Packers Haunted By Ghosts of Presnap Penalties Past

While there’s no need to sound the alarms just yet, this team needs to get back to formula with the basics and fundamentals.

A Great Start

I had actually planned on writing on a article a couple weeks back on how the lack of penalties was refreshing, and a clear indicator of their collective step forward. Here they were, getting off to fast starts with points and playing clean football.

The Packers came out of Weeks 1 and 2 with only two false start penalties and minimal issues with flags as a whole. A sign that perhaps the young squad had indeed become more disciplined during the offseason.

However, the victory was short lived.

17 Flag Salute

Yup, that’s the real number.

The Packers had 17 penalty flags thrown on Sunday, if you count offsetting penalties.

The Browns accepted 14 penalties committed by the Packers for a total of 75 yards. It was an ugly display to say the least. In fact, it was the ugliest they have played since 2010!

More importantly than the yardage, these penalties killed drives for the Packers, and gave the Browns a leg up, especially during critical moments of their final scoring drive.

Here’s a full list of all the individual penalties last week:

I’ll leave it to HC Matt LaFleur to say what everyone was thinking….

Injuries Playing A Role

Now, I understand there are extenuating circumstances with Zach Tom and Aaron Banks both being injured putting the heat on Jordan Morgan to take on roles that he frankly has no business taking on with their offensive line. We also saw the departure of Rasheed Walker via injury, and Tucker Kraft was certainly playing through the pain and not at 100%.

These excuses will not stand up down the stretch however. This is sloppy play regardless of who the next man up is.

Too many times have we seen the depth of the offensive line tank this football team. Ironic really, considering one of the staples of the Packers is taking lineman in early rounds of the draft and constantly developing in house talent.

Sometimes the stable runs out though, and against a pass rush as dangerous as the Browns have, the Packers were just not able to compliment their stellar defensive effort. In fact according to PFF the Packers finished with a dismal 49.8 grade on offense, with an even worse 15.5 grade in pass protection.

Their inability to maintain possession and close the game, along with some poor decision making by Jordan made for a heartbreaking loss.

Special Teams Woes

Now I am not at the point of being discouraged circa Narveson or Anders, but the Special Teams errors took away what should have been a Packers victory during the 4th quarter.

I want to give Tucker Kraft the benefit of the doubt that his injury lost him the battle for that block on the left side of the line, but the kick and hold operation itself wasn’t stellar either.

I am not in line with people calling for Special Teams Coach Rich Bisaccia to be removed, but he needs to get this tightened up before the weather turns bad, and kicking gets even harder.

Shaking Off The Scaries And Looking Ahead

While last week was ugly, the anticipation leading up to Sunday is insane.

The pundits have collectively stated that the Packers dropped the ball against a great Cleveland defense, but there’s no need to panic.

We have a pi--ed off EDGE Rusher going back to Jerry World with a Texas sized chip on his shoulder. I expect Micah Parsons to go hunting in Dallas Sunday night in a big way.

The blessing in disguise is that after this week as well, is that the Packers go on what I now consider, a god send of a BYE. I was initially very apprehensive about a BYE this early into the season, but dear lord do the Packers need this to get their squad healthy for the road ahead.

The team needs to clean up the fundamentals and lock in if they want to fulfill the Super Bowls dreams that Packer Nation have swirling around their cheeseheads this season.