GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay was trailing by three points and facing fourth-and-1 with less than two minutes remaining when Josh Jacobs said he could hear the Philadelphia Eagles calling out what play the Packers planned to run.
Jacobs got stuffed behind the line of scrimmage and fumbled, and the Packers fell 10-7 for their second straight loss on Monday night.
“Whenever they know what we’re doing, it’ll never feel good because it changed my mind on how I’m going to run the ball, if we’re just being honest,” Jacobs said. “It makes me kind of like guess what I’m going to do. Obviously, you know, people are smart. If we’ve got code words or whatever, you hear it a few times, eventually you’ll react to it. That’s football. But, yeah, it’s never a good feeling.”
It's been that kind of run lately for Green Bay's offense.
Green Bay's Monday night loss followed a stunning 16-13 home setback against Carolina. After lighting up the scoreboard in a 35-25 victory at Pittsburgh, the Packers have scored just one touchdown in each of their last two games.
“We’re just kind of shooting ourselves in the foot right now, getting in a funk of having some good plays and then not building off them properly and having a play that might hurt the drive and we can’t overcome it,” quarterback Jordan Love said.
The Packers (5-3-1) began this two-game homestand owning the best record in the NFC. Now they're third in the NFC North, behind Detroit and Chicago.
The situation is tense enough that Packers coach Matt LaFleur was asked after the game if he feels he’s coaching for his job the rest of the season.
“I’ll leave that for everybody else to decide,” LaFleur said. “I’ll just focus on the day-to-day and try to do — I feel like you’re always coaching for everything in this league, you know? That’s just my mindset. It’s always been that way. You can’t ever exhale. You’ve got to always be pushing.”
Green Bay didn’t score a touchdown Monday until Jacobs scored from 6 yards out with 5:49 left in the game.
Love went 20 of 36 for 176 yards and was sacked three times. After throwing 13 touchdown passes in Green Bay’s first seven games, Love hasn’t thrown any during these last two losses.
He also hasn’t gotten much help.
Tight end Tucker Kraft was having a Pro Bowl-caliber season before tearing his anterior cruciate ligament against Carolina last week, knocking him out for the rest of the season. Jayden Reed, the Packers’ leading receiver last year, has been out since mid-September while recovering from surgeries to his shoulder and foot.
Rookie first-round pick Matthew Golden didn’t play Monday due to a shoulder injury, and Romeo Doubs left with a chest injury in the second half. Green Bay also lost center Elgton Jenkins to an ankle issue, and LaFleur said after the game that the two-time Pro Bowl selection’s injury “doesn’t sound promising.”
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Green Bay’s lack of receiving depth was enough of an issue that on its last-minute attempt to get into field-goal range, Love ended up throwing an 18-yard completion to Bo Melton, who has spent most of this season working out at cornerback rather than his original position of wide receiver. Melton saw more playing time than usual on offense because Green Bay had so many injured wideouts.
“We thought we could use the speed element that he possesses to help open some things up offensively,” LaFleur said.
The game ended with Brandon McManus trying a 64-yard field goal that fell several yards short.
Love faced a similar situation in the Packers’ 22-10 wild-card playoff loss at Philadelphia last season, when multiple injuries decimated Green Bay on the offensive line and at wide receiver. Love threw three interceptions without a touchdown pass in that game.
Love didn’t throw any interceptions Monday, but he did have a fumble that thwarted a scoring opportunity in the second quarter.
Missed opportunities have become a running theme with this offense lately.
Against Carolina, the Packers got inside the Panthers’ 35-yard line on five of their first six possessions but converted those chances into just two field goals.
Green Bay failed to capitalize again Monday.
The Packers got to Philadelphia’s 38 on the game’s opening series before a sack pushed them out of field-goal range. They reached Philadelphia’s 27 in the final minute of the second quarter, but Jaelan Phillips recovered a fumble after Love lost the ball while getting sacked by Nakobe Dean.
After Jake Elliott’s 39-yard field goal put Philadelphia ahead 3-0 in the third quarter, Green Bay reached Eagles territory on each of its first two second-half drives but couldn’t break through.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” Love said. “We’ve just got to look ourselves in the mirror and find ways to keep improving and keep figuring out what we’ve done good and what we’re not doing as good a job of right now. Just keep working.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
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