Packers Looking To Build On Success

Jordan Love Has Arrived

The No. 26 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft had a career game against his mentor last Sunday as the Packers took down the Steelers 35-25. The Packers offense had been inconsistent for most of the early season, but things changed in a hurry thanks to the play of Love. The main thing that Love did was get the ball out early, which squelched a Pittsburgh defense that has spent the most money on that side of the ball in the entire league.

Most of the pregame coverage was spent gushing about the 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers, his 18 years in Green Bay and the fact that he was only one win shy of beating all 32 NFL teams. Love quieted all that noise by simply outplaying the first ballot Hall of Famer.

“It’s definitely special for me to go out and be able to play well with him watching,” said Love. “I definitely wouldn’t be the player I am today without being able to watch him and learn from him.”

Fans were all looking for the signature game for Love. The game that stood out and proved why the Packers inked him to a huge $55 million contract.

“He’s him,” said Packers defensive end Rashan Gary, who had four tackles and two sacks. “Everybody in the league, if you all not woke, please wake up. Get the crust out your eyes because he is him and 10 is coming. Period.”

After making 20-straight completions and passing for 360 yards, three touchdowns and no picks, he proved that he is in fact a franchise quarterback in this league. He notched a passer rating of 134.2 after completing 78 percent of his passes in front of the waving Terrible Towels. The 20-straight completions tied Brett Favre’s mark from 2007. Love is completing 70.9 percent of his passes this season with 1,798 yards and 13 touchdowns and only two picks. Favre’s lowest interception total for a season as a Packer was 13 and Rodgers’ lowest pick number was two. Love now has logged 16 games where he has multiple touchdowns and zero touchdowns, which is amazing for 40 games as a starter. According to NFL Research, only Patrick Mahomes has more with 19.

Love is the guy. The Packers are now 5-1-1 and the team has still not played an entire game of football. And the frightening thing for Packers opponents is that they are getting better. Most importantly, Love is playing like the guy that general manager Brian Gutekunst envisioned him to be.

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Classics Never Go Out Of Style - Packer Transplants Live 309

This week on Packer Transplants Live, Aaron Nagler and Corey Behnke revel in Green Bay's win over Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers and look ahead to the team's Sunday afternoon showdown with the Carolina Panthers and the unveiling of the team's 1923 Classic uniforms.

5 Takeaways: Cornerback Trials and Tribulations

After receiving a vote of confidence from both LaFleur and Jeff Hafley that he would be able to bounce back from a terrible showing against Arizona, Nate Hobbs was benched for Carrington Valentine, in a move that was overdue.

Valentine played 62 snaps to Hobbs’ four, and justified his promotion. It was not a perfect game in coverage for the third-year player, but he prevented catches by DK Metcalf on two key plays, including an impressive pass breakup in the end zone despite not having the ideal leverage.

Elsewhere, Keisean Nixon had a rough outing, keeping multiple Steelers drives going on 3rd down by giving up big receptions or penalties. He also allowed a touchdown and muffed a punt.

He was ill entering last week’s game, so deserved some benefit of the doubt for a below par display against the Cardinals, and every corner is going to give up some plays, but his play in the first half of Sunday’s contest was egregious.

We doubt the Packers make an aggressive push for cornerback help at the deadline having put their faith (and some serious cash in one case) in Hobbs and Nixon this offseason, but they still have a couple of weeks to make that determination. Playing Valentine full time would be a start.

Read four more key takeaways from the win over the Steelers.

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Christian Watson changes EVERYTHING about the Packers offense

Let's Talk Football: Rethinking the run game

Aaron Nagler sits down with Andy Herman (Pack-A-Day Podcast) to go over the Packers 35-25 win over the Steelers and pinpoint a few things the team still needs to improve on.

How the Packers' Offense Can Sustain Success

As the NFL enters week nine, we are officially halfway through the 2025 NFL season. The Packers are 5-1-1, leading both the NFC North and the NFC itself. If the playoffs started today, they’d have a week off to heal up and collect themselves: a crucial advantage considering how early Green Bay’s bye week fell on the schedule. But the playoffs don’t start today, and there’s a whole lot of football between now and then. Now, for as well as the Packers have played, there are still some cracks showing through the veneer.

The Packers’ offense has been a rocky, up and down unit so far through seven games, lurching from the offensive explosion in Dallas to the stonewalled effort in Cleveland. When you have an offense that is capable of either extreme, there’s an important factor for consideration, and it’s the topic of today’s article: offensive sustainability. In defining sustainability, there are a couple of different benchmarks we can work through, but we lean towards placing heavy emphasis on a couple of key metrics. These are: red zone efficiency, third down conversion rate, turnover differential, and success rate. They each come together to paint a picture of how efficiently an offense runs: turning opportunities into points, keeping the offense on the field in crucial moments, avoiding costly errors, and staying in advantageous down / distances.

But sustainability can come in so many forms in the NFL, and it stems from what you want to be, as an offense. Are you a run heavy, grind it out offense that looks to stay ahead of the chains? Do you live in the quick game / RPO world, looking to manipulate the defense into advantages you can exploit? Or are you an air raid, pass heavy offense that looks to create lots of deep, explosive plays?

Of course, no team can truly live in the most extreme ends of the spectrum without sacrificing that sustainability. Giving the defense one thing to key on is begging to have that one thing shut down when it matters most: the playoffs. A healthy run/pass ratio is a reflection of that idea. The Packers currently sit at a 51% pass rate, about the same as it was when I wrote about the running game in general a few weeks ago. That number has the Packers sitting as the #7 most run heavy team in the league, just a few percentage points behind the Buffalo Bills, who sit at #1 in the league in run rate.

As one of the most balanced teams in the league, there is a ton of weight to fall onto the shoulders of Josh Jacobs and the offensive line. So how sustainable has the running game looked?

Packers Passing Game Developing More Options

As the Green Bay Packers head into Sunday’s Week 9 game against the Carolina Panthers, their offense has shown that it has an assortment of weapons to pick from in the passing game.

Against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tucker Kraft had one of the best performances in franchise history for a tight end with his 143 yards and two touchdowns. The yardage was the most in a regular season game by a Packers tight end since Richard Rodgers had 146 yards in the infamous Hail Mary game in Detroit in 2015. Jermichael Finley had a then team-playoff record 159 yards against the Cardinals in 2009.

Kraft has become the Packers most reliable and explosive option in the Packers passing game through seven games. His first two career 100-yard games (124 yards against Washington in Week 2) are the only two 100-yard games for a Packers receiver this season.

The Packers have relied on three players to do a bulk of the touchdown scoring this season. Josh Jacobs has nine touchdowns in the first seven games of the season, followed by Kraft’s six and Romeo Doubs’ four.

With the addition of Christian Watson, eventual return of Jayden Reed, and steady improvement of rookie first round pick Matthew Golden, this should allow the Packers passing game to become more diverse as the year progresses.

The Packers are still near the top of 3rd down conversions as 48.3% converted, a few percentage points behind the Chargers at 48.7%. The passing offense is currently 10th in overall yards, but is 4th in yards per attempt, yards per catch and passer rating. Love is behind Drake Maye, Jared Goff and Jalen Hurts in passer rating with 112.8 so far this season.

Carry The G Radio - 10/28/2025

Aaron Nagler, Bill Schmid and Armen Saryan discuss the big win over Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers and look ahead to Sunday's showdown with the Carolina Panthers.

A Tale of Two Halves

Recent era Packers teams seemed to have a calling card of either a strong first half and then kick into neutral to hang on in the second. Or to start slow in the first, only to pile it on in the second to pull off the victory.

Since their Bye week, the Packers have leaned towards that second-half pile-on. Starting with the post-bye match-up against Cincinnati, the Packers of the second half have outscored the Packers of the first half 66-23. Of those 66 points, 52 of them occurred in the fourth quarter. While a dominant second half is good for business in the end, it makes for frustrating football if you're not getting things done in the first.

While the Packers may be currently on top of the NFC with the best record, the lurking feeling is ever-present that playing football this way isn't going to cut it against some of the other top teams later on in the season. One day, only scoring 7 in the first half is going to come back to bite us. So, what's the issue?

3 Things That Make You Go Hmmm

Getting the ball to Tucker Kraft in the red zone on variations of the run solution play they ran on Sunday night has proven to be perhaps the Packers' most successful red zone play other than just handing off to Josh Jacobs near the goal line. Kraft has shown that once he gets a head of steam, even if you can tackle him, he's going to carry you for more yardage and make you sorry you tried. With Christian Watson back, the Packers improve on this play by using their two best blocking wide receivers, Watson and Malik Heath, to pave a path to the end zone for Kraft.

An underrated aspect of the play is how quickly the ball gets into Kraft's hands. A microsecond slower and TJ Watt knocks down the pass. A slower execution and the two Steelers in pursuit likely get to Kraft around the 12 yard line. Heath's block springs Kraft and then Watson is just the insurance block, as I don't think any DB was stopping Kraft with a full head of steam inside the five yard line.

Read more things that made us go hmmm.

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Panthers-Packers Cheesehead TV Nation preview

For our Die Hard members, Aaron Nagler and Andy Herman preview the Green Bay Packers Week 9 showdown with the Carolina Panthers.

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