The Green Bay Packers had a good season with one obvious flaw: They couldn’t beat good teams.
The Packers’ offense went nowhere against the Philadelphia Eagles in a 22-10 wild-card playoff game loss, which dropped their record against the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Eagles to 0-6 this season. It’s hard to feel too excited about an 11-win season when Green Bay seemed like a full tier below the NFC’s best teams.
The way the season ended won’t sit well. The Packers played terribly on offense, with Jordan Love getting very little going and throwing three interceptions against an Eagles pass defense that has been excellent for months. The Packers had one highlight run from Josh Jacobs that set up their only touchdown. But that was about it.
The Eagles move on, and although their offense struggled too, the defense played well enough to reinforce their status as a Super Bowl contender. The Packers go into the offseason wondering why they struggled so much to beat the top teams they faced, and what they can do to bridge the gap. The Packers seemed pretty far off on Sunday evening.
Poor 1st half for both teams
After three bad AFC games to start wild-card weekend, it looked like Packers-Eagles would be a highlight. Then the teams played a miserable first half.
The Packers turned it over three times, including two bad interceptions from Jordan Love. The first turnover came on the first play of the game, when a huge hit by Eagles linebacker Oren Burks caused Packers returner Keisean Nixon to fumble. The Eagles recovered, though it was debatable. It seemed like Nixon might have recovered but there wasn’t enough evidence on the replay review to give it to the Green Bay. The Eagles cashed that in with a Jahan Dotson touchdown catch from Jalen Hurts. That was the last touchdown from either team in the first half.
The Packers had just 16 yards and one first down through its first four possessions. On the fifth drive they got into field-goal range, but Brandon McManus missed a 38-yard kick. It was ugly for the Packers. Coach Matt LaFleur told Fox at halftime that it was the worst half the Packers had played all season, and it was hard to argue.
It was ugly for the Eagles, too. Jalen Hurts completed his first six passes for 39 yards and then threw incomplete on his last seven passes of the first half.
It was 10-0 at halftime, and two good teams from the regular season were nowhere close to playing their best football.
Eagles extend 2nd half lead
There were a couple of fun plays to spice up the second half. Dallas Goedert had three stiff-arms to break free for a 24-yard touchdown.
After that, Josh Jacobs dragged nearly the entire Eagles defense to the 1-yard line on a great run, then finished the drive with a touchdown to cut the Eagles’ lead to 16-10.
The Eagles’ defense wasn’t going to let that lead slip away. It was a frustrating day for the Packers’ offense, which lost guard Elgton Jenkins to a shoulder injury early in the game and then also lost receivers Romeo Doubs (head) and Jayden Reed (shoulder) as well as center Josh Myers (leg). On a fourth down in the fourth quarter, Love hit Malik Heath, who was in the game due to those receiver injuries, near the sideline for what would have been a first down. But Heath’s foot landed out of bounds, the pass was incomplete and it was a turnover on downs. That’s how a confounding day went for Green Bay.
Philadelphia’s defense has been playing well most of the season, and it was dominant against the Packers. Green Bay fed into that by committing too many mistakes and not executing well. The Packers’ defense kept them in the game as long as it could, but it was too hard to overcome Green Bay’s miserable offensive performance.
Ultimately it was a frustrating end for the Packers. Love looked like he was becoming one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks late last season, but he had an inconsistent 2024 season and a bad end to it in Philadelphia. The Packers’ season started with a lot of hope and wasn’t terrible, but it’s hard to feel great about the results. It will be a long offseason figuring out how to make it better.
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