If there was a silver lining in Thursday night’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, probably, head coach Dan Quinn and his staff will not have to look far to find the cause.
The Washington Commanders were beaten on both sides of the ball by the Packers in a 27-18 loss before a sellout crowd at Lambeau Field and a national audience on Amazon Prime.
The loss drops the Commanders’ record to 1-1 in the young season. Washington plays the Las Vegas Raiders on September 21st at Northwest Stadium.
Green Bay took the lead it would never give up midway through the first as quarterback Jordan Love drove the offense 96 yards, capping the drive with a five-yard touchdown pass to Romeo Dobbs to make the score 7-0. The drive was highlighted by a 57-yard completion to tight end Tucker Kraft, who led all receivers with 124 receiving yards and a touchdown.
The Packers dominated time of possession early in the game, their defense forced the Commanders into a three-and-out on the next series, and increased the lead to 14-0 in the second quarter when Josh Jacobs ended Green Bay’s second 90-plus-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown.
Washington’s offense looked out of synch for the second week in a row. Quarterback Jayden Daniels completed 24 of 42 throws for 200 yards and two touchdowns but was under pressure for much of the night, finishing with a quarterback rating of just 26.9.
Throughout the game, the Packers’ defense was able to rush Daniels into quick throws. Green Bay’s defensive backs were able to sit on the short routes, often disrupting the catch and limiting the Commanders to just three points in the first half.
Despite that, the Commanders only trailed 14-3 at halftime and 17-3 as the fourth quarter began. Washington cut the lead to 17-10 when Daniels found tight end Zack Ertz on a short pass that Ertz turned into a 20-yard touchdown with 13:45 left in the game.
Love responded immediately, leading the Packers on a nine-play, 65-yard drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Kraft to put the game out of reach, 27-18.
Washington added a meaningless touchdown and two-point conversion on Daniels’ second scoring throw, this time to Deebo Samuel.
Luke McCaffrey caught a pass for the two-point conversion for the final points of the game.
Bob Matthews is a 33 year veteran broadcast journalist, spending the last 29 years of his career in Virginia. Bob has covered both news and sports stories and for the last three seasons, the Washington Commanders. He looks forward to continuing to provide coverage to Sportsjourney.com both on the website and through his podcast, The Bob Matthews Show.
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