Packers: Three takeaways from Week 3 loss to Washington

3. Mistakes, penalties cost Packers

The Packers’ opening drive just about summed up their game. On third-and-9, Aaron Rodgers threw a perfect pass to Randall Cobb, who dropped it. It was a game filled with mistakes and penalties for the Packers.

Cobb dropped multiples passes. He also fumbled in the fourth quarter. Lance Kendricks also had a key drop down by 11 points.

On top of the drops, the Packers had 11 penalties in the game. Eleven penalties. It’s hard to win games that way.

Now, most of the penalties were fair. The Packers were called for pass interference three times on one drive. Davon House‘s penalty was about as easy as it gets for the officials.

But for the second week in a row, Clay Matthews has every right to be frustrated. Last week he was called for roughing the passer after hitting Kirk Cousins just after he had thrown the ball. This time, he sacked Alex Smith and was again called for roughing the passer. Again, the officials got this one wrong. What more could have Matthews done?

But it can’t be used as an excuse for the Packers.

This was a game they could have won. Washington is talented on both sides of the ball, but the Packers were in the game until late.

Had it not been for so many errors, they would have had a great chance of remaining undefeated.