"The Green Bay Packers haven't beaten any real teams yet."
"Jordan Love isn't in the MVP conversation."
"They are fluky."
Sound familiar? We've heard it all season. While there's truth in some of that – the Packers did ride their luck at times in games against the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers earlier in the year – a performance like this was always possible.
The Packers' toughest opponents are often, well, the Packers. But once they get out of their own way, clean up the penalties and the drops and the unforced errors, look what can happen.
Green Bay dismantled the New England Patriots in a 45-27 blowout win. We saw the very best of Jordan Love, a dominant display from the defense, and the Christian Watson-Matthew Golden tandem raising the bar once again.
Who were the biggest winners and losers from the statement win?
Biggest winners and losers for Packers in huge road win vs. Patriots in Week 9
Winner: Jordan Love
Name a better deep passer than Jordan Love.
According to ESPN's Benjamin Solak, a quarterback has only completed six passes of 20-plus air yards twice this season. The first? Jordan Love in Week 5 against the Chicago Bears. The second? Jordan Love in Week 9 against the Patriots. End of list.
New England's secondary had no answers. Per Next Gen Stats, Love completed six of eight deep passes (20-plus air yards) for 235 yards and a touchdown.
Love was almost perfect in this game, completing 23 of 29 passes for 372 yards and three touchdowns. He also had a 13-yard rushing touchdown and ran in a two-point conversion.
Love also threw the 100th touchdown pass of his career, becoming only the fifth Packer to do so. He did it in the second-fewest passing attempts, behind only Aaron Rodgers.
Unsurprisingly, Love's MVP odds are soaring after this performance.
Winners: Evan Williams and Xavier McKinney
Evan Williams was once considered a solid starter who rarely made mistakes, but Xavier McKinney's brilliance overshadowed him. Not anymore. The Packers have two safeties making a real push for first-team All-Pro honors this season.
Williams is flourishing in Jonathan Gannon's defense. The Packers have a new star emerging before our eyes.
McKinney recorded two interceptions, while Williams picked off Drake Maye once. Both safeties dominated throughout, but Williams was the Packers' star of the show on defense.
Gannon is moving him around the field, and it's working to perfection. Williams has always been a strong run defender, and he has been flying to the football, tackling well, rarely giving up big plays, and generating turnovers.
Perfect example: According to PFF, Williams generated four pressures against the Patriots, which tied for the most on the Packers' defense. He's up to 13 pressures on the season. Add in his three interceptions and seven pass breakups, and Williams is playing at an All-Pro level.
Winners: Christian Watson and Matthew Golden
Remember the offseason narratives? The Packers were mocked and ridiculed for handing Christian Watson a $110.5 million extension (I'm proud to say we pushed back strongly against that here at Lombardi Ave). Matthew Golden was also labeled a bust after one season, mainly by Bears fans.
Nobody's laughing now. Watson and Golden combined for 335 receiving yards and two touchdowns against the Patriots.
No, that's not a typo. Let me repeat: Watson and Golden combined for 335 receiving yards and two touchdowns against the Patriots. Three hundred and thirty-five of your finest NFL receiving yards.
And it's not like they were going up against a Pro Bowl and All-Pro cornerback, like, let's say, I dunno, Christian Gonzalez, were they? Oh, they were?
Per Next Gen Stats, Gonzalez allowed seven catches for 105 yards against Golden and three catches for 82 yards against Watson.
Here are some numbers that truly capture how incredible Watson and Golden are.
According to NFL researcher Tony Holzman-Escareno, they just became the first Packers teammates to both put up 150-plus yards and a receiving touchdown in a game since Don Hutson and Andy Uram in 1942.
And they're not done yet. In 2014, Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb combined for 2,806 receiving yards, the single-season receiving record for a Packers duo. That's officially under serious, serious threat.
Watson and Golden are on pace for 3,139 receiving yards this season, which would shatter the previous best.
Winner: Trey Smack
Trey Smack needed this.
The rookie entered Week 9 under immense pressure, having missed eight kicks in the opening eight games, none worse than pushing a 26-yarder wide right in a dome. He missed his first kick against the Carolina Panthers last week, but bounced back by converting his next three.
Smack had to deal with some swirling winds in New England, but he stepped up with arguably his most impressive performance of the season. He converted seven kicks in total – three field goals and four extra-point tries. Smack converted from 51 yards, which makes him a perfect 3-for-3 on kicks of 50-plus this season.
It's a start. Kicking is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one, and Smack finally has some momentum.
Loser: Aaron Banks
Is the Aaron Banks experiment over? The Packers once again had Banks start at left guard, which forced Laken Tomlinson to shift over to right guard and kept Kevin Zeitler out of the lineup entirely.
By PFF's initial count, Banks allowed three pressures and a sack, receiving an awful 22.0 pass-blocking grade, the Packers' worst of the game. He wasn't much better in the run game, with a 47.9 grade. It was a similar story last week against Carolina.
The Packers made a change in the second half, which seemed to be prompted by Banks entering the blue medical tent. The team didn't announce an injury, though. Tomlinson moved back to left guard, allowing Zeitler to get his first snaps at right guard. And the offense looked far more in rhythm once they rolled with the Tomlinson-Zeitler tandem.
We'll see what this means for Banks moving forward, but he has now stacked back-to-back poor performances since returning from injury.
Loser: MarShawn Lloyd
MarShawn Lloyd missed the game to a knee injury, and it's fair to wonder whether he'll reclaim his share of the carries once he returns.
His absence gave Kaleb Johnson an opportunity, and he turned 14 carries into 68 yards and a touchdown, including an explosive 34-yard rush. Johnson now has 172 rushing yards on 42 carries this season, an average of 4.1 yards per attempt.
He has 23 more yards than Lloyd on 15 fewer carries. Lloyd is averaging just 2.6 yards per attempt. Johnson looks far more decisive, and he's also shown an ability to break out a big run – he also had a 31-yarder in Week 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Packers have also opened Chris Brooks' 21-day practice window, a sign he's close to returning. Johnson should get more touches after this performance, which could spell bad news for Lloyd.
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