- Denver’s pass rush eventually took over.
The Packers had a lot working offensively early, rolling up 251 yards on the Broncos’ vaunted defense in the first half.
But Green Bay had to settle for too many field goals, Denver’s defense held the Packers to just over 100 yards in the second half, and that pass rush ultimately wore down Green Bay’s front.
Jacobs had his long scoring run and a great TD catch in compiling 92 yards from scrimmage (73 rushing, 19 receiving), but he touched the ball only 14 times coming off a knee injury that kept him out of practice for two days this past week.
“I probably should’ve given him more opportunities when you look back in hindsight,” LaFleur said.
“We knew this was one of the best pass rushes in the league, and you could feel it at the end of the game. We had plenty of opportunities and didn’t get it done.”
Green Bay’s pass protection and quick throwing game held up well until late, when the last three possessions ended in an interception, fourth-down sack, and fourth-down incompletion under pressure. QB Jordan Love was sacked three times in all and wound up with just a 68.3 passer rating (24-of-40, 276 yards, one TD, two INTs).
“The second half we had the two turnovers, which are drive-killers,” Love said. “Give them credit, they got their pass rush going, tightened up some coverages.”
- Penalties piled up in a bad way.
Having limited their penalties over the past month, the Packers reverted to their struggles from earlier in the year in getting flagged 10 times for 72 yards, with a handful of infractions declined.
A combination of pre-snap penalties on offense and personal fouls on defense and special teams hurt the cause. A defensive offside on third down in the red zone in the fourth quarter also cost points, as the Packers thought the officials were going to hold up play for a substitution but didn’t, and Kingsley Enagbare was still on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage as he came off the sideline.
“Some of those are inexcusable, totally within our control,” LaFleur said of the penalties. “That was obviously a contributing factor in not having the success we’d like to have.
“There were a lot of them out there. You can’t have that many penalties, especially against a really good football team.”
- It’s an uphill climb again in the playoff chase.
While the Packers had their four-game winning streak halted and fell back to second place in the NFC North behind the 10-4 Bears, the Rams and Seahawks each got their 11th victories, and the 49ers got their 10th.
The rematch with Chicago is next Saturday night at Soldier Field, and while the Packers are still in good shape to make the playoffs, they are once again looking up at a lot of teams in the NFC rankings.
“There’s still so much more out in front of us,” Love said. “Just that mindset we have to stay together, go into this next week, a big game against the Bears in Chicago, get everybody ready for that.
“We’ve been there before in these tough games, and we have to stay together and keep going.”
