Packers’s offense vs. 49ers’ defense
All eyes are going to be on Jordan Love as he looks for an encore performance of his sparkling playoff debut. Aaron Rodgers’ playoff debut was a game for the ages, where the Packers lost 51- 45, but Rodgers was brilliant.
Love’s offense scored more points and was able to get a win, something that eluded Rodgers in his first go-round of the postseason.
We’re running out of superlatives for Love at this point. Since the calendar turned to December he’s thrown 21 touchdowns to just one interception.
When the lights were the brightest on Sunday in Dallas, Love shined the brightest.
He was facing an MVP candidate and an offense that railroaded everyone en route to the NFC’s second seed.
In addition, Dallas boasted a top-10 defense on the season.
None of that mattered. Love eviscerated Dallas’ defense. He threw three touchdown passes to three different receivers, using three different arm angles.
At this point, if we were ranking offenses going into the playoffs, Green Bay has an argument for the best offense remaining. That’s how well they’ve played.
They’ve done that despite having receivers in and out of the lineup. Christian Watson returned Sunday but was limited to one catch. Romeo Doubs is coming off the best game of his career, going for 151 yards on six catches, including the final nail in Dallas’ coffin. Dontayvion Wicks and Jayden Reed may have been Green Bay’s best receivers down the stretch of the season. They were held to two catches, and the Packers still threw up 48 points against Dallas’ defense.
Luke Musgrave found the end zone, and Tucker Kraft was happy to join him. The Packers used a lot of 12 personnel to try and keep Dallas off balance, and they were able to do that.
Rasheed Walker has shaken off some early struggles and been really consistent since the calendar turned to November.
Walker was splitting time with Yosh Njiman at times during the season. That competition appears to be over, with Walker winning.
Whether he’s the team’s tackle of the future remains to be seen, but he’s one of the biggest reason’s for Green Bay’s improvement.
Zach Tom won the right tackle position early in the year and has been rock solid all season long.
He’s one of the team’s best players. He bounced out of the lineup for a brief minute against Chicago but was able to finish the game.
The run game has found its stride. Aaron Jones has run for more than 100 yards each of the last four weeks. Despite all of the factors working against Jones, he remains their best player.
San Francisco’s defense is run by one of the best in the sport with Steve Wilks running the show.
Nick Bosa and Chase Young used to dream of terrorizing opposing offenses when they were at Ohio State, but were never able to do so. Now, they’re reunited and chasing down opposing quarterbacks with a vengeance.
Javon Hargrave was a free agent addition from Philadelphia and gives them some punch on the interior as well.
Behind their front, the 49ers have one of the best linebackers in football. When Aaron Rodgers was in Green Bay he used to rave about Fred Warner’s ability as a linebacker.
Warner has not slowed down and is one of the leaders of a 49ers’ defense that is near the top of the league once again.
Packer’ defense vs. 49ers’ offense
Green Bay’s final numbers on defense are not going to be indicative of how good they were in Sunday’s 48-32 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
Yes, 32 points sounds like a lot. Dak Prescott even piled up more than 400 yards through the air.
That being said, Green Bay’s defense had the Dallas offense in a vice grip for most of the game while it was still hanging in the balance.
Darnell Savage had a splash play, returning an interception for a touchdown to give them a 27-0 lead in the first half, that ended the game for all intents and purposes.
Jaire Alexander returned to the lineup after being questionable for most of the week and had an interception of his own.
All-world receiver CeeDee Lamb was limited to nine catches for 110 yards, most of which came after the Packers built a 48-16 lead.
They’ll need to be better on Sunday, but that was a good performance against an offense that performed well against just about everyone throughout the season.
Preston Smith, Lukas Van Ness, Keisean Nixon and De’Vondre Campbell all had a sack of Dak Prescott as well. The front four wasn’t as good as they had been in previous weeks but was able to affect Prescott enough in the pocket to make him uncomfortable.
This week is a different story.
Everything, as it usually does, starts with the quarterback. Brock Purdy had arguably the best season of any player at his position.
He’ll finish in the top-5 of MVP voting this year.
He’s not the only MVP candidate in San Francisco. Christian McCaffery has been resurgent since being traded to San Francisco a season ago. McCaffery, of all their weapons, is the most dangerous one, and a touchdown machine. McCaffery finished the year with 14 touchdowns and may have had more if they had not limited his usage after clinching the NFC’s top seed in the postseason.
The 49ers identity surrounds McCaffery, and the Packers will need to slow down San Francisco’s ground game to have any chance.
Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle are all capable of hurting the Packers through the passing game as well.
Green Bay’s defensive line might be peaking at the right time, having held each of the last four teams they’ve faced to less than 100 yards rushing.
This line of scrimmage battle is one to keep an eye on.
Special teams
Green Bay’s special teams is not as bad as it was in 2021 when they were one of the laughingstocks of the NFL.
Despite the investment both in their special teams’ coordinator and roster spots used on specialists, the Packers have not improved nearly enough to meet the investment that they’ve made in their special teams.
They are the most penalized unit in football and seem to make at least one major miscue per week.
Anders Carlson missed an extra point on Sunday. He has missed at least one kick in every game of the Packers’ current four game winning streak.
The Packers gave up a big kick return to Kavontae Turpin of 47 yards that set up Dallas’ first touchdown of the game.
In addition, one of their attempted onside kick recoveries was more eventual than it likely should have been.
Rich Bisaccia is unlikely to be on the hot seat after receiving a promotion for 2023, but this unit should be under a microscope, and even further as the intensity of the games ramp up.
The San Francisco 49ers targeted Green Bay’s special teams as a massive point of weakness in their upset victory at Lambeau Field two seasons ago. They are well coached on special teams but have taken a small step back since that game in 2022.
Jake Moody is not as good as Robbie Gould was, and Ray-Ray McCloud is no longer in San Francisco, either.
Despite that, San Francisco has a decided advantage in this phase of the game.
Notebook (at 49ers)
