The Green Bay Packers lost on Monday Night Football in Week 5 against the Las Vegas Raiders, and there is plenty of blame to go around. It starts with quarterback Jordan Love, but defensive coordinator Joe Barry was bad in primetime as well. Here are the three Packers players and coaches most to blame for the Week 5 loss to the Raiders.
3. RB Aaron Jones
Obviously, Aaron Jones’ injury is no fault of his own, but not having the Packers’ star running back on the field hurts the offense tremendously.
Backup AJ Dillon had 76 yards on 20 carries, which breaks down to 3.8 yards per carry. He did have a touchdown, but the second-stringer also didn’t catch a single ball out of the backfield. Throwing to the running back is a big part of the Packers offense, and not having Jones severely limits that part of the game.
In addition to the tangible results Jones provides to his team, his intangibles are big, too. On an offense with a first-time starting quarterback, a wide receiver group that is all first- and second-year players, and a revolving door at offensive line, Jones provided the veteran leadership that the unit sorely needs.
Green Bay needs to get its star RB back on the field soon, or it will have a lot more nights like it did on Monday in Week 5 against the Raiders.
2. DC Joe Barry
What is the Green Bay defense doing?
The unit gave up 279 yards of offense to the Raiders, which is the second-highest total that group has had all season. They also managed just one turnover against a team that has been giving it to the other team at an alarming rate.
Joe Barry is under siege right now as his defense is not playing well, and he is making some head-scratching calls.
On Monday night, social media lit up with plays by the Packers defense that made no sense. On one play in the red zone, the defensive backs were lined up 10 yards off the line of scrimmage, giving the Raiders receivers all sorts of room to operate. More damningly, Barry had defensive end Rashan Gary lined up on All-Pro wideout Davante Adams on a big play late in the game. Unsurprisingly, Adams beat Gary for a first-down catch.
The Packers have spent an ungodly amount of draft capital on defense in recent seasons. Right now, the Green Bay D features eight first-round picks in the rotation and a few more second and third-round selections.
With this type of talent, there is no excuse for the Packers defense not to be one of the top defenses in the league. Instead, with Joe Barry at the helm, the unit is a middle-of-the-pack defense that underperforms time and time again.
Barry would have been the main story of the Packers Week 5 loss to the Raiders if it wasn’t for Jordan Love.
1. Jordan Love
Packers QB Jordan Love sat for two years behind a Hall of Famer in Aaron Rodgers, just like Rodgers did for three seasons behind Hall of Famer Brett Favre. The expectation among Packers fans is that Love becomes the next in line of this incredible QB lineage.
However, through five games, Love doesn’t look even remotely like Rodgers or Favre at their best.
Love had his team at 2-2 through four games, and in those two losses, injuries and the defense got more blame than the QB. In Week 5, though, the Raiders defense got the best of the young signal-caller, and fans can no longer deny that Love isn’t off to a great start.
Yes, he didn’t have Christian Watson early on and now is without Aaron Jones. And yes, the offensive line is a mess right now. That said, there are things that we can no longer excuse in Love’s game.
In Week 5 on Monday night, Love was 16-of-30 (53.3%) for 182 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions.
The Green Bay QB now has a 55.6% completion rate on the season. The season is more than a quarter of the way through, so that’s a legitimate sample size. That completion percentage puts him dead last in the NFL among 33 eligible QBs. That’s worse than Zach Wilson, Kenny Pickett, and rookie Anthony Richardson, who are all almost four or more percentage points ahead of Love.
There are some, both in the Packers fan base and the national media, who view Love with rose-colored glasses. The fact is, though, the numbers say he is one of the worst QBs in the NFL right now, and the Packers Week 6 loss to the Raiders helped confirm that.
Follow Us
Subscribe