GREEN BAY, Wis. — The only thing that could stop Davante Adams and the Green Bay Packers offense was the little blue injury tent adjacent to their bench.
The Pro Bowl receiver was having the most productive game of his career — 10 catches for 180 yards — before being forced off the field because of a toe injury midway through the fourth quarter.
With Adams being examined, the Packers had first-and-goal at the 1-yard line.
They threw all four times: Incomplete. Incomplete. Incomplete. Incomplete.
Game over.
Well, that didn’t officially end the Packers’ chances in a 34-27 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night. Rodgers and Co. — sans Adams — actually had one more possession, but the Eagles picked off a deflected pass near the goal line in the final minute.
To that point, it had been the Adams’ show.
Aaron Rodgers practically told the Eagles this coming in, and they still couldn’t stop it. Five days after the Packers quarterback proclaimed “four targets … is obviously not enough” for Adams, Rodgers rectified that.
Adams caught six passes in the first quarter, the most by a Packers’ player in a first quarter since Greg Jennings in 2011. By halftime, he had eight catches for 158 yards — 12 more than the entire Philadelphia offense.
But when they needed Adams for the last two drives, he was out.
Troubling trend: So this is what happens when a real offense — with a real quarterback — comes to town.
Three weeks of praise heaped upon the Packers’ defense may have been the overreaction of the first month of the NFL season.
At least that’s what it looked like Thursday, when Carson Wentz and the Eagles rolled into Lambeau. And wait until the Packers have to play Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys next week. Or Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs next month.
Good thing the Packers feasted on the likes of Mitchell Trubisky, Kirk Cousins and an aging Joe Flacco for three important early season wins before the schedule turned tougher.
The Packers’ pass rush disappeared. They entered the game with 12 sacks — tied for third-most in the NFL through Week 3. They had none on Thursday night.
They came in allowing 11.7 points per game. They gave up nearly twice that in the first half.
And the run defense. Oh the run defense. The Eagles gashed the Packers for 176 yards on the ground.
“That’s been in our biggest issue, and we’ve talked in the room about it,” Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said the day before the game. “We’ve got to get a handle on the explosive plays — not just the runs but the passes. The praise we’re receiving as a defense, our guys know that we’re nowhere near where we can be. The film doesn’t lie.”
Promising trend?: Maybe the Packers’ first loss of the season won’t be the end of the world. If the Packers had won, Matt LaFleur would’ve been the first rookie head coach in Packers’ to start a season 4-0. He would’ve been the fourth NFL rookie head coach to do it in the last 15 seasons. But two of the previous three didn’t make the playoffs in that season: Josh McDaniels (2009, 6-0) and Dan Quinn (2015, 5-0).
Eye-popping NextGen Stat: Adams reached 20.7 miles per hour on his 58-yard reception. That was his fastest max speed on a reception in the last four seasons, according to NFL NextGen statistics.
Source : ESPN
