The Green Bay Packers turned the ball over on the opening kickoff, trailed 10-0 at halftime, gave up points after both scoring drives and were eventually defeated by the Philadelphia Eagles 22-10 in the NFC Wild Card Round on Sunday.
The 2024 season is now over for the Packers, who finished 11-6, in third place in the NFC North and as the No. 7 seed in the NFC. Matt LaFleur’s team was 0-6 against the Eagles, Vikings and Lions and ended the year on a three-game losing streak.
Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly coming out of the Packers’ loss to the Eagles:
The Good
The defense: Where would this game have gone had the Packers defense not stood tall in a few big spots? The Eagles scored only 22 points, and seven were gift-wrapped by Keisean Nixon’s fumble. The Packers allowed only two third down conversions and 290 total yards, and Jalen Hurts completed only 13 passes. The Eagles averaged only 5.1 yards per play, well below their season average, and scored just one red-zone touchdown on four trips. The Packers defense had a few big penalties late but otherwise played well enough to win. At the very least, the defense kept Matt LaFleur’s team in the game. The other two phases failed consistently.
The Bad
Jordan Love and the passing game: Love’s first pass was nearly intercepted after he airmailed Dontayvion Wicks over the middle. It was a sign of things to come for the Packers passing game. Love struggled to find completions down the field, threw three interceptions, didn’t have a touchdown pass and took two sacks, including one on third down. Almost all of the production — save for Wicks’ 29-yard contested catch versus a blitz — came on short passes underneath the Eagles’ zone. On Love’s first pick, he slightly underthrew Wicks on a go-ball against Darius Slay. On his second, he never saw Zack Baun and threw a bad ball over the middle. In the second half, Malik Heath stumbled coming out of a break and just missed a touchdown catch and then later failed to get two feet down inbounds on fourth down. Very little went right for the passing game, which struggled down the stretch of the 2024 season. The Packers needed a far better performance from Love and everyone else in the passing game to go on the road in Philadelphia and win.
The Ugly
The start: It would have been tough to craft a worse start. Keisean Nixon fumbled the opening kickoff, Jalen Hurts threw a touchdown pass on the Eagles’ third play and the Packers responded with a quick three-and-out. Throw in a crippling injury to Elgton Jenkins, and a drive where the Eagles got an explosive run out of both Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts, and the Packers were wounded and trailing 10-0 at the half. Falling behind by two scores was a recurring theme for the Packers in big games in 2024.
The injuries: The Packers didn’t have Christian Watson or Jaire Alexander after season-ending injuries. Then Devonte Wyatt went down early. And then Elgton Jenkins, Romeo Doubs. Jayden Reed and Josh Myers. Even Josh Jacobs was dealing with an injury late. The Packers ended the game with Dontayvion Wicks, Malik Heath and Bo Melton at receiver. Jenkins’ injury was the big one because Travis Glover and Kadeem Telfort were NOT ready for the big stage — they committed four penalties and struggled from start to finish.