Some interesting stats. The kind that says little things about the way your team played.
Love was sacked twice. There were only 4 QB hits on him, and 2 TFL situations. To be fair, they were both coverage sacks, and the Commanders did play defense with the intent of stopping Jacobs from beating them between the tackles. Love had a lot of time back there to throw the ball, but nobody got open enough to risk it. I thought that was impressive considering we had two of our 5 offensive linemen who start not even suiting up on a 4-day swing between games. It tells me that the Packers' coaching staff is working with their players exceptionally well, and they seem to have the right people in place for "next man up."
Josh Jacobs got 84 of the toughest yards I've seen in quite some time. The Commanders were intent on stopping him, and even though he only averaged 3.7 YPC, he was getting those yards in the teeth of a defense poised to stop him. He scored again. He's gone from a guy who couldn't find the end zone no matter how well he did to a guy who finds it no matter what. One more game with a TD and I think he ties the record? Not sure here but that would be an awesome record to get a piece of or even get close to. He keeps defenses honest, and I'd venture a guess that makes Love extremely happy.
Tucker Kraft played a solid game. He ran his routes and because of the design of the offense, he found himself open and Love got him the ball. The guy is a bull when it comes to YAC. He just plain whups guys trying to take him down. He just might be an All Pro this year. He's working on it.
Malik Heath. What can I say. That was the ultimate toe-tap TD. It should be on every tape teaching how it's done. I thought it was a completion in real time, and startled my wife when I blurted out, "Challenge it! Challenge it! He got his feet in!" She put my bottle of cognac back in the cabinet and told me she thought I'd had enough. I guess I was pretty loud. It looked like a ballerina in action to me in real time. That's the stuff that kept him on this roster.
Romeo Doubs. Two really nice catches. He's a chain mover. He was facing over and under coverage and running in traffic most of the night. They can't ease up on his coverage and they know it. If they do, Love will hit him with a dart and it's going to be a long-gain play.
Savion Williams appears to be faster now than he was in college. Where'd that extra gear come from? At times he looks better than Golden who may not have been a factor but was covered with their better DBs on every play he was in there. That keeps the stud defenders off others like Wicks who played well.
WR blocking. Awesome! I like where this is going with them. It will result in a lot of yards they wouldn't have had on offense over the course of a year.
McManus missed a FG. Doink! He corrected his aim and nailed one from 56-yards. He's going to be a difference maker. Please note, the Commanders had a "doink" too.
Whelan's punts. He averaged 53.3 yards over 4 punts. His longest was 55 yards. The consistency is there. Consider that one of his punts was a touchback so that also shows the depth of his punts. He kicks so long that our coverage is just a little short of nailing return men for no gain. He's definitely someone we need to keep on our roster.
On defense, all I can say is that this was a monumental job and a clinic on how you shut down a team that has a QB who can carve you up with his runs. Daniels had 17 yards rushing, and as a team they had 51 total yards rushing. With only 200 yards in the air, and most of that coming from the middle of the third quarter on and we're talking total domination by the Packers until they reached a point that they took their foot off the pedal and eased up playing a vanilla defense the rest of the game.
This is two games in a row where the defense showed everyone exactly what they have in the tank and if I was an NFL offensive coordinator, I'd be asking myself what I need to do to break the strangle hold these guys have on their opponents.
Believe it or not, my only real complaint was in regard to missed tackles. We have to stop letting them slip away.
