The Green Bay Packers fell to 1-2 on Thursday Night Football with a shocking 35-14 loss at home to the Atlanta Falcons. The Packers walked off the field to boos, and Tucker Kraft made his comments after the game even more embarrassing.
The loss has Packers fans wondering about where the wheels fell off, and whether the season can be salvaged.
Now the Packers have a mini-bye week to straighten things out, before the season truly turns away from them. Can they turn things around in time, or is 2026 shaping up to be a lost year for Green Bay?
As they try to right the ship, here are some potential areas of focus. These six stats illustrate where things have gone wrong for Green Bay so far this year, and where they can improve the rest of the season.
We start with perhaps the biggest area of concern: The running game.
Through three games, the Packers are averaging just 48.7 rushing yards per game on the ground. That ranks Green Bay dead last in the NFL, and they are the only team averaging less than 50 rushing yards per game. The Cleveland Browns, who sit 31st in this category, average 65.5 yards per game on the ground.
To put that in another light, the Packers rushing attack is delivering -0.448 Expected Points Added per Play. That was 31st in the league, just ahead of the Los Angeles Chargers.
We’ll stick with the running game for a while, because it’s so bad.
MarShawn Lloyd leads Green Bay with 68 rushing yards this season. For comparison, Bijan Robinson had 111 last night against the Packers for the Atlanta Falcons … in just the first half.
Robinson finished Thursday night’s game with 194 rushing yards. That’s more than the Packers have gained on the ground this season as a team. Through three games, the Packers have just 146 rushing yards from Lloyd, Chris Brooks, Kaleb Johnson, and Jordan Love, combined.
Today we will talk about the passing game of the Packers.
This stat is the percentage of dropbacks that Love has been pressured on this season. On 44.4% of his dropbacks this season — 133 overall — Love faced pressure, according to the chart Pro Football Focus.
It was definitely worse for Love and the Packers on Thursday night, according to charting data from the Pro Football Focus he was pressured on 45.5% of his dropbacks against Atlanta. In those 25 plays, he completed just 9-of-25 passes (a completion percentage of 39.1%) for just 116 yards and one interception.
Here is that block:
Brandon Dorlus used a quick swim pass on rookie left guard Jager Burton — a fifth-round pick out of Kentucky — and got to Love as he made a throw up the middle. Love makes the throw under pressure, and his eyes lead safety Xavier Watts right to the football.
As the pass blocking woes continue, Love’s average “time to throw” this season is 2.92 seconds, according to the chart Pro Football Focus.
That ranks Love 33rd out of 33 qualified passers, and he’s the only quarterback with an average time to throw below three seconds.
On this heel from Thursday night, the pressure got on Love below that three-second mark:
In this play from Week 1, a blitz off the edge pressures Love just as he hits his drop:
Which is generally not a good thing.
Today, Love is no longer flawless. Take this play from Week 2 against the New York Jets, which came in a 1st-and-25 situation early in the third quarter, with the game tied at 7-7:
As noted in the clip, Love can help himself here and throw a shallow route to Johnson working from left to right. Instead, he pulled the ball downfield, allowing the Jets to get pressure on the three.
But it does highlight the effect consistent pressure can have on a quarterback. Moments where you can help yourself, you feel the pressure earlier than you should, because of the hardship you have experienced. Sure the defense needs to be better overall, but Love needs to help himself where and when he can.
We need another offensive line stat to show the bad stuff.
According to of ESPN Pass Block Win Rate, that’s the percentage of snaps in which the Packers offensive line held their blocks for 2.5 seconds or longer, entering Thursday night’s game against the Falcons.
That ranked Green Bay 32nd in the league entering Week 3.
While the numbers from Thursday night’s game against the Falcons aren’t in yet, it’s hard to see how it could improve much.
We moved to the other side of the football for a moment.
This is the Defensive Expected Points Added per Play for Green Bay this season, 0.092. For comparison to the rest of the league, that’s 25th out of 32 teams.
When you add it to Green Bay’s Offensive EPA, count RBSDM here to build “Team Tiers,” you’ll see the Packers in the lower left quadrant, meaning they’re below the league average in both categories.
And in a cluster of teams that includes the Cleveland Browns, Tennessee Titans, and Miami Dolphins:
Maybe not where you want to be.
When you put the pieces together, they tell a story. A story of a team struggling in the trenches, struggling to run the football, a quarterback under pressure in the pocket, and a defense being asked to pick up too much of the slack in a league driven by offenses.
And that tells the story of a 1-2 team, already on the ropes before October arrives.