The Green Bay Packers beat the Carolina Panthers 27-19 on “Thursday Night Football,” and it was pretty whatsoever. Still, the defense and quarterback Jordan Love were the reasons why.

Love threw three touchdown passes despite one of the most difficult situations a quarterback can face, and the defense had six sacks on Bryce Young.

The Packers’ winners and losers also include a backup linebacker who stepped up in a big way and a kicker whose struggles keep piling up, despite the 5-3 record.

Winners

QB Jordan Love

Love overcame almost everything against Carolina. Green Bay has no run game. Wide receiver Christian Watson got hurt during the game, although he returned. The Packers also had only two tight ends active after Josh Whyle went down with an injury.

The receivers didn’t help much either. Several drops hurt the offense, including a touchdown drop by Matthew Golden, plus a fumble from Watson. Love still delivered three touchdown passes, which is consistent with how well he has played this season. He had one bad pass, an interception where he missed Christian Watson completely free and targeted Golden against double coverage. Other than that, the quarterback was exceptional. If the Packers won this one, Love is the reason.

LB Ty’Ron Hopper

The Packers lost Edgerrin Cooper for the season, and Zaire Franklin was also out with a shin injury. That put Hopper in the middle of the defense, and he answered with a complete performance.

He got a pressure on Bryce Young and showed good coverage on Chuba Hubbard when Young escaped on a later play. In the second quarter, Hopper tipped a pass on third-and-3 and came down with the interception himself. He also tackled Young in space on a scramble. Outside of one missed tackle on Hubbard, it was a fantastic game. Hopper did his best Cooper impersonation, and Green Bay needed every bit of it.

EDGE Brenton Cox Jr.

Cox generated four pressures in the first half alone, six total. Sure, the Panthers had their own injury issues along the offensive line. But Cox took full advantage of that, and he was efficient in run support as well.

That’s a notable development. Cox has been the fourth player in the edge rotation behind Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell, and Dani Dennis-Sutton. In this specific game, though, Cox was one of the best players on the defense. Cox finished the game recovering a fumble on the very last play.

LT Jordan Morgan

Morgan has had his fair share of concerns and bad stretches. Against Carolina, he didn’t allow a single pressure through three quarters, and he was the most solid lineman on the offensive line.

And that’s because the left side needed someone to hold it together. Left guard Aaron Banks gave up five pressures, so Morgan’s performance kept Love from facing even more trouble on that side.

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Losers

Running game

Once again, the rushing offense was prohibitively bad. And that was against the worst run defense in football. If it wasn’t solved with Josh Jacobs and against this particular opponent, it likely won’t be solved in 2026.

Jacobs had 20 carries for 38 yards, 1.9 yards per carry. MarShawn Lloyd had 2.3 yards per carry. When the Packers needed the run game to kill the clock, it had nothing. The offense only goes through Jordan Love, and that’s not a sustainable way for how Matt LaFleur wants this unit to operate and succeed.

WR Matthew Golden

It’s hard to ignore that Golden has been productive. He had good numbers against the Panthers, including a touchdown. But the drops keep coming.

Golden had two drops in this game and now has eight on the season, the most in the NFL. One of them was a touchdown drop, even though Golden caught a touchdown on the very next play. His ability to get open is clear, and that’s why Love targets him so frequently. For a receiver with strong hands, though, the drops have to stop.

Special teams

Green Bay promoted wide receiver Coleman Owen to the 53-man roster last week to be a punt returner. On Thursday, he was also on the kickoff return unit, and he fumbled the opening kickoff. That’s not ideal for a player whose only job is returning kicks. In fairness, Owen was secure with the ball for the rest of the game. But the Packers had a shaky first half, and it started with that mistake. They are obviously missing Skyy Moore.

Meanwhile, rookie kicker Trey Smack missed an extra point again. He now leads the NFL with eight missed kicks: five field goals and three extra points.

That’s not what the Packers envisioned when they drafted him in the sixth round, and it creates a scenario where the team might not fully trust him. This was only one mistake, unlike the previous week. The Packers essentially lost to the Detroit Lions because of Smack’s misses. Coming right after that game, another missed extra point is a problem Green Bay can’t simply dismiss.