Packers Survive and Advance After Wild Ride Against Kansas City | Ticket King Green Bay

If we could describe the Green Bay Packers season in three words they would be “survive and advance.”

Once again, the Packers lived by those words. Coming into this matchup, this was a game the Packers should have won easily. The Chiefs were without their star young quarterback Pat Mahomes, their two starting offensive linemen to the left side, and several key defensive players.  The Packers raced out to a 14-0 lead, and a blowout looked imminent. But the Matt Moore led Chiefs scored 17 unanswered points to take a 17-14 lead. The Packers fired right back with 10 straight of their own in the second half and held on for a 31-24 victory. Let’s look at the good and the bad from tonight’s game.

The Bad:

The Packers secondary, which was built to be much better this season and has been most games, was awful in the first half. They let Matt Moore (one year out of the league) look like he was on the same level as Aaron Rodgers. Moore threw the ball all over the field tonight, finishing the game 24 of 36 for 267 yards and two touchdowns.

Six of the the front seven on defense were on their heels for the first half of this game. They were confused by the pre snap motion, and burned by the speed that the Chiefs have in their wideouts. This may have been Preston Smith’s worst game of the season so far, as he finished with no sacks and just one quarterback hit.

The Good:

Aaron Jones  had himself a game last night. Jones finished the game with 20 touches for 226 yards and two touchdowns. 156 of those yards came through the air. He is starting to look like a young Dorsey Levens. Last season, Jones was just not called upon to catch passes, but this year he’s a multi dimensional force.

Aaron Rodgers finished his night completing 23 of 33 passes, for 305 yards and three touchdowns. There were more than a few passes that reminded everyone what a rare talent we have in Rodgers.

Matt LaFleur continues to adjust his gameplan week after week after week, and he did it yet again tonight. Last week he beat the Raiders on the edge with the big receivers. Last night, he torched a Chiefs beaten up linebacker unit with perhaps the hardest guy to cover in the league, Aaron Jones. His decision coming out of the two-minute warning showed me that he and Aaron Rodgers are finally on the same page. He could have tried to run the ball and pick up a first down, which would have been unlikely or run the clock down to almost a minute left before punting. Instead, he went five wide and let his big-money all-world quarterback go get it done with the game on the line. And sure enough, he did.

The Packers travel to Los Angeles next week to take on the Chargers, in a game that should see  80% Packers fans filling the stands. It should be a road game in name only. As for last night, the Packers survived and advanced.