Well, I suppose, as I intimated last Sunday, that the Packers were more likely than not to lose against the Bills today, and that was the opinion of most commentators, at least insofar as the Bills had an 84 percent likelihood of winning the game, according to ESPN. After the Bills blew-out to a 24-7 halftime lead, Matt LaFleur apparently decided what was there to lose, and returned to running the ball more—in fact at one point the Packers ran seven straight run plays in the third quarter for three first downs—but that was broken up by two pass plays that netted 3 yards and that drive failed to convert on a fourth-and-one.
Seventh round pick Samori Toure caught just his second pass of the year, a 37-yard TD toss to make it look like the Rodgers hadn’t given up the game entirely, given some of his bizarre commentary since last week’s loss. However, three of four passes late to Toure misfired, which suggested that he isn’t the answer either, and Mason Crosby attempted his first 50+ field goal attempt of the season, and naturally he missed it, and that was the end of that as the Packers fell to the Bills 27-17.
First off, the Packers from the last three years would have won this game. If the Packers had at least kept the game within a touchdown in the first half, they had a good chance to win, since the Bills fell off the board in the second half, as Josh Allen threw two interceptions on back-to-back possessions; but given that this is this year, it is perhaps not coincidental that the Packers ran only one offensive play in between, a Rodgers interception after he threw the ball so low it hit the helmet of a lineman and bounced into the air:
So typical of the Packers season, and of Rodgers, who has made many such strange-looking throws this year. Frankly, the Packers don’t seem to have a consistent offensive scheme. When they were winning, the seemed to rely on their running game; in the previous three losses in a row, they ran the ball a grand total of 52 times, throwing the ball 120 or so times.
Today’s game opened with a pass here, a run there, and not too much happened in the first half. In the second half somebody decided enough of this, we are going to play this game my way. As noted the run game was pushed after halftime, with most of the Packers' 208 yards on the ground on just 31 carries coming after the break, with Aaron Jones having his best game of the season with 143 yards.
Rodgers again didn’t seem to find himself until late in the game, but even then it just seemed like sheer luck that someone caught a long pass before a series of incompletions ground things to a halt. I just don’t know what is going on here. The Packers gained nearly 400 yards of offense, but two losses on downs, the interception and the missed field goal all potentially left points off the board. The Packers run blocking obviously is working, so why isn’t the pass blocking? Or is it that it just doesn’t "look" like its working on many occasions?
Of course you can’t allow the defense to get away without criticism. Josh Allen isn’t a HOF-caliber quarterback, but if you let him he can burn you for 53 and 41-yard completions, and even scramble for a 20-yard gain, which helped open up the big first half lead. Maybe the defense only looked better in the second half because the Bills were only playing well enough not to lose; but in any case the Packers defense played their worst half of football this season, and they were not playing a Lions team that would fold on both sides of the ball in the second half.
Are the Packers just missing a true number one receiver? Before anyone gets carried away, remember that entering this season the Packers were 7-0 without Davante Adams in the line-up, with one three game streak which was arguably Rodgers best; let’s also remember that in 2018, the Packers were 6-9-1 despite Adams catching 111 passes. And as we have seen during the playoffs, Rodgers tunnel-vision with Adams proved disastrous during critical times. And by the way, in the Raiders 24-0 loss to the Saints, Adams caught just one pass for 3 yards on five targets.
After three weeks against teams the Packers were supposed to beat, and against a Bills team that Packers were likely expected to beat before the season started (I mean, “Bills” just don’t sound like a team you have a lot of confidence in), and now after four straight losses and a 3-5 record, this just seems like a reversal to the 2018 season. Commentators are now saying that this is Lafleur’s time to prove he can coach; does that mean he will return to the running game like the Packers did with a great deal of success in the second half of this game—or will this season be a tug-of-war with a diva quarterback who simply isn’t putting out?
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