The Packers weren’t exactly looking for a slow down.
After two weeks of fast paced, explosive victories over the Houston Texans and the St. Louis Rams, the Green Bay Packers (5-3) offense hit a speed bump against the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-6). The Jaguars, who are the worst team in the NFL, were in the game until the final ten minutes when Aaron Rodgers connected with Donald Driver for a 4-yard touchdown and Mason Crosby sealed the deal with a 25-yard field goal.
This was after Crosby missed a field goal earlier in the game.
“The way we played on offense, especially the last couple weeks, the expectations were we were going to come out and maybe blow them out,” said Rodgers. “But we didn’t start fast, we didn’t have enough juice early on and didn’t play well enough on offense to get that done.”
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Without Jordy Nelson (hamstring) and Greg Jennings (groin) the Packers offense struggled to get open and dropped several catchable balls throughout the game. The Packers were able to overcome the loss of Jennings by targeting Nelson and James Jones. Randall Cobb also emerged as a legitimate offensive threat. But with Nelson out, the offensive playbook changed once again. They only managed to gain 238 yards on offense and were 5-13 on 3rd downs.
The Packers also learned how important John Kuhn had been to their offense. Before the game, Rodgers had hinted at how important Kuhn, who was sidelined with a hamstring injury, was on third down plays. On those plays, Kuhn provided a big block that allowed Rodgers to make downfield passes. Kuhn was also used a lead blocker for the Packers run game. With him, the Packers have some form of a run game. Without him, their run game was almost non existent.
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The Packers did get a huge touchdown from their Special Teams Unit in the 2nd quarter. The blocked punt was the first by the Packers since September 29th, 2003. The last time they returned a blocked punt for a touchdown was in December of 1990.
There were two positives on the offensive side. With his two touchdown passes, Rodgers passed Bart Starr into 2nd place on Green Bay’s all time touchdown list. He now has 153 touchdowns as a Packer. Brett Favre leads the team with 442. Donald Driver also set a record by playing in his 200th game. He is the 22nd wide receiver to ever play in that many games.
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Kelsey is a sophomore at St. Norbert College in De Pere Wisconsin. Ever since she was born her life has pretty much consisted of sports, school, and music. She grew up in a sports family where ESPN and the Minnesota Twins ruled the television set and has been playing volleyball and softball since the day she could walk. Born and raised in Southern Minnesota, one would think that she would naturally be a Minnesota Vikings fan. However, due to a small disagreement with a friend at eight years old, Kelsey fell in love with the Indianapolis Colts. When she moved to De Pere, a small city 10 minutes from Lambeau Field, Kelsey was exposed to the craziness and excitement of Packerland. Being a baseball girl, this really was her first exposure to real football fans in the NFL. Ever since that first game, Kelsey has been intrigued and genuinely interested in the Green Bay Packers as they have become her team, second only to the Indianapolis Colts. Never one to let the boys be better than her, Kelsey has always set her goals high. At first she wanted to be the first woman to play in the major leagues. Now, she dreams of being a sportscaster on ESPN or a sports journalist in general. Kelsey also started her own blog, XxSportsblog, where she gives a female opinion on all things sports.
