JACKSONVILLE – Jaguars.com senior writer John Oehser each week during the 2024 regular season will speak with a writer or media member covering the Jaguars' opponent.
Up this week:
Mike Spofford of Packers.com on the Green Bay Packers’ matchup with the Jaguars at EverBank Stadium Sunday at 1 p.m.
Q: The Packers, despite quarterback Jordan Love missing two games with a medical collateral ligament injury, are 5-2 in third place in the NFC Central, having beaten the AFC South-leading Houston Texans 24-22 this past Sunday. What's the state of the Packers entering Sunday?
A: Getting through an injury to Jordan Love and actually winning two games with Malik Willis as the substitute quarterback was a nice lift for the team. When Love did come back, he wasn't quite 100 percent, but now that he has played a few games coming back from the injury, you can tell things are pretty much back to normal in terms of his mobility. There's no hesitation out there. This offense is still waiting to really click on all cylinders in some respects and I think part of that is the time that Love was out. They also missed [wide receiver] Romeo Doubs for a week when he was suspended. There have been some injury issues like all teams have. They're still making some mistakes offensively. The interceptions are up for Love at this point, but I think they feel like this offense is ready to bust out here pretty soon.
Q: Assess Love's season.
A: I would say so far it has been a season of ups and downs – and not necessarily just week by week, but within games themselves. He has had some real brilliant stretches of play, with some really impressive touchdown passes. Even with missing two games this season, he ranks among the league leaders in touchdown passes and he only has played five of the Packers' seven games. But the interceptions are up. He has been taking some chances. Some things haven't gone his way. He's still a young quarterback kind of learning where that fine line is between trying to make a play and maybe doing something that's a little bit too risky. The Packers are living with that. For as much success as he had down the stretch last year and making a playoff run, it's easy to forget he's only started two dozen NFL games. He's still a young quarterback. He has a lot to figure out, and I think he's still in that process.
Q: When the Packers are right offensively, what are they? What do they want to be?
A: They want to be a team with a steady ground game and a play-action game that's really tough to stop, a play-action game that creates explosive plays. It's not just about moving the chains. When they get the running game going and they get the defense to be honest against the run, then they want to hit you with the big play. When [running back] Josh Jacobs does get going, when they get some of the end arounds going with the wide receivers – which is another wrinkle to the running game – then they really like to take some shots, seam routes, deep sideline routes, that kind of stuff. That's when this offense is at its best, when it has that level of balance between run and pass, but also when those passing plays are taking big chunks of yardage.
Q: Defensively, how good are the Packers? What do they want to do when they're going right?
A: When they're going right, they want to be taking the ball away. The Packers so far have 17 takeaways on defense and under new defense coordinator, Jeff Haffley. Last season, the Packers had 18 the entire regular season, so they've almost matched their total from last season already. And in fact, this last game against the Texans was not only the first time this year the defense didn't get a takeaway, but it was the first game this year they didn't have multiple takeaways. When they're doing what they want to do, they have vision to the football, vision to the quarterback, to try to make breaks on balls to get interceptions. They like to come in and try to punch the ball out, rake the ball out and really put a stress on the offense to protect the ball. Aside from that, the biggest improvement with the defense has been the pass rush. Hafley has really started to get creative with some of the pass-rush packages. He's really learning his personnel and what these guys do well and what are the best positions to put them in to have success. That's really starting to evolve nicely under Hafley, and they feel pretty good about where they're going in that regard.
Q: Does it feel like they're getting it going as a team?
A: It does. This last game against Houston, the Packers lost the turnover battle 3-0. They made a ton of mistakes, yet against a pretty darn good Houston team, they still put themselves in position to win. Quite frankly, they left the field against a 5-1 Houston team feeling like if they hadn't made the mistakes that they made, they would have been able to beat Houston pretty handily.
Q: What's success look like for the Packers this season?
A: I think this team feels like it can play with anybody, but I think they also realize they're still young. They're still figuring some things out, and they make too many mistakes. Nobody around here is talking playoffs or Super Bowl. It's still about developing and evolving this team to put yourself in a position to make that run. They were 3-6 last season after nine games, and things were not looking good. They made a run late and they gave themselves a chance. Now this year, at 5-2, they're in a much better position early in the season to kind of get things going and hopefully be able to take that next step down the road. The big challenge is the NFC North is no picnic right now because 5-2 is third place in the NFC North because the Lions and the Vikings are both 5-1. The Packers know they have their work cut out for them. They just want to win their own division, let alone try to get to the Super Bowl.
