After dismal loss to Eagles, the question is "Now what"?

 

So the Packers’ season ended abruptly with a dismal 22-10 loss to the Eagles in the Wild Card playoff round. Can’t really blame the defense too much, despite forcing zero turnovers but keeping the Eagles’ offense in check enough to give the Packer offense a chance. Perhaps Jordan Love was still suffering from elbow and hand issues; after going seven-straight games without an interception, he “made-up” for it by tossing three in this game. Add a fumbled kick return leading to a short-field early touchdown, that was 4 to 0 on turnovers. Add a loss on downs, make that 5 Packer turnovers to none for the Eagles. And a missed 36-yard field goal didn’t help. Probably the Packers worst game of the year.

As mentioned the last time, the Packers offense really didn’t appear to be as “explosive” as it was last season, at least in the passing game. The Packers running game was efficient enough in several games to be all the offense they needed. But let’s be honest: Outside their division, the Packers had a pretty lame schedule compared to last season. And let’s be honest about this: if you are going to pay a quarterback based on a decent half-season $55 million-a-year, you should assume he has that kind of talent to win you games with his arm. Now, granted, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers (like this year) didn’t have great games or years every time, but at least you knew that when they were “off,” it was an anomaly, and it wasn’t their “usual” play.

But with Love, we don’t really know yet if experience will result in high caliber play—and not necessarily “HOF” type play—like his predecessors. Maybe that is asking too much. Maybe teams are so desperate for a “franchise” quarterback, they are willing to pay anything if that quarterback “looks” like he’s the “best available option.” I suppose the Jaguars thought that just because Trevor Lawrence completed a lot passes and managing to play .500 ball the past two seasons, that was sufficient “proof” that it was best not to let him go and just pay the guy the “market rate,” But Lawrence was hurt much of this season, played mostly terrible, and had a 2-8 record as a starter. You pay a guy $55 million-a-year for a 22-38 W/L record as a starter? And no playoff appearances?

It isn’t that I don’t think the Packers have an immediate “future,” but they do need to consider the fact that Love has not often played well early in games this year, and simply making up ground only to lose to “good” teams is simply not good enough. The Packers seldom appeared to open games in “dominant” fashion against even bad teams, so in retrospect this season was not an improvement over last season, and it is just a “wait and see” what happens next season.