I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting much from the Packers versus the Eagles, allegedly the best team in the NFL at this point in the season. We are told that Aaron Rodgers suffered a broken thumb against the Giants, which was the point from which the Packers’ season collapsed, losing 6 of 7 games. Now, the question, at least in my mind, is whose decision was it to allow Rodgers to keep playing with an injured throwing hand, particularly when it was clear that his play was proving detrimental to the team winning games? I mean, didn’t we see too many passes that floated over or behind players? Or bouncing off the backs of unintended receivers?
I suppose we could speculate that the Packers could have done better—they certainly couldn’t have done any worse—if Rodgers went on the injured list to heal his thumb for three or four weeks, and Jordan Love had started some games. The Jets and Lions were certainly winnable games even with Love; hell, even just beating the Lions would have been one more win than what Rodgers managed. But paying Rodgers all that money, perhaps pride played a greater motivation that common sense.
In the meantime, there will be those Rodgers apologists who will insist that it isn’t the fault of his playing with a broken thumb that explains all those horribly looking passes, but the Packers’ front office for not giving him the “playmakers” he needs. Frankly, I don’t think that if Packers brought in a known quantity it would have made any difference at all. Maybe a few plays that a physical stud could make that 95 percent of other receivers couldn’t make, but there would still be plenty of balls on the ground that would leave even elite receivers shaking their heads.
But back to today’s game. Despite two early interceptions—both deep in Eagles territory—Rodgers and Packer offense at least made a game of it for a while, at one point tying the game at 20 in the first half, but the Eagles running game simply exhausted the defense, and the offense just couldn’t keep pace with a quarterback with a lame hand. The Eagles gained a shocking 353 yards on the ground, 2.5 times their average coming into the game. Quarterback Jalen Hurts ran at will against the defense; before kneeling to end the game, he had gained 158 yards on 16 scrambles.
But the game did end on an interesting note. Before the Eagles extended their lead to 37-23 with five minutes to play, Rodgers left the game with an apparent rib strain (we are told), and in came Love, who on the Packers final two possessions led the team to two scores to at least make the game look competitive on paper, with the Eagles only just covering the spread in a 40-33 final score. A catch-and-run from Love to Christian Watson of 63 yards for a touchdown is the Packers' longest play from scrimmage all season; here is Watson blowing past a couple of mini-me defenders for his sixth TD pass in three games:
So what is the plan going forward? I suspect—and that is just a suspicion—that with the Packers now 4-8 and the season pretty much lost for good, what does the team have to lose by playing Love? If in fact the combination of Rodgers thumb injury and now rib strain means he will need to sit it out for a while—maybe the rest of the season—then we will see what Love can do. Not that I’m particularly enamored by the “possibilities”—after all, we’ve been through this before with Brett Hundley—but at least we wouldn’t have to keep asking ourselves whose fault this all is.
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