What a strange game. The Green Bay Packers looked great. The Green Bay Packers looked awful. But they won, and that's all that matters.
Can they run the ball? No. Can they stop the self-inflicted mistakes? Also no. But Jordan Love did Jordan Love things, navigating the chaos and adding 288 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception to his tally. Outside of arguably his worst throw of the year that got picked, Love was nearly perfect.
The Packers enter their mini-bye with a much-needed win, their fourth in the past five weeks, and improve to 5-3, with some extra recovery time before facing the New England Patriots next week.
What did we learn from Green Bay's win on Thursday Night Football? Let's break it down.
Biggest takeaways from the Packers' Week 8 win over the Panthers
1. Packers dodge a Christian Watson injury scare
Christian Watson caught a 53-yard pass, left in an ambulance, went to the hospital, and returned to the game. How about that?
Watson fortunately avoided a serious injury after landing hard on the Lambeau turf following a deep shot. He went to the hospital as a precaution to rule out anything serious. Nobody expected him to actually return to the game, though.
It was similar to last year's game in Denver, when Watson landed awkwardly and had to go to a local hospital with a chest injury. The difference was that he didn't return to that game. It didn't cost him any time, and he's thankfully avoided a serious injury again here.
Watson caught eight passes for a game-high 113 yards. Pretty impressive, considering he left in an ambulance, missed time, and then returned in the same ambulance like Stone Cold Steve Austin.
It's a good time for the Packers' mini-bye. Watson gets 10 days' rest between games to recover from any discomfort.
2. The Trey Smack rollercoaster continues
Seriously, what do the Packers do with Trey Smack? It's easy to laugh it off when he's missing kicks in a (relatively) comfortable win, but as we saw last week in Detroit, it's not so funny when it costs Green Bay games.
Smack missed an extra point after the Packers' first touchdown on Thursday night, and some boos echoed around Lambeau. To his credit, the rookie bounced back and converted the team's other three extra-point tries.
But that's the expectation. Hopefully, it's enough to snap Smack out of his poor run of form and give him some confidence.
According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, Smack leads the NFL with eight missed kicks this season, the most a Packers kicker has missed through the first eight games since 1988. Not good.
3. Packers' run game is still miserable
It didn't matter that Green Bay matched up against the league's worst run defense. Nothing changed. The Packers averaged a pedestrian 2.5 yards per carry against the Panthers, and that includes an 18-yard attempt from Savion Williams.
If we focus just on the running backs, Josh Jacobs, MarShawn Lloyd, and Pierre Strong Jr. combined for 48 yards on 25 attempts, a pathetic 1.9 yards per attempt. Jacobs managed just 39 yards from 21 carries.
It once again proves what we already knew: The offensive line is the problem. It doesn't matter who lines up in the backfield – until the line starts playing better, the run game is doomed. It's why trading for Quenton Nelson would've made way more sense than adding a running back, even if it's Jonathan Taylor.
4. The Kevin Zeitler mystery continues
I know one offensive lineman who could help.
The Packers signed Kevin Zeitler a month ago. At the time, Matt LaFleur said "he'll be in there" once he'd had time to ramp up on the practice field. Well, apparently not.
Even after losing center Sean Rhyan and right guard Travis Glover, which forced the Packers to reshuffle their offensive line yet again, Zeitler remained on the bench. Aaron Banks returned from injury to start at left guard, with Laken Tomlinson shifting to right guard.
According to Wendell Ferreira of A to Z Sports, Tomlinson has played just 65 snaps at right guard in his NFL career, and none since 2016.
Why sign Zeitler? LaFleur again said this week that he's ready to go when they need him, so why not give him a shot? It remains a mystery.
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