In a second straight matchup against an AFC North foe, the Packers looked to return to the win column against Cincinnati. Any victory, however, would have to come without rookie first-round cornerback Eric Stokes, who picked up a shoulder injury in practice and was unavailable for this one. Through the first quarter, Joe Mixon made his stamp in the early going, picking up a 35-yard catch. On first and goal from the 6, Kenny Clark picked up his first of 3.5 sacks on the day, knocking Burrow back to the 19. Clark then blew up a screen to Mixon on the next play; however, Mixon cut up most of the defense for a 22-yard catch from the flat to the endzone to give Cincinnati a first-quarter lead, 7-0.
The Packers looked to answer, and despite a 17-yard grab by MVS on third and 11 and two nice runs by Jones and Dillon, Love was eventually sacked out of field goal range to force a punt. On the ensuing Bengals drive, Ja'Marr Chase came up with a big third down conversion to end the first quarter, and after a few more chunk plays, Burrow looked for Tyler Boyd in the endzone, but he dropped it. Stephen Gostkowski converted a 33-yard field goal to make it 10-0.
Green Bay moved the ball a bit on its next drive, including on a thirteen-yard run by Jones on which Allen Lazard blocked two different guys. Following a 16-yard sideline grab by Davante Adams, picking up another first down to the Bengals' 36, the drive stalled and Mason Crosby knocked through a 49-yarder to get the green and gold on the board, 10-3. The teams traded fourth-down stops from there, as CJ Uzomah committed a bad drop to turn the ball over to the Packers, who weren't able to advance past the Bengals' 43 before a turnover on downs of their own against Cincinnati's stifling pass defense. On the next Bengals drive, Uzomah made up for his mistake, slipping out for 30 down to the Packers' 23! As the Bengals inched closer to the end zone, Joe Barry's defense knew that its big time stars had to come up big, and that's exactly what Jaire Alexander did - jumping in front of a route to make a leaping interception in the endzone!
That momentum shift was exactly what the offense needed, as two plays later, Jordan Love finally found some space in the Bengals secondary, hitting a streaking Marquez Valdes-Scantling down the right sideline for an 80-yard score with under a minute in the half! Tied up at 10, the Packers went to the locker room pumped up and revitalized.
Green Bay couldn't turn that momentum into sustained offensive success though, as they opened up the second half with a three-and-out. But the defense stepped up with another timely play, as Joe Burrow was hit by Rashan Gary, who stripped the ball for Kenny Clark to recover at the Packers' 42! Adams made a nice grab out to the Bengals' 32, but MVS committed a drop on third down to stall the drive. Nevertheless, the Packers took a 13-10 lead on a 51-yard field goal by Mason Crosby.
Thanks to relentless interior pass rush from Kenny Clark, who picked up another 1.5 sacks over the next couple of drives, the Bengals came up empty. Unfortunately, though, early in the 4th quarter, Mixon finally did what he'd been threatening all game, picking up 67 of his 165 rushing yards on a single play, waltzing into the end zone to give Cincy a 17-13 lead.
On the next drive, the Packers finally had some more fireworks. A massive 30-yard run by Jones got them into Bengals territory down to the 29, followed by an 11-yard third-down curl route by Adams to the 15. After Love scrambled down to the 3, they couldn't punch it in, and Crosby hit a 29-yarder to bring Green Bay within a point. After some changes of possession, Dean Lowry made a huge stop on Joe Mixon with two minutes to go, and Cincinnati punted to the Packers' 41 with 1:55 remaining.
The drive began with a 10-yard first-down run by Jones, followed by an 11-yard scramble by Love. Jones picked up six on the next run, and the referees added on another 15 because of a face mask by Logan Wilson! A few runs take the clock down to 0:25 and force Cincinnati to burn all three timeouts as Mason Crosby lines up for the go-ahead 30-yard field goal...and nails it! It's 19-17 Packers!
Starting at his own 25 with 0:21 left and no timeouts, Joe Burrow dropped back to pass and was taken down by who else but Kenny Clark, adding his final sack of the game as the clock runs out on the Bengals for a Packers victory!
FINAL SCORE: Packers 19, Bengals 17.
It might not have been pretty, but the offense and defense both made plays when it counted. Jordan Love only hit four receivers on the day despite throwing 42 times, but his picture-perfect 80-yard strike to MVS was the source of the Packers' only touchdown of the day. On the defensive side of the ball, the Packers' six sacks and one interception of Joe Burrow negated the 245 total yards by Joe Mixon.
After the game, Adrian Amos spoke about Kenny Clark, saying that he's "just a big boy who keeps his head down and keeps pushing" and noted that the 26-year-old is one of the strongest guys he's ever seen. "You should see the way this guy eats, man, it's crazy," Amos joked. The Packers hope he will continue to eat as they try to drag themselves back to .500 next week.
NEXT UP: The Packers (2-3) travel to Soldier Field to take on their archrivals, the Chicago Bears (4-1), in the first matchup between the new generation of Jordan Love and Justin Fields in this rivalry!
Green Bay Packers at Cincinnati Bengals
Oct 10, 2021
1ST
2ND
3RD
4TH
SCORE
Green Bay Packers (1-3)
0
10
3
6
19
Cincinnati Bengals (2-2)
7
3
0
7
17
Team Stats Comparison
GNB
CIN
Total Offense
329
371
Rushing Yards
152
191
Passing Yards
177
180
First Downs
18
16
Punt Return Yards
6
13
Kick Return Yards
37
0
Total Yards
372
384
Turnovers
0
2
3rd Down Conversion
6/17 (35%)
6/13 (46%)
4th Down Conversion
0/1 (0%)
0/1 (0%)
2-Point Conversion
0/0
0/0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals
0/2
1/1
Penalties
0/0
2/25
Posession Time
23:05
24:55
Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING
GNB
CIN
4:44
(CIN) Joe Mixon 22-yard pass from Joe Burrow (Gostkowski PAT good)
0
7
SECOND QUARTER SCORING
GNB
CIN
9:32
(CIN) Stephen Gostkowski 33-yard FG
0
10
6:22
(GNB) Mason Crosby 49-yard FG
3
10
0:43
(GNB) Marquez Valdes-Scantling 80-yard pass from Jordan Love (Crosby PAT good)
10
10
THIRD QUARTER SCORING
GNB
CIN
5:26
(GNB) Mason Crosby 51-yard FG
13
10
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING
GNB
CIN
9:32
(CIN) Joe Mixon 67-yard run (Gostkowski PAT good)
13
17
5:31
(GNB) Mason Crosby 28-yard FG
16
17
0:20
(GNB) Mason Crosby 29-yard FG
19
17
Green Bay Packers
PASSING
C/A
YDS
TD
INT
Jordan Love
17/42
195
1
0
RUSHING
ATT
YDS
AVG
TD
Aaron Jones
19
69
3.6
0
Jordan Love
4
58
14.5
0
A.J. Dillon
7
25
3.5
0
RECEIVING
REC
YDS
AVG
TD
Marquez Valdes-Scantling
5
112
22.4
1
Aaron Jones
7
38
5.4
0
Davante Adams
3
37
12.3
0
Allen Lazard
2
8
4.0
0
DEFENSE
TACK
SACK
INT
TD
Darnell Savage
10
0
0
0
Kenny Clark
8
3.5
0
0
De'Vondre Campbell
7
0
0
0
Jaire Alexander
7
0
1
0
Adrian Amos
7
0
0
0
Za'Darius Smith
5
0
0
0
Isaac Yiadom
4
0
0
0
Krys Barnes
3
0.5
0
0
Kevin King
3
0
0
0
Rashan Gary
3
1.0
0
0
Chandon Sullivan
2
0
0
0
Henry Black
1
0
0
0
Dean Lowry
1
1.0
0
0
Will Redmond
1
0
0
0
Shemar Jean-Charles
1
0
0
0
KICKING
FG
XP
PTS
LONG
Mason Crosby
4/4
1/1
13
51
KICK RETURN
RET
YDS
AVG
TD
Kylin Hill
2
37
18.5
0
PUNT RETURN
RET
YDS
AVG
TD
Amari Rodgers
1
6
6.0
0
Cincinnati Bengals
PASSING
C/A
YDS
TD
INT
Joe Burrow
20/36
248
1
1
RUSHING
ATT
YDS
AVG
TD
Joe Mixon
18
165
9.1
1
Samaje Perine
2
12
6.0
0
Joe Burrow
2
14
7.0
0
RECEIVING
REC
YDS
AVG
TD
Joe Mixon
5
80
16.0
1
C.J. Uzomah
6
68
11.3
0
Tyler Boyd
2
31
15.5
0
Ja'Marr Chase
2
27
13.5
0
Tee Higgins
2
16
8.0
0
Drew Sample
1
16
16.0
0
Auden Tate
1
14
14.0
0
Chris Evans
1
-4
-4.0
0
DEFENSE
TACK
SACK
INT
TD
Logan Wilson
10
0
0
0
Ricardo Allen
7
0
0
0
Vonn Bell
6
0
0
0
Trey Hendrickson
5
0
0
0
Larry Ogunjobi
4
0
0
0
Mike Hilton
4
0
0
0
Jessie Bates III
4
0
0
0
Shaquem Griffin
3
0
0
0
D.J. Reader
3
1.0
0
0
Trae Waynes
2
0
0
0
Germaine Pratt
2
0
0
0
Joseph Ossai
1
1.0
0
0
Sam Hubbard
1
0
0
0
Brandon Wilson
1
0
0
0
Chidobe Awuzie
1
0
0
0
KICKING
FG
XP
PTS
LONG
Stephen Gostkowski
1/1
2/2
5
34
KICK RETURN
RET
YDS
AVG
TD
N/A
PUNT RETURN
RET
YDS
AVG
TD
Darius Phillips
4
13
3.3
0
Sorry for the wait! I've been super burnt out lately from work, but I have a pretty solid backlog - I'm at Week 14 in the game right now - so there should be more coming soon!
Following the conclusion of Tuesday's practice, head coach Matt LaFleur held another press conference. He noted that while Jordan Love's performance has been up-and-down (but encouraging) so far, that he has been proud of Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who came up to him in the locker room after their win against the Bengals and begged for more opportunities.
And on the defensive side of the ball, he gushed about Kenny Clark, who he thinks is on his way to becoming a premier defensive lineman in the NFL, calling him a "beast" who is a piece of this defense that the Packers cannot do without. "When you see him load up the stat sheet like that, you see what we see every single day in the team facility. It's not always the stats that pop out at you, but when you watch his tape, he's just wreaking havoc in there on every single play. The guy is just an animal," LaFleur said. He referred to the victory against Cincinnati as a "tough, gritty win" that shows the character of the ball club.
When asked his thoughts about the 4-1 Bears and their early season success, LaFleur demurred, stating that he's just going to watch the tape and figure out what it takes to beat those guys. Beating Chicago is a "top priority" for him, and it shows: LaFleur is 4-0 against the Bears in his tenure with the Packers, outscoring the Monsters of the Midway 107 to 57 in those matchups. He'll look to do the same with his new quarterback against the Bears' new quarterback Justin Fields this Sunday.
10-20-2021, 04:54 AM
