The Green Bay Packers once again performed under the level fans would hope for after such a promising start to the regular season.

Unlike the past two weeks, though, the team pulled off a win against the New York Giants, 27-20, and improved to 6-3-1. And that only happened because of Jordan Love, and the defense capitalizing on big opportunities late in the game.

Love, Watson, and not much else

Love showed he can, in fact, elevate an offense. The offensive line struggled all game, most wide receivers dropped the ball an insane amount of times, but the offense was still functional. And it happened, especially in the second half, because Love is the quarterback.

Love avoided mistakes, made high-leverage plays, and even without much help, he created a situation where the Packers were capable of scoring 27 points.

Drops were a major issue for the offense last year, as the Packers’ wide receivers led the NFL in mistakes. It hadn’t been a problem for the first eight games of the season, as drops tend to be volatile, but it has been an issue again.

After the offense suffered with drops on Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles, the story repeated itself on Sunday against the Giants. Romeo Doubs, who has been the most reliable receiver on the roster, dropped two high-leverage passes from Love.

Green Bay had five drops in the first half alone, after having three versus the Eagles. According to ESPN, this is the most the Packers have had in a first half since at least 2006. They had had five drops in Weeks 1 to 9 combined.

Drops were just the first aspect of the offensive weekly show of self-inflicted mistakes. Tight end Luke Musgrave effectively fumbled the ball twice — luckily for the Packers, one got out of bounds, and the other was overturned by the refs as a very questionable incomplete pass.

The exception in this game was Christian Watson. He actually made tough plays for his quarterbacks, grabbing two touchdown catches — one from Malik Willis, and one from Love late in the fourth quarter.

Struggling situational defense, but not until the end of the game

The defense was somewhat good on a down-to-down basis, but the situational football was just bad. Carrington Valentine had two dropped interceptions. In the fourth quarter, Javon Bullard had the ball in his hands to get a pick — and potentially a pick-six — but Isaiah McDuffie hit him for no good reason. Keisean Nixon couldn’t catch an arm punt from Winston.

Yes, there was a key turnover on downs forced by a combined sack between Micah Parsons and McDuffie, but the unit badly needed to be on the right end of the turnover volatility like it was last year. Well, it happened at the most important moment possible, twice. Safety Evan Williams picked off Winston in the defensive end zone on the second-to-last drive, and Parsons forced a game-sealing fumble.

However, it’s not only the turnovers, to be fair. The team has been giving up too many third-down conversions, allowing opposing offenses to stay on the field, to get better field position, and to limit the number of possessions in the game, which is particularly relevant against worse teams because that’s exactly what they want.

Offensive line issues

Sean Rhyan had a solid game against the Eagles after Elgton Jenkins got hurt, but the Packers are already missing their starting center. The Giants have a strong defensive front, and Rhyan got moved back several times, with Love suffering immediate pressure a few seconds after the snap.

Rasheed Walker and Jordan Morgan also had a tough time pass protecting in this game, and now the Packers don’t have many alternatives. Several times, Matt LaFleur was forced to call plays running Love around to move the pocket and even running the ball himself — on one of those plays, Love hurt his shoulder, but he returned on the following drive.

At least in this game, the Packers were more successful running the football. Guess what? The Giants have the worst run defense in the NFL.

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