Packers: What we learned from Week 2 tie with Vikings
Three things we learned from the Green Bay Packers’ tie with the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2.
The start of the Green Bay Packers‘ 2018 season has been nothing short of entertaining. After a Week 1 comeback victory, the Packers tied 29-29 with the Vikings.
Mike Pettine’s defense was one quarter short of having a very good outing. Entering the fourth quarter, the defense had only allowed seven points. But there’s still a huge question mark with the pass rush after two games.
Controversy aside, let’s look at what we learned from Week 2.
1. Jaire Alexander is very good at football
After two weeks, we can all agree that Jaire Alexander needs to be on the field every play. He has brought something to the Packers defense that they haven’t had in a long time: Swagger.
The aspect of his game that has really stood out is his tackling. He’s a smaller corner but is still able to shed blockers to make plays.
Alexander saw his first career interception taken away on a controversial penalty. Other than a couple of plays, he blanketed his assignments.
Alexander’s final stat line: eight total tackles, 0.5 sacks, 1.5 tackles for loss.
2. Packers need to find edge rushers
Clay Matthews and Nick Perry are not getting to the quarterback enough. Most of the pressures came from the interior defensive line.
Through the first two games, age has shown to have caught up with Matthews. There were a couple plays that a younger Clay would’ve made, such as Kenny Clark‘s sack.
Matthews came around the edge and put his hand up to make Kirk Cousins tuck the ball down, leading to Clark picking up the sack. A younger Matthews would’ve been able to complete that sack himself.
The secondary can only cover for so long. Pressure needs to come sooner within the play than what has shown through two games.
3. JK Scott was worth a draft pick
Since Jon Ryan, the Packers have not been able to flip the field as well as they have been the first two games.
Rookie punter JK Scott averaged 51.8 yards per punt on Sunday with a long of 63 yards. Field position is crucial.
Through two games, Scott’s yards per punt (50.1) is six to seven yards more than Tim Masthay, Jacob Schum and Justin Vogel, according to Pro Football Reference.
He was able to pin the Vikings inside the 20 two different times. One of those led to a blocked punt for a touchdown. Without his punt, Josh Jackson‘s touchdown doesn’t happen the way it did.
The Packers play their first road game in Week 3. After having two emotional games, the Packers will look to go into Washington to handle the Redskins.
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The Packers last played Washington in 2016. They lost 42-24 to fall to 4-6, which started the “run the table” streak.