Packers will need another "get right" game against the "hapless" Redskin next week after pedestrian performance against "hapless" Giants

The Packers, coming off one of their worst performances in years, and one of Aaron Rodgers’ ever, had a “get right’ game against the 2-9 Giants. Did they “get right” in the snows of MetLife Stadium? A good question not entirely answered. In a game where the Giants pass rush failed to gain much traction—no sacks and just two quarterback hits—Rodgers had time to make enough nice throws that his receivers were able to catch to generate enough offense to take advantage of the NFL’s fourth worst defense for points allowed. The Packers didn’t generate much of a run game—just 79 yards on 26 attempts—but they managed to do somewhat better on third-down conversions and the defense, which happens to be the fifth worst in the NFL in yards allowed going into the game, did its usual bend-but-not-completely-break routine. Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, the sixth pick in the 2019 NFL draft, managed to keep his team in the game, trailing just 17-13 in the third quarter; but on the Giants last three drives he threw his second and third interceptions, and failed to convert on a fourth down play. 

The final score of 31-13 sounds like an uneven contest, but the Giants outgained the Packers in total yards. In the snowy cold, one should expect an experienced, “elite” quarterback like Rodgers to make the plays that a rookie might not. Of course, this is not always the case; in 2002 a 12-4 cold-acclimated Packer team was “stunned”  27-7 at Lambeau in the Wild Card round by a Falcons team more used to temperatures twice as balmy, with a quarterback named Michael Vick who had started only 2 games prior to the season. In that game Vick played more like a “cold weather” quarterback than Brett Favre. Today’s Giants team, however, was in the midst of a seven game losing streak, so there must have been a reason for that and they demonstrated what those problems were in their error-filled fourth quarter. 

The Packers didn’t prove today that they are “back” to “form,” since it is difficult to tell what “form” they are from week-to-week. This was a game the Packers should have dominated against a hapless team; letting a bad team “hang around” until the fourth quarter before “putting them away” doesn’t always work. Not with this Packer team, which cannot just flip the switch on at crunch time—let alone when they are trailing 23-0 at halftime as they were last week against the 49ers. One thing of interest in this game was that there was less drama than usual for a game in which Davante Adams played in this season. The reason for that may have been that Rodgers wasn’t looking for him on every play, and for once he managed to notice that there were those players who had come up big in the games Adams was not playing. Allen Larzard was only targeted three times, but he caught all three passes for 43,37 and 23 yards. 

Next week the Packers play at home against another “hapless” team, the Redskins. That game should not be taken as lightly as this one seemed to be. Packers will need to put the pedal to the metal to “get right” for its final stretch run against its division rivals, especially the Vikings.