The 2022 Pre-Season tale of the tape shows the Packers winning one at home while losing two on the road including the 17-10 loss Thursday night to the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium but from Head Coach Matt LaFleur on down, the team feels the work they’ve put in since training camp convened at the end of July will have them ready to open the campaign against the divisional rival Minnesota Vikings on September 11.
As was the case a year ago, LaFleur decided to keep his front line players out of uniform for all three exhibitions. 25 players didn’t dress in Kansas City but among those that did, several impressed enough to warrant roster spots if not regular playing time.
Running back Tyler Goodson for one. His 24 yard touchdown run to give the Packers a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter showed his burst to the hole and fancy footwork at the finish, putting a spin move on a defender at the 8 yard line allowing him to finish the scoring play. It was also expertly blocked by the starting offensive line of Yosh Nijman, Jon Runyan, Jake Hanson, Royce Newman and center Josh Myers who laid a wipe out block 10 yards upfield to spring Goodson loose.
Defensive tackle Jack Heflin is fighting through an experienced group of veterans and very big young players to earn a spot in the front’s rotation. He made two big plays, blowing through the middle on a 4th and one stop for a two yard loss in the third quarter and then punching the ball out on a forced fumble in the final period.
Samori Toure, the last of the three drafted wide receivers had the best game of the bunch. He led the team with 6 receptions for 83 yards on a variety of routes, making his case to be among what’s expected to be a large group of pass catchers on the final roster.
Jordan Love started all three pre-season games and played three quarters in Kansas City. Saddled with poor field position early in the game, the offense had two straight three and outs but after Harrison Butker put the Chiefs up 3-0 on a 44 yard field goal, the offense found it’s stride. Granted it took a facemask penalty against KC on a 3rd and 13 play from Green Bay’s 14 that gave the Packers it’s first, first down. From there, Love threw a screen to Goodson for 13 yards, a dart to Juwann Winfree for 7 and hit Romeo Doubs over the middle for 13 more. Goodson capped the 83 yard, 11 play drive with his fancy TD run.
A busted coverage allowed the Chiefs to re-take the lead. Third string quarterback Shane Beuchele found a wide open Matt Bushman on a 54 yard touchdown pass. The tight end ran right between Rico Gafford and Tariq Carpenter who both dropped coverage on the play.
Love went right back to work, leading the Packers on a 13 play, 75 yard march. Amari Rodgers caught a well timed pass for 15, Toure had grabs of 19 and 23 yards on the drive, the latter got the ball to the Kansas City one. Three penalties denied Green Bay a shot at the end zone. Hanson had a false start at center, there was an illegal formation when the receiver didn’t cover up the tackle and Nijman was called for an illegal hands to the face penalty that was declined forcing Ramiz Ahmed to hit a 23 yard field goal to tie the game at 10.
Green Bay got the ball back with under a minute to play in the half but Love took an ill advised chance on a deep route down the middle from tight end Alize’ Mack and the ball sailed into the waiting hands of safety Bryan Cook for the interception, the 4th thrown by Love in the pre-season.
The only score of the second half came early. The Chiefs got a 45 yard kickoff return (more on the coverage units later) and after three strong runs, Beuchele hit Jody Fortson for 30 yards down to the Green Bay two. Beuchele and Bushman finished it off with a quick toss to the right that Micah Abernathy nearly intercepted but resulted in the touchdown.
Danny Etling finished up at quarterback and despite connecting on his first seven passes, the Packers three possessions in the 4th quarter got no closer than the Kansas City 19 in the final minute when a 4th and 3 pass directed toward Toure went incomplete with :34 seconds remaining.
Love finished 16 of 26 for 148 yards and the interception, good for a passer rating of 61.1. He was 0 for 5 on deep balls that covered at least 20 yards downfield. For the summer, the third year pro had a rating of 63.9, hitting 41 of 74 passes for 437 yards, three scores and four picks.
Goodson put up 54 yards of offense, 28 on the ground with his score and 26 more on five receptions. Patrick Taylor ran hard with 7 carries for a team high 34 yards.
Defensively, Heflin, Abernathy and number one pick Quay Walker all had five tackles. Walker ran down a couple of plays impressively early in the game.
The special teams continued it’s struggles. Another big kickoff return started the second half. Pat O’Donnell hit several booming punts, averaging 56.3 yards on 6 boots, but the cover team had trouble closing down returns. Kansas City piled up 118 yards on the 6 returns. Goodson also muffed a kickoff in the end zone and tried to take it out in the third quarter and got buried at his own 5.
There were no apparent significant injuries but Innis Gaines left, reinjuring his hamstring, Mack also pulled a hamstring and tight end Nate Becker hobbled off the field with an apparent foot or ankle injury.
Among the 25 players who didn’t dress, second round pick Christian Watson was among the surprises. After finally taking part in team drills this past week, the Packers were hoping he could make his game debut but that will have to wait until the regular season.
LaFleur had Offensive Coordinator Adam Stenavich call plays in the first half, passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach Jason Vrable got the duty in the second half.
It was a warm night in Missouri, kickoff temperature was at 89 degrees.
On Kansas City’s first offensive play, Patrick Mahomes went in as quarterback but only huddled up his unit just the way NFL Hall of Famer Len Dawson did it for coach Hank Stram back in the 60’s. Standing, facing forward at two lines of players, a great tribute to the former Kansas City quarterback great who passed away this week.
Now comes the hard part, cutting the roster to 53 and building up a practice squad of 16. Some difficult decisions loom at receiver, running back, outside linebacker and in the secondary. The Packers, by playing Thursday, have four days to ponder the choices. LaFleur said he’s going to hold two more practices on Sunday and Monday to get one last look at the players on the bubble.
