In Week 3, the Green Bay Packers players made it onto the field, and that's about where the team's wins stop.
Defense? Gashed. Offensive line? Bad. Jordan Love? Spooked. The running backs? Missing in action.
One of the few bright spots we were treated to was Matthew Golden's play. The second-year man finished Thursday Night Football with a career-high 100 yards, while also bringing in the first regular-season touchdown of his career. While the performance was obviously spoiled by everything else, let's take a little time to appreciate his development.
Matthew Golden's great, but not perfect, primetime performance
Overall grade: B
From a purely box score perspective, Golden ended the day with a team-high 100 yards, 20.0 yards per reception, 11 targets, and one touchdown. His target share on the day was 18.2 percent, which jumped all the way up to 33.3 percent on late downs. Overall on the day, Golden was good for a +2.16 Receiving EPA per Reception. Not a bad day in the office.
Two plays stood out to me in particular. At 9:18 in the first quarter, Golden hauled in an explosive 45-yard pass, and it was only possible due to some extremely impressive mid-air ball-tracking skill. Then later in the game, on his touchdown catch, he had to make an incredible mid-air adjustment to reach behind him in a tight window. He showed off a lot of what made him such a highly regarded prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Most of Golden's work came against #21 Mike Hughes. In that matchup, Golden won 60 percent of his targets for one touchdown and 68 yards. I also loved that Matt LaFleur got a little creative and schemed up a target for Golden coming out of the backfield.
Matthew Golden's performance is an encouraging sign, but he needs to clean up the drops
But it wasn't a perfect showing, and the main detractor from his grade comes from his drop in the third quarter. That makes three drops in three games for Golden, a disappointing start for a prospect who was lauded for his hands in college.
He should be able to clean those drops up over the course of the season, but the ones that he's had already have been pretty costly and include a potential touchdown against the New York Jets.
In a game that left us with little to be excited about, Golden gave us an imperfect but largely effective performance, and that's something we all desperately need. While the Packers attempt to dig themselves out of this offensive hole, strong performances like Golden's will go a long way towards helping Jordan Love settle down in this disastrous situation the Packers find themselves in.
And that might just be a win, however small.
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