The Green Bay Packers lost to the New Orleans Saints in a game that was more competitive than expected. Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback for the Packers, said that he thought his team played well but it’s just one game.
The jordan love was a tweet by the New Orleans Saints that said that they were absolutely embarrassed of the Green Bay Packers. Aaron Rodgers said that it is only one game and the Packers will be back.
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA – Aaron Rodgers’ stat line isn’t something you see every day: 15-of-28 throwing for 133 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions.
This, too, isn’t something you hear every day: “I didn’t play well.”
Nobody on the Green Bay Packers could have predicted that.
With Rodgers returning after an offseason of dissatisfaction — and apparently back on form after a brilliant training camp — the reigning NFL MVP and his team bowed out of the regular-season opener against the host New Orleans Saints without much of a fight in a 38-3 defeat on Sunday.
The Packers’ 35-point defeat is the worst in a season opening by a club that has previously participated in either the AFC or NFC Championship Game.
“They came ready to play; they completely humiliated us today,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said of the defeat.
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Rodgers, on the other hand, had a somewhat different perspective.
“I’m going to let him use those things, and I’m going to say, ‘it’s only one game,’” Rodgers added. “We had a poor performance. I was a terrible player. We didn’t do a great job offensively. It’s only one game. There are 16 more to go.”
During his postgame remarks, Rodgers used the “We-played-Bad-I-played-Bad” phrase twice.
Rodgers didn’t even see the finish line with his complete skill-position group, including a reunion with receiver Randall Cobb that he orchestrated. With 10:46 left in the game with a 36.8 passing rating, he was replaced by Jordan Love, who was playing in his first NFL regular-season game.
Rodgers didn’t have much time to throw behind an offensive line that had two rookie starters (center Josh Myers and right guard Royce Newman), as well as a left guard (Elgton Jenkins) who was stepping in for All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari (who will miss at least the first six games while recovering from ACL surgery).
When he had more over 2.5 seconds to throw, Rodgers completed just 4-of-15 throws. Both of his interceptions occurred with at least that much time on the clock, including one in the red zone when a score would have made it a 17-10 game, and his completion % on those passes was his lowest since at least 2016, when NFL Next Gen analytics first started tracking.
Rodgers dismissed the lack of preseason playing time as a factor in his poor performance, and no one mentioned his complete absence from the summer training. But he wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the Packers were overconfident and underprepared for this neutral-site game, which drew a crowd of at least half Packers supporters among the 35,242 at TIAA Bank Field.
Rodgers replied, “I believe there’s definitely some of that.” “We probably thought we’d be able to go up and down the field on whomever they had out there today, but that wasn’t the case. Dennis Allen, the defensive coordinator for the Saints, deserves a lot of praise. I’ve always thought of him as a great defensive intellect. They devised a sound strategy. It was to play a lot of two-shell and use the front to slow us down. They did a fantastic job with it.”
The run game, according to both Rodgers and LaFleur, is the antidote to that defensive approach, but their running backs only ran the ball 14 times (including only five for 14 yards by Aaron Jones).
“We didn’t run the ball well enough; we didn’t even try hard enough,” LaFleur added. “It’s all my fault.”
In the end, it was Rodgers’ worst defeat as a starter, regular season or playoffs, and just the third time the Packers scored three points or less in one of his starts. It was also just his third game of his career, and he had 0 touchdown passes and many interceptions.
All of this against a club they defeated 37-30 last season despite the absence of No. 1 receiver Davante Adams, who had a team-high five receptions for 56 yards on Sunday.
Although it was surprising that it occurred in the season opener, Rodgers found it simpler to accept than if it had happened later in the season.
“I believe it will be easier,” he said. “We’re coming off a pair of NFC Championship Games and are clearly pleased with our offensive unit…. As a result, this is a good kick in the shins. Hopefully, it will get us back on track when we return home and face a division opponent [Detroit] next week.”
Aaron Rodgers says the Saints absolutely embarrassed the Packers in their game Sunday night. Matt LaFleur, head coach of the Green Bay Packers, said he was proud of how his team played but that it’s just one game. Reference: aaron rodgers number.
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