Rodgers sees slip in standards for Packers after Giants loss

The Green Bay Packers let a 10-point lead slip away from them when they played the New York Giants at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England on Sunday. The first half of the game looked like the Packers would easily walk away with the win. So how did it end up being a 27-22 loss to the Giants?

In the first half of the game, the Packers relied on the run game, moving the ball easily down the field for 228 yards. Towards the end of the first half, the Giants gave their team hope with a touchdown drive orchestrated by Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones and finished off by Daniel Bellinger. The Packers got a field goal before the end of the half to make it a 20-10 lead by Green Bay.

The second half was a different story. The Giants defense came out to play. The offense started out the half with a field goal, bringing them to a one-score difference, but it was the defense who stopped the Packers from getting too far and kept giving the offense more opportunities. A 15-play drive finished off by a Gary Brightwell touchdown brought the Giants to a tie game with the Packers, 20-20. That play was followed by yet another Packers three-and-out. To complete the comeback, quarterback Daniel Jones tossed the ball to Barkley, who took it down 41 yards into the end zone to make it 27-20.

The Packers were able to move the ball all the way to the Giants 6, but two of Rodgers’ passes were batted away, one by the rookie Kayvon Thibodeaux and one by Xavier McKinney. The Giants then took an intentional safety, giving the Packers their only points of the second half.

“We were just not quite on the same page at times,” said Rodgers after the game. “There’s a standard that we’ve played at for a long time. Just because the faces change doesn’t mean the standard changes. That’s a hard concept I think to grasp at times. But we hold ourselves to a really high standard. I hold myself to a high standard. And we’re just not quite there yet.”

The Packers were 3-1 heading into the game against the Giants, but only one (against the Bears) was very convincing. Rodgers is having to learn to work with a new, younger receiving core this year after losing his ol’ reliable, Davante Adams, who was traded to the Raiders in the offseason. He made passes to Randal Cobb seven times for 99 yards and Lazard four times, including on the opening score. Rookie wide receivers Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson, however, barely did anything in the game.

The Packers will play the New York Jets at home in Week 6 and it’s likely they’ll bounce back a bit. But if they keep letting that standard slip, as Rodgers says, the Packers could be looking at an all too familiar late-season slump.