GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The schedule maker wasn’t very kind to the Green Bay Packers. For only the third time in franchise history, they begin a season with back to back road games. They got out of Chicago just fine with last Sunday’s 38-20 opener, this weekend, the Packers travel to the Mercedes Benz Dome in Atlanta to meet the 1-0 Falcons in a 12:00 PM CDT kickoff. If they come home happy again, it’ll be the first time they swept the first two away from Lambeau (1-1 in 2016 and 0-2 way back in 1924). You can expect a little more resistance from a Falcons team that is a popular choice to rise to the top of the NFC South Division. Atlanta last made the playoffs as a Wild Card team in 2017 but the Matty “Ice” Ryan days have long since melted, the Falcons haven’t been able to win more than 7 games in a season since. But that’s allowed them to draft in the upper half of the first round and General Manager Terry Fontenot has taken advantage by delivering talented picks for Head Coach Arthur Smith entering his third season at the helm. A lot’s been made of the Packers stockpiling first round picks on the defensive side of the ball (six starters), Atlanta has done the same with it’s offense. A half dozen number ones are in their starting lineup including three offensive linemen, Left Tackle Jake Matthews back in 2014, right guard Chris Lindstrom and right tackle Kaleb McGary in 2019, a tight end, Kyle Pitts in 2021 who made the Pro Bowl his rookie year, a wide receiver last year with Drake London and the top running back taken off the board in this year’s draft, Bijan Robinson of Texas with the sixth overall choice. Atlanta, like Green Bay with Jordan Love, plan to have that young talent grow with their own young quarterback, Desmond Ridder out of Cincinnati, a third round selection in 2022. With all that draft capital on offense, Fontenot spent money in free agency to bolster his defense, acquiring the likes of Calais Campbell on the defensive line, the former Cardinal and Raven is one sack away from 100 for his career. At the second level, former Titan Bud Dupree was brought aboard and in the back end, former Lion first round pick Jeff Okudah, acquired in a trade, joins former Bengals Pro Bowler, safety Jesse Bates III, who made an immediate impact in his Falcon debut, intercepting two passes and forcing a fumble in last week’s 24-10 win over Carolina to earn the NFC Defensive Player of the Week award. It appears the Falcons are taking flight again. Let’s match up the squads and see if the Pack can make a little road trip history in the process.
When the Packers have the ball.
Jordan Love was rarely under duress at Soldier Field last week and it allowed him to not only make reads through his passing game progression, but play mistake free ball, finishing with a 123.2 rating, the best in the NFL from opening weekend. He will have to be even more diligent in his preparation this week because Atlanta’s defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen runs a very complicated, multiple look and pressure system. Love may have to make plays without arguably his top two playmakers. Both Aaron Jones and Christian Watson are questionable at best as of this writing after not practicing all week with hamstring pulls. The passing game survived without Watson in Chicago but not having Jones could be debilitating after he singlehandedly took over the Bears game with two third quarter touchdowns. Green Bay will try and hammer A.J. Dillon at the Falcons front, hoping to keep the down and distance numbers favorable and allow Love to work the play action game that comes from consistent ground production. If Jones can’t go, don’t be surprised if undrafted rookie free agent Emmanuel Wilson makes his NFL debut. After his promising Preseason, Wilson was deactivated in Chicago in favor of practice squad reserve back Patrick Taylor, a more experienced special teams performer. Too many early negative running plays hurt the overall production a week ago but the Packers were still solid on third down conversions. The young cast of receivers all had contributions in the opener, be it Jayden Reed on third down, Samori Toure, Malik Heath and Dontayvion Wicks all got targets and of course, Romeo Doubs found the end zone twice on limited snaps. Luke Musgrave was able to run away from defenders on a couple of occasions, making one big play and he should have had two. If Atlanta brings the blitz, Love will have to be decisive in his reads and the perimeter players need to win man to man matchups.
When the Falcons have the ball.
Atlanta is built for power. The run defense had to worry about a strong legged quarterback last week, they’ll be dealing with hard charging backs in Tyler Algeier and Robinson this time. Ridder has an excellent security blanket in Pitts, a tall order for Green Bay’s safeties or linebackers in coverage. The young quarterback took advantage of Carolina turnovers and short fields to produce 24 points in their victory last week but Atlanta managed only 221 yards of offense and was just 2 of 10 on third down conversions. That’s why the Packer front seven must hold in the run game Sunday to force Ridder into making drive sustaining plays. He’s been very careful with the football since taking over the starting job over the last five games of 2022, throwing four touchdowns without an interception in his now six career starts. If Quay Walker doesn’t emerge from the concussion protocol, Isaiah McDuffie will work alongside De’Vondre Campbell at inside linebacker. Sure tackling is a must if the Packers defensive line does its job by playing gap sound, tying up Atlanta’s talented offensive line and allowing the second level to come up and finish. Darnell Savage did an excellent job of that last week, surging to the line of scrimmage to make plays. The corners should be able to neutralize the Falcon receivers, London and Mack Hollins, reducing the number of weapons available downfield. Atlanta likes to get the ball into the hands of their backs in space, with good reason, Robinson had an amazing juke on his 11 yard touchdown last week and former Viking Cordarrelle Patterson is a breakaway threat.
The Special Teams.
Rich Bisaccia’s unit clearly outperformed the Bears, a more consistent kicking game and better results on returns. Jayden Reed did a nice job setting up blocks on his 35 yard punt return last week and Keisean Nixon ran kickoffs back with conviction. Patterson has been one the league’s best returners throughout his career. Younghoe Koo has been a dependable leg, benefiting from kicking on carpet and indoors.
The Bottom Line.
Having so many young players on offense make plays in a winning effort will have increasing dividends moving forward, the defense put to together a good overall performance but that unit had a hard time stringing multiple good performances together last year. Consistency has been their keyword all off season and they’ll have to build off game one’s showing. It won’t be easy against a physical Atlanta team.
I like the Pack, 24-21.
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