Step in the name of Love.
The Green Bay Packers (11-4) lived up to and surpassed their two-touchdown spread over the disappointing New Orleans Saints (5-10) in a 34-0 demolition job.
“Obviously the goal is Super Bowl,” said quarterback Jordan Love, who went 16 of 28 for 182 yards and a touchdown. “That’s the first step right here, to make the playoffs. Obviously, this was a big-time game, to clinch that spot. I’m proud of the way we came out there and handled business.”
With their 34-point win, the Packers wrapped up their largest shutout victory since a 34-0 win over another division foe, the Minnesota Vikings in Week 10 of the 2007 campaign, as well as their back-to-back playoff appearance and fifth in six years under coach Matt LaFleur. Their 11 wins are their most since the 2021 season when they went 13-4. Monday night’s massacre also marks the first shutout win for any NFL team in the 2024 season, and according to CBS Sports Research, Week 16 is the latest in a season for the first shutout victory to take place.
“A shutout in the NFL is the hardest thing to do, and to do it on prime time is even harder,” Packers’ cornerback Keisean Nixon said. “To clinch a playoff berth doing that is a hell of a deal.”
The Packers understood the importance of this game and came out clicking on all cylinders right away, scoring touchdowns on their first three drives of the game. It was the first time Green Bay has done that since the 2020 season, when Aaron Rodgers was under center. They kicked off the game by executing a methodical 10-play touchdown drive that ended with quarterback Love’s two-yard passing score to wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks in the middle of the end zone. Love was lifted from the game in garbage time with the Packers up, 27-0, with just under six minutes left to play. As stated previously, he finished with 182 yards passing and a touchdown on 16 of 28 passing to get the monkey off his back and notch his first career win in three attempts on “Monday Night Football.”
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Packers running attack punished the Saints, who showed little to no resistance, all night long. They were in vacation mode, 1,2,3, Cancun. Josh Jacobs’ goal-line touchdown punctuated a 96-yard drive, and then it was time for second-year back Chris Brooks who barreled in from a yard out for the final score of the first half. With his son watching in the stands, Jacobs finished with 69 yards rushing and a score on 13 carries, giving him his sixth game in a row with a rushing touchdown, tied for the most by a Green Bay player since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger along with Ryan Grant (2007) and Terdell Middelton (1978), according to CBS Sports Research. Not bad for his first year with the team after leaving the Las Vegas Raiders. Place kicker Brandon McManus added two field goals, (55 yards and 46 yards), and backup running back Emmanuel Wilson concluded the scoring with a one-yard rushing touchdown with 2:41 left to play in the game.
As for the Saints, they struggled to move the rock with any consistency with rookie Spencer Rattler under center for the fourth time this season, in place of an injured Derek Carr, who is out with a fractured hand and they shot themselves in the foot with pre-snap and operations penalties in addition to turnovers. Arguably the Saints’ most promising drive came with just over two minutes to play in the first half, as they got the ball to the Green Bay 29-yard line. However, Rattler was strip-sacked by blitzing Packers’ cornerback Nixon and fumbled the ball eliminating any chance to score. He also threw a horrible interception in the third quarter to Green Bay safety Zayne Anderson, who made his first NFL start Monday because of injuries to safeties Javon Bullard and Evan Williams. Rattler finished the evening with a sparse 153 yards passing, an interception and a lost fumble on 15 of 30 passing. The Saints are off to their worst 15-game start to a season since 2005 when they started 3-12, a year before Sean Payton came to town and changed everything.
“We dressed the 48 guys that we dressed,” Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi said. “We’re not going to make excuses. You guys know me well enough by now. I’m not going to make excuses about that. We didn’t perform well enough.”
The Packers simply just wanted it more and outplayed New Orleans in all three phases of the game. They out-gained the Saints by 208 total yards (404-196), had 10 more first downs (24 to 14) and won the crucial turnover battle, 2-0, with Rattler’s interception and lost fumble. Their ground game was unstoppable, netting nearly 200 yards rushing (188), and Love played a mistake-free game. Although the Packers’ offense slightly took their foot off the gas in the second half, their three touchdowns on their first three possessions were more than enough to make sure that the Saints had no hope for a comeback.
“What’s really cool is we’re getting contributions from a lot of different people,” Packers coach LaFleur said. “I think that’s usually the mark of a good team.”
The Saints simply did not have the horses to hang through 60 minutes with a postseason-bound Packers. Not having Carr, running back Alvin Kamara, wide receiver Chris Olave and wide receiver Rashid Shaheed all but put out the firepower New Orleans possessed Monday night. Coming on the road to the ‘Frozen Tundra’, Lambeau Field in late December and having to tackle the battering ram that is Jacobs over and over again simply wore their defense down and out.
The turning point of the game was Jacobs’ two-yard rushing touchdown that put Green Bay up comfortably 14-0 after its second drive of the game. Going up two scores on this undermanned and makeshift Saints’ group played the role as an early knockout punch.
“We finally put a complete game together,” Jacobs said. “That’s something that we’ve been hunting since the beginning of the season. It just feels like our ceiling just keeps going up.”
Nixon’s blitzing strip-sack of Rattler was a play that caught your eye. New Orleans had finally made their way down field and driven inside the Packers’ 30 with just under three minutes left in the half, but Nixon spoiled the Saints’ scoring hopes with a perfectly timed strip sack that edge rusher Rashan Gary finished off with a fumble recovery.
The Packers (11-4) head north to face Jordan Addison and the Minnesota Vikings (13-2) in Week 17 to fight over the all-important NFC postseason seeding. Minnesota won the first matchup, 31-29, at Lambeau Field back in Week 4, Love’s return from an MCL sprain. The Saints (5-10) return home to the Bayu in Week 17 to host Aidan O’Connell and the 3-12 Las Vegas Raiders.
