{"id":37074,"date":"2025-11-03T03:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=37074"},"modified":"2025-11-03T03:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:28:15","slug":"breaking-packers-keep-nfc-north-lead-but-are-in-big-trouble-after-loss-to-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=37074","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING : Packers Keep NFC North Lead But Are in Big Trouble After Loss to Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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GREEN BAY, Wis. \u2013 The Green Bay Packers lost 16-13 to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Never has a three-point loss seemed so devastating, though.<\/p>\n

The Packers remain in first place in the NFC North. However, as former coach Mike McCarthy famously said after losing the division title to the Vikings in 2015, \u201cWe don\u2019t hang division title banners around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presumably, that\u2019s still the big-picture view in a place called Titletown.<\/p>\n

Maybe the Packers will win the NFC North. Maybe they won\u2019t. Whatever. The only thing that should matter is winning the Super Bowl. The Packers haven\u2019t won one since 2010 and they\u2019re probably not going to win one this year, either.<\/p>\n

The Packers looked like a Super Bowl team while beating the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders to start the season. They\u2019ve looked like just another team for most of their last six games, though.<\/p>\n

For a team with a 5-2-1 record, there are more holes in the dam than fingers to fill the gaps.<\/p>\n

The crushing blow, obviously, was tight end Tucker Kraft\u2019s knee injury. Other than quarterback Jordan Love, he might have been the most irreplaceable player on the entire roster. Even more than Micah Parsons or Xavier McKinney.<\/p>\n

Last season, Kraft emerged as one of the best tight ends in the NFL. This season, he was making a play to be considered the best tight end in the NFL, period. When the Packers needed to rally at Arizona and Pittsburgh the past two weeks, it was Kraft to the rescue.<\/p>\n

Kraft was not there to come to the rescue on Sunday. He\u2019s a monster with the ball in his hands. He\u2019s an excellent point-of-attack blocker. He\u2019s a captain. He\u2019s a face-of-the-franchise type of player.<\/p>\n

Without Kraft and receiver Jayden Reed, who is on injured reserve following a broken collarbone but should be back at some point late in the season, Love is going to have to be the most efficient quarterback on earth to direct a winning passing game.<\/p>\n

Losing Kraft, however, is the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n

Green Bay\u2019s offensive line, which includes big-money starters at left guard, center and right tackle and a first-round pick at right guard, is terrible.<\/p>\n

Too often, the blockers are beaten physically or seemingly ill-prepared mentally. That\u2019s especially true on the interior. The Panthers have one of the worst pass rushes in the NFL, but they had Love under siege for most of the game. The running game is effective only sporadically, even with defenses begging the Packers to run it.<\/p>\n

The red zone offense, which entered the game ranked seventh in the NFL with a 70 percent touchdown rate, went an incredible 1-of-5. Coach Matt LaFleur, who famously wants his team to come out with its \u201cpiss hot,\u201d has an offense chronically plagued by ice-cold starts.<\/p>\n

At halftime to start the season, the Packers led the Lions 17-3 and the Commanders 14-3. In the last six games, Green Bay\u2019s first-half scoring totaled 43 points: three against Cleveland, 13 against Dallas, 10 against Cincinnati, six against Arizona, seven against Pittsburgh and six against Carolina. That\u2019s 7.2 points per game. Even worse, the Packers have scored 14 points in the first quarters of those six games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we thrive on some explosive plays, and when you\u2019re not getting them and when you\u2019ve got to just move the ball down the field consistently, we\u2019ve had penalties, we obviously had a fumble on the first drive,\u201d LaFleur said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had three possessions in the first half \u2013 a nine-play drive, a nine-play drive and a 10-play drive \u2013 and we had six points. So, it\u2019s going to be tough if we can\u2019t figure sh** out and score in the red area, it\u2019s just going to be tough to win football games like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other side of the ball, the run defense, which showed signs of weakness against Dallas and Pittsburgh, was exposed by Rico Dowdle. Dowdle ran for 130 yards \u2013 it would have been more than 150 if not for an illegal-formation penalty \u2013 and the Panthers ran for 163. While Green Bay\u2019s Josh Jacobs has to scratch and claw for every inch, Dowdle had a lot of easy yards.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s very complicated,\u201d safety Xavier McKinney said. \u201cI think this was another game where we got the better team. We just didn\u2019t go out there and execute. When you don\u2019t execute in this league, what happens is you lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too often, it\u2019s almost as if everyone is waiting for Micah Parsons to do something. When he first arrived, Parsons this week said the mindset at times was \u201cLet\u2019s see what Uno can do.\u201d Parsons didn\u2019t do anything against the Panthers, and neither did anyone else. Not that Green Bay\u2019s defense was bad. It just wasn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n

With Carolina lining up without its starting right tackle, right guard and center, and then losing the replacement starter at right guard, it should have been a feeding frenzy. Instead, it was the Panthers who ate the Packers\u2019 lunch. Green Bay had just one tackle for loss (the sack by McKinney) and two quarterback hits (by McKinney and Quay Walker).<\/p>\n

\u201cGames like this, if you want to be great, you got to find ways to win, especially as a defense,\u201d defensive end Rashan Gary said. \u201cWe got greatness in our unit. We just got to find a way to get off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the injuries and inefficiencies on offense, it\u2019ll be up to the defense to be not just good but to find another gear and reach \u201cgreatness.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the meat of the schedule coming up, beginning on Monday night against the Super Bowl-champion Eagles, LaFleur must find a way to get the offensive line to play up to expectations and the offense as a whole to function without Kraft.<\/p>\n

However, his fourth-and-8 decision in the fourth quarter throws that ability into question.<\/p>\n

With 11 minutes left in the game and the ball at the 13 after yet another receiver screen was blown up, the prudent move would have been to kick the field goal to pull within 13-9. His defense needed a stop to win the game, anyway, so why not kick the field goal, get the stop and try to drive to the win?<\/p>\n

Instead, in what seemed like a panic move given the complexion of the game, LaFleur kept the offense on the field, even after blowing a timeout because, in the words of Love, \u201cWe were messed up on who was where and the formation and everything, so it was a lot of chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love faced immediate pressure \u2013 surprise, surprise \u2013 ran for his life and chucked one to the middle of nowhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindsight\u2019s 20\/20,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cI wish we would\u2019ve taken the points. Didn\u2019t do that there. Yeah, bad decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defense did get the stop, thanks to the aforementioned illegal-formation penalty that wiped out Dowdle\u2019s 21-yard run, and Love dinked-and-dunked the offense into scoring position for Jacobs to tie the game with 2:32 remaining.<\/p>\n

The defense couldn\u2019t get another stop, though, with Dowdle running for 19 to set up the decisive field goal.<\/p>\n

LaFleur is an excellent coach. He entered this game ranked 11th in NFL history in winning percentage. But the answers this season have proven elusive, and finding them might be impossible without Kraft on offense and takeaways on defense.<\/p>\n

Last week, for some interesting juxtaposition, the Buffalo Bills could have been guilty of looking ahead to Sunday\u2019s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Instead, they went into Carolina and blew out the Panthers 40-9. On Sunday, the Packers, with one of those games-of-the-season matchups against the Eagles looming, \u201cgot our ass beat,\u201d as LaFleur put it, by the Panthers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be more consistent, and we\u2019ve got to do a better job coaching, obviously, and then ultimately we\u2019ve got to do a better job in just relying on our core fundamentals \u2013 the things you work on consistently day in and day out \u2013 otherwise you get beat,\u201d LaFleur said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have holding penalties, you can\u2019t fumble the football. You\u2019ve got to be able to tackle, you\u2019ve got to be able to stop the run. Just base football principles, and if you don\u2019t do them well, you\u2019re susceptible to getting beat, it doesn\u2019t matter who you\u2019re playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

To listen to the players, the only team that\u2019s beaten the Packers this season is the Packers. That\u2019s probably correct. But eight games into the season and with no perceptible progress in addressing those get-you-beat issues, the injury and insult of what happened against the Panthers seems like a mountain too steep to climb for a team that seemed to have the ingredients to finally add another Lombardi to the trophy case.<\/p>\n

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GREEN BAY, Wis. \u2013 The Green Bay Packers lost 16-13 to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Never has a three-point loss seemed so devastating, though. 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