven instead of three this game looks very differently and like you can go down the rabbit hole of the butterfly effect but that is what we expect from this offense moving forward it's just a bit of growing pains right now yeah and I mean I think these are some of the things that we talked about too when it came to what were we expecting to see week one we joked about Braden nvis and what it was going to look like when he was out on the field in big moments and obviously he looked pretty good his kicks were dead center right through the uprights and then he had the one miss the ding to the upright and that's the difference between going for a field goal and a touchdown at the end of the game you know like these are things that we said young roster once again growing pains and you don't expect those things to continue to creep up and I will say I I was impressed by narvis in his his debut I know he had the dink but some of the misses we were seeing in Camp and in the preseason to have a Mist as a as a dink I was like okay there's that's that's pretty comforting that it at least like hit the upright and wasn't just sailing 20 yards to the the left or right um but yeah I mean I think that there were there were a lot of positives when you look at like the stat sheet and of course still goes down as a loss but we talked about a pre-show I mean holding saquon Barkley to 109 yards on the ground is a is a pretty good day for the Packers defense had the long of 34 obviously that was not not a good one for the Packers defense but if you subtract that 75 yards on the ground like that's that's manageable they held Jaylen Hertz 33 yards you know we saw they talked about it in the broadcast that he had his like career record of rushing yards against the Packers last time they played so baby steps right but things that we were saying like this could open up the game it could it could get ugly really fast if this Eagles offense is able to open up against the Packers defense and they never really were able to do that and I will say too to your point the 33 yards from Jaylen Herz was on 13 attempts so he was not getting yards they were doing a great job containing him um the Eagles are a very good offense and they got there is AJ Brown got his against Jer Alexander right he did so did Devonte Smith so did Sequon Barkley but they're very good players and you expected them to the Packers created three turnovers three J Alexander also had his turnover which I mean I just jaw like take a knee man I don't know just like I I understand at that point you're like trying to make something happen because you're down but just just just just take a KN um the offense has to convert those to seven and and if they do again I think the pack we're talking about a Packers win right now because they only lost by one score you just have to convert one of those to seven quite frankly so you see the way this team is going to play moving forward and you feel confident that this is a team that's going to win games this season they just were on the wrong side of a few bad calls a few bad drops and probably a bad you know Red Zone run call Matt stop doing that and this game looks very differently to me and I mean I think you know I I don't necessarily think anyone's hitting the panic button for Green Bay I hope that they're not as far as the fans right I mean I I genuinely hope that nobody is but it's not like the Eagles played a very clean game either if you look at you know third down efficiency the Packers were 27% on third Downs the Eagles were 28% so it was like a very it kind of felt like it ebbed and flowed like both offenses found their Rhythm then both defenses found their Rhythm then we saw a couple punts and it it was just it was a very sloppy game for two teams that didn't play their starters in the preseason a lot of growing pains and I think had this one flipped and the Packers won this one Eagles you know Outlets would be saying the same thing like not a cause for concern plenty to clean up if a couple things bounce our way we win this one you know so like I don't think that the outcome is really that shocking and I know we both picked the Packers to win but I a couple things change and they do so certainly not anything um of course not to dismiss the issues there's plenty to clean up here as well but nothing that made me go oh boy that's going to be a longterm concern except for Jordan love which now hopefully is not a long-term concern yeah and we said too on our preview show like wouldn't be surprised if it flipped the other way either this is going to be a close one they're a very evenly matched team and they were they were were Packers had 251 pass yards the Eagles had 266 the Packers had 163 rush yards the Eagles had 144 right this was a very evenly matched team against a pretty evenly like matched opponent and one team capitalized on their turnover into seven I really think that's like what it comes down to the more I think about it when team turned their turnover into a touchdown and one team didn't and that that's it and it really did feel like it's going to come down to the team that has the ball last um and unfortunately the team that had the ball last their quarterback got hurt at the end game and we'll never know what would have happened um I want to hear your thoughts on what we saw for the first time in Jeff Halley's defense because we finally got like a non vanilla non preseason Jeff Halley defense and they had some amazing things we've already talked about the turnovers but we had some Not Great Moments and I think that was to be expected but overall thoughts I think the impression that I got was really that I want to see them next week at Lambo because I think the slipping and sliding made it so much harder to get a good assessment of like would they have made some of those tackles if their feet were you know more sure in the ground and like the Jaylen Reed Trucking over Eric Stokes I'm not sure he makes that tackle at Lambo but still like some of those those momentum shifting moments where you're slipping you don't have good traction um some of the angles that players took like I think the outcome is probably a little bit different and we see like cleaner tackling cleaner rallying to the ball um maybe a couple tips instead of you know errant throws when guys have their footing um but overall I mean I think you said it really well when we were kind of talking pre-show about this was that this is what we would expect from Jeff hafley and he didn't do anything exotic or crazy in this game but saw a lot more man kind of left his guys on their Islands to to do what they needed to do and to to show like he just put jaw on AJ Brown and said go do it and it worked some of the time and some of the time it didn't but that's what we wanted to see from Joe Barry so by that same token like you're going to get big plays against you when you do those things because no defense is is going to be perfect but you're also going to have turnovers and I thought that the front played really well ran G is a manp possessed a man on a mission he somehow didn't even make it into our best players of the game category because it's just what we expect from him week after week but yeah I I thought it was really fun to see like Edge Cooper I thought he looked really good opposite Quay Walker I thought Isaiah McDuffy had a really nice game so I liked seeing attacking inside linebackers yeah I thought McDuffy had a good game except just like maybe don't put him on Sequon Barkley in the endone as risk don't do that don't do that um I'm with you again we we talked about this pre-show and I will'll just reiterate like we want a more aggressive style defense and a more aggressive style defense comes with some of these really exciting plays the turnovers the sacks um but they also come with the potential for the other team to make bigger plays and that's just what this defense is and there's a sacrifice if one defense was perfect everyone would play it right there there is a give and take and a push and pull um hopefully as your players get acclimated or your opponent differs there's more of one thing less of another um you hope Jer has a better game against another opponent but he also went up again like against one of the best receivers in the league right now and a guy who has I mean body size Beyond against him um he did okay AJ Brown got his he was going to Jer got his also um I like the way this team played overall um I thought The Playmakers did what they were supposed to and we didn't always see that in years past in defenses past like Playmakers didn't have the opportunities to step up and make plays so that was really great the young guys I think are going to have major opportunities you mentioned Edge Cooper you mentioned Javon Bullard early I thought Javon Bard had an amazing game I mean he was everywhere um I also want to shout out Kenny Clark y um Kenny looked great I think he's gonna thrive in this they did a pretty heavy dline rotation so him uh Smith Slayton wooden all rotating um which is interesting I'd be curious to see if they continue that or if they start to even out the Snap count at some point if that's like an early like week one thing or if that's going to be um forever I thought Quay looked way better they had qu in coverage at one point and he was holding his own which is not something we've seen in years past so individually each player had Great Moments collectively obviously the Eagles scored points they ended up winning I think it's going to come together nicely um but I was happier than I think a lot of like Hacker's Twitter was um so curious what other people thought if you want to like put your thoughts in the comments just be nice um we're here for intellectual conversation um and you said it earlier but just worth worth repeating you know holding saquon Barkley to around 100 yards for a game is is no small Fe even with his Trio of touchdowns that came with that don't those I think the Red Zone the red zone defense is probably where they need to clamp down but um that that that is the weak point for sure um because as soon as the Eagles were getting into the Red Zone it was almost automatic and that's not good you you got you got to get better you got to be at least holding those to three if the opposing team is getting into the into the 20 so yeah that's that's I think where my like final thought would have been from this game I think we touched on players that we really were impressed by there's certainly some players that need to clean things up Davian Wix had a couple unfortunate drops um so I think just in general catching the ball we would like to see a better hands um Luke Musgrave we kind of mentioned that a little bit Tucker craft taking a ton more snaps uh really lopsided between the two of them so I don't know if that will continue or not but certainly seems to kind of laying claim to the tight end one spot right now if there's going to be one on the field seems like the Packers have a little bit more comfort with Tucker craft being out there um but yeah I think my final takea away from this was just the Red Zone operations on both sides of the ball right if if the Packers convert any of those field goals we already mentioned it to touchdowns that changes the game if the defense holds on some touchdowns and gives up field goals instead and like the jaw turnover was excellent maybe a weird decision to try try to take it out but there were moments to be really excited about but Red Zone both sides has to be cleaned up I even thought like third down defense was fine you know that it's not like the eagles were converting a ton the tush push is just obnoxious right like that that one is is tough to defend regardless but overall situ situationally compared to what we saw from you know this team last year there's a lot of optimism but certainly lots of areas to improve as well yep I agree um quick update as we're recording just since since we're here and we're live our mics are hot um Ian Rapaport did just uh announc that Jordan love has between a grade one and a grade two MCL spring which means that it is probably going to be just corroborating more close to the 3 to four week range so this is good news we continue to get Packers fans good news about Jordan Love's injury and availability for the rest of the season so I hope everyone is breathing a little easier yeah certainly seemed really really intense when it was happening um felt really bad for him also felt really bad for Malik GIS having to come in there with two seconds left and just like I don't think anybody wants to hear just go throw a Hail Mary just go throw one just certainly didn't end the way we thought it would I thought he'd at least get the ball out out but we'll see I mean and we'll see what happens I think at least for the Colts game it's going to be Malik Willis I don't know if they would make a long-term change to bring anyone in I would imagine no since it seems like it's not going to be too severe and they clearly like Malik Willis enough to trade for him uh and bring him into the building to be their backup so you wouldn't have done that if you didn't think that he could play so we'll see what Tom Clemens and Matt laflor have cooked up for him as we get into the Colts game but any final thoughts before we wrap this thing up and look ahead to week two just happy to have had football back obviously would have preferred a better outcome since the Packers could have could have brought this one home and there were a lot of opportunities for them to do so but there are there's a lot of a lot of football left in this season and I thought the flashes in this game were enough to show me this team is who I thought this team was going to be this season and uh I'm also quite thankful that the next three to four games are against uh the next three games I should say are against um not too difficult opponents yeah it's going to be really interesting to see what happens we will be back to talk about it of course Colts and Texans play at noon on Sunday so if whether you're watching on Red Zone or if you're going to get the game do a little scouting report and see what you think of the Colts and how you think the Packers will fair at their home opener next week at Lambo field but thank thank you as always for listening to the paxa podcast you can find us on Twitter at pwss podcast Perry at Perry goldene me at Maggie joney find us on Spotify and support the show if you love what we're doing also on Apple podcasts and everywhere you find the audio and video format of the podcast you can check out the video on Spotify as well but if you're here on YouTube with us thank you so much please like And subscribe to the show if you don't already because we're going to be here all season and hopefully we only have a couple more games now without Jordan love so we'll be back talking Colts and Packers go packo go P go