The Buffalo Bills undressed the Green Bay Packers in front of a national audience on Sunday evening, beating them 27-17 in a game they controlled from front to back.
Before the season, the Week 8 matchup between the Bills and the Packers promised to be a showdown between two MVP candidates and Super Bowl contenders. As the NFL season progressed, it became increasingly obvious that this wouldn’t be the case, and by the time the game actually arrived, the Packers were 11-point underdogs to the Bills.
For most of the game, it looked like that was giving the Packers too much credit.
The Green Bay Packers Couldn’t Find Rhythm
After a run-heavy opening, the Packers ended up stalling and turning the ball over on downs, and the Bills accelerated from there, quickly hitting the spread prediction and expanding the lead on top of it. The Packers lagged behind that spread until there was 6:32 left in the fourth quarter, where a Samori Toure touchdown closed the gap to 10 points.
The best opportunity the Packers had to realistically come within competitive distance happened after a Rasul Douglas interception, which resulted in a one-play possession for the Packers. That one play was an interception by Bills LB Matt Milano on a tipped pass.
From there, the slightest possibility of winning the game slipped out of their fingers. Though the Toure touchdown following Allen’s next interception did put the game back into two-score territory, all the Packers could manage as a follow-up was a short drive for an attempted 55-yard field goal — a miss.
The Packers are now three-and-a-half games back in the division standings. It’s not an insurmountable lead, but it’s close enough to declare the Packers in deadfall territory.
The Green Bay Packers Must Admit Who They Are
After their loss to the Jets, the Packers insisted that they were nowhere near panic mode, though a loss to the Commanders would have been a reasonable time to question them. And then, after the loss to the Commanders, Rodgers argued that the loss was actually the best thing for them, as it was going to allow them to focus on the Bills game on a national stage where no one believed in them.
Now, surely, they’ll acknowledge that they aren’t the franchise they pretend to be; that the prestige of the Packers couldn’t survive the loss of their best receiver, that a switch to a run-heavy script won’t be enough to get back into games when behind multiple scores, that defensive talent can’t overcome poor defensive design, or that offensive line turnover is no myth even with a Hall of Famer at quarterback.
And that the Hall of Famer at quarterback needs an elite receiver.
In 2015, when the Packers were forced to make do without WR Jordy Nelson, Rodgers posted career-worst numbers in yards per attempt, passer rating, and adjusted yards per attempt. In 2017, when Nelson lost his first step and Davante Adams hadn’t matured into a high-level receiver, Rodgers posted even worse numbers than his 2015 season.
It wasn’t until Adams turned into a reliable, then elite, receiver that Rodgers’ numbers recovered to All-Pro levels. And now Rodgers once again doesn’t have his elite receiver.
While he might have the patience to wait until Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, or Toure turn into that receiver, he can’t run an offense with consistency and rhythm until that happens.
At the same time, defensive coordinator Joe Barry can’t seem to find a way to corral all the impressive talent the Packers have gathered on the defensive side of the ball, wasting Rashan Gary’s development, Jaire Alexander’s talent, and the potential of two first-round picks on defense.
The Buffalo Bills Weren’t Perfect, and That’s Terrifying
This loss, a double-digit embarrassment to one of the three most well-positioned contenders for the Super Bowl, tells us much more about the Packers than the Bills.
The Bills played sloppily, were constantly making mistakes, and could not get on the same page on either offense or defense at different moments throughout the game.
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Nevertheless, they have a deep understanding of what they want to do and the talent to do it. Their overwhelming depth and star power allows them to control games, even ones where they make multiple mistakes. There was never a moment it felt like the Bills were threatened despite their sloppy play.
The Packers, by playing to their own level, proved who they are. The Bills, by playing well below their potential, demonstrated how scary they can really be.