Will Packers Stay Undefeated Before the Bye?

Lazard Catches a Bomb, Photo by Butch Dill, AP

"What do Football and Jazz Have in Common? . . . Both become elevated to the sublime at moments of chaos that follow a breakdown, when instinct and improvisation take over. . . . Melody, rhythm and harmony become speed, agility and pure execution.  Come for the mastery, stay for the improvisation.”

Wynton Marsalis, in the NBC Intro to Sunday Night Football

As a person who loves both football and jazz, the Wynton Marsalis quote really spoke to me, although I had no idea at the time how chaotic this week would become (see below).  On the bright side, speaking of "speed, agility, and pure execution," after 3 weeks, not only have the Packers scored more offensive points than any Packers team in history in the first 3 games of the season, they also lead the league in points scored.  And it is not just scoring points.  The Packers have also been very careful with the football, giving up no turnovers in the first three weeks.  Never before has a Packers team played the first three games of the season without a single turnover.  And never in NFL history has a team scored at least 35 points, with no turnovers, in each of the first three games.  

While they were also 3-0 last year at this time, they had only scored 58 points after three games, while this year they have scored 122.  So there really isn't any doubt that the offense is running more smoothly this year, after the Packers beat the Saints Sunday night by the score of 37-30.  That evinces speed, agility, and execution.  It was particularly gratifying to see other players step up, in the absence of Davante Adams, and make plays.  The top 3, in my mind, were Allen Lazard, Jace Sternberger, and Big Bob Tonyan.  If Lazard were just a hair faster, he would have had two long bomb touchdowns, but even so he ended up with 6 catches for 146 yards and a short touchdown.

Speaking of long bomb touchdowns, on re-watching the game, there really is no doubt.  Drew Brees either can't, or won't, throw the long ball anymore.  I don't think he had a single throw more than 18 yards downfield.  He gets credited for a 52 yard pass Sunday night, but it was really about a 2 yard pass to Kamara with 5 or 6 broken tackles.

The defense again had a very mixed day.  There were more missed tackles on Kamara's long touchdown reception than I want to see in a whole game.  All I can say is that he is one of the top couple, two, three running backs in the league (if you have read this far, I hope you appreciate the Wisconsin syntax), so making people miss is what he does.  But when it counted, the defense again generated a turnover, this one by Za'Darius Smith, when he popped the ball out of Taysom Hill's hand and then recovered the ball himself.  Many of us still can't get over how the Packers screwed up with Taysom Hill a few years ago.  He was making a lot of noise in the Packers' training camp, and instead of putting him on the active roster, they tried to sneak him onto the practice squad.  Oddly enough, the Saints must have had some video equipment around their facility (who knew?), because they saw what Hill could do, signed him off the Packers' practice squad, and he has been a Swiss Army Knife for the Saints ever since.  On this day, he gave up the pivotal fumble that really turned the game back in the Packers' direction.  But he is still a hell of a player, even if he was never likely to be the heir apparent to either Rodgers or Brees, and I wish he were still on the Packers' team.

I started writing this post earlier in the week.  And then came the chaos.  The star of Sunday's game, Allen Lazard, injured his core, required surgery, and is expected to be out for multiple weeks.  Is Adams ready to return Monday night?  If not, what then?  Then the Steelers-Titans game was postponed for Covid reasons until later in the season.  And now, Saturday morning, it has been announced that Cam Newton tested positive, is out for Week 4 as a result, and Patriots-Chiefs is now postponed until Monday or Tuesday, which could be the first step toward postponing it until later this year.  At what point does the league conclude that the whole thing is just not viable, wiping out the promising start of the Packers and other teams?  The title of this post asks whether the Packers will stay undefeated before the bye.  Now maybe we have to ask if the season will even last until the bye next week.  That is the "chaos that follow(s) a breakdown" (or breakout in this instance).  Let's just hope that football, somehow, "become(s) elevated to the sublime" out of the chaos.