It’s now Wednesday, so it’s probably time to turn the page and move on to Week 6. But before we do, here are five things I think about the Green Bay Packers’ loss to the New York Giants in Week 5, focusing on the offense:
1. There’s good reason to actually be encouraged about the offense coming out of this contest. The Packers put up 20 points in the first half, using a furious mix of runs and run alerts to stress the Giants and create easy plays. The second half got off track because the Packers only got three real possessions, and one promising drive ended in a sack, one featured three straight failures in the passing game and one other promising drive didn’t finish in the end zone. It looked bad because of maybe 4-5 plays in key spots. I’d argue the offense was called exceedingly well on Sunday, but the execution on an individual basis was just lacking at times.
2. Why encouraged? The passing game, and the deep passing game in particular, is this close. A half dozen times, the Packers had an excellent play called for the coverage but one little mix up wrecked the timing and created some ugly-looking plays. Reviewing the All-22 view makes it clear: the Giants got away with some physical play in the secondary, and you could easily say 3-4 misses down the field were affected by contact or holding, but the Packers were calling the right deep shots to attack coverages. It’s going to click soon. Once it does, this offense is going to be in a really good spot.
3. Romeo Doubs is long overdue for a big play or two down the field. He made all sorts of plays as a vertical threat at Nevada, and with more playing time the last few weeks, he’s really starting to show up as a threat down the field in this offense. Without an illegal contact penalty on one play Sunday, Doubs likely scores a 70-yard touchdown. At another point in the first half, Doubs ran a double-move and was open for a likely touchdown. These are going to hit soon. Just watch.
4. This was always going to be a process early in the season. Yes, the Packers are five weeks into the season. But this team is attempting to replace the best receiver in football and one of the best deep threats in football, all while evolving the scheme and integrating rookies into the mix. The in-and-out nature of Christian Watson, who was in line to be a top deep threat, hasn’t helped. The extended lulls, especially in the second halves of games, can’t keep happening because the Packers will keep losing games. But some of this was to be expected at this point in the season. Mistakes happening now are hopefully creating valuable learned experiences and the real potential of fewer mistakes and real improvement down the road.
5. It’s going to be hard to keep trotting out Royce Newman at right guard. He gave up one pressure affecting what could have been a big play to Doubs or Robert Tonyan, and the sack he allowed on third down in the second half robbed the Packers of a scoring opportunity. It could be argued he cost the Packers seven points on Sunday. The margin for error on offense is still very small, and it doesn’t help when the right guard keeps losing in big moments.
