The Green Bay Packers carved out a dominating 38-20 win over the Washington Redskins on Sunday for their first win of the season. Here’s what we think upon reflection.
We’re still not sold that this is a great team.
Yeah, the offense was hitting on all cylinders yesterday, but let’s consider who they were hitting against for a moment. The Redskins are giving up an average of 511 yards per game through two weeks. And yes, that’s by far the worst in the NFL (by over 30 yards per game). So it’s swell to be excited about the Packers offense right now, but they put all those career highs up against what looks like a really terrible defense, on Sunday.
The Packers still can’t cover anyone deep.
Okay, Sam Shields has played pretty well, but a week after giving up 208 yards to Anquan Boldin, the Packers let Pierre Garcon have a monster game. Eight catches for 143 yards and a touchdown. That’s 17.9 per catch. So what’s the deal here? Well, Jerron McMillian was still in the lineup, but the Packers used him around the line of scrimmage. That left M.D. Jennings and undrafted rookie Chris Banjo deep. We presume these guys will get better as the weeks go on, but the Packers really need Morgan Burnett back.
Brandon Meriweather is a dirty S.O.B.
Meriweather, the Redskins safety, is the guy who delivered the blow that knocked Eddie Lacy out of the game. He clearly led with the top of his helmet, which is illegal. There should have been a flag on the play. There wasn’t. Meriweather did the same thing when he went for James Starks on the sideline and, ironically, knocked himself out. This dick better be getting a fine this week from the league. He plays reckless, illegal football.
The Packers receivers really helped Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers tied the team record for passing yards in a game with 480 and he largely has his receivers to thank for that. They were monsters after the catch. Check out these numbers. James Jones had 96 yards after catch, Randall Cobb had 79 and Jermichael Finley had 59. That’s a total of 234 of Rodgers’ yards right there.
David Bakhtiari, remember him?
The Packers offensive line is really bad at times. I’m looking at you Evan Dietrich-Smith and Don Barclay. The one guy’s name you really haven’t heard through two weeks is rookie left tackle David Bakhtiari. That’s a good thing. There were a lot of questions about whether Bakhtiari would be able to hold up coming into the season. So far, he’s help up just fine. Better than expected, I might suggest.