{"id":476864,"date":"2025-12-28T10:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T10:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/476864\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T10:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T10:11:11","slug":"5-takeaways-from-packers-loss-to-ravens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/476864\/","title":{"rendered":"5 takeaways from Packers\u2019 loss to Ravens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GREEN BAY \u2013 The Packers relegated themselves to a wild-card team and the No. 7 seed in the NFC with their third straight loss, this one 41-24 to the Ravens on Saturday night at Lambeau Field.<\/p>\n<p>Here are five takeaways from the defeat:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Baltimore&#8217;s ground game simply dominated.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Head Coach Matt LaFleur called it a &#8220;humbling night&#8221; in his opening statement, and there&#8217;s no other way to say it when an opponent&#8217;s running game is unstoppable to the tune of 307 rushing yards.<\/p>\n<p>Two-time NFL rushing champ and former 2,000-yard rusher Derrick Henry pounded his way to 216 yards and four touchdowns on a career-high 36 attempts. It was the seventh 200-yard game of his career (first since 2022) and second four-TD game for the 31-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>It also marked the most rushing yards by an opposing running back in the history of Lambeau Field, topping the 210 by Minnesota&#8217;s Adrian Peterson in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That was tough to watch,&#8221; LaFleur said. &#8220;We all see the end result. It just was not good enough. Wasn&#8217;t up to our standard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><strong>Green Bay was behind from the get-go.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>LaFleur was asked if the defense came out flat, as it allowed the Ravens to put together back-to-back drives of 13 plays each, covering 75 and 74 yards for TDs, with Henry carrying 14 times for 82 yards and both scores on Baltimore&#8217;s first two possessions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the natural thing to say, the easy thing to say,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think I saw a team that was flat. I saw a team that \u2026 we just got beat. We got whipped.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Baltimore backup QB Tyler Huntley, subbing for an injured Lamar Jackson (back contusion), added 60 rushing yards to the Ravens&#8217; total and played mistake-free in completing 16-of-20 passes for 107 yards and a TD to Zay Flowers for a 105.6 passer rating.<\/p>\n<p>Two early miscues on offense by the Packers, a turnover on downs and fumble, also gave the Ravens two field goals for a 20-7 lead late in the first half, forcing Green Bay to play uphill the rest of the way.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li><strong><a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/malik-willis\/\" title=\"Malik Willis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Malik Willis<\/a> did everything he could to make it a game.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Playing in place of starting QB <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/jordan-love\/\" title=\"Jordan Love\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jordan Love<\/a>, who didn&#8217;t clear concussion protocol this week after exiting last Saturday&#8217;s game in Chicago due to a helmet hit, Willis played phenomenally well just to give the Packers a chance despite dealing with an injury to his throwing shoulder.<\/p>\n<p>Willis got the Packers on the board early with two big throws, first to <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/romeo-doubs\/\" title=\"Romeo Doubs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Romeo Doubs<\/a> and then to <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/christian-watson\/\" title=\"Christian Watson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Christian Watson<\/a> for a touchdown, in between Baltimore&#8217;s first two drives.<\/p>\n<p>He added two TD runs off zone-read keepers to pull the Packers within 27-24 late in the third quarter, and he finished with a sparkling 134.6 passer rating (18-of-21, 288 yards, one TD) plus 60 rushing yards.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, down by 10 and approaching scoring territory midway through the fourth quarter, Willis banged his injured shoulder on the ground on a slide, then aggravated it on his next throw, and had to come out of the game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just think that speaks to the type of competitor Malik Willis is,&#8221; LaFleur said of how he was gutting it out. &#8220;I mean, he&#8217;s as tough as anybody. He made play after play after play out there. He was one of the few bright spots I would say on the night.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Practice-squad callup <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/clayton-tune\/\" title=\"Clayton Tune\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Clayton Tune<\/a> promptly was intercepted when his first pass bounced off the hands of <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/bo-melton\/\" title=\"Bo Melton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bo Melton<\/a> and into the arms of Baltimore&#8217;s Marlon Humphrey. When the Ravens turned that into Henry&#8217;s fourth TD run of the night, Willis didn&#8217;t return to the game even though LaFleur said he could have.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li><strong>One opportunity on defense in the second half went quickly by the wayside.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>After the defense got its lone scoreless stop of the game and Willis scored his second rushing TD to make it 27-24, the Ravens faced third-and-5 from their own 20-yard line with a minute left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Huntley changed the play at the line of scrimmage, handed it to Henry for a 9-yard run and key conversion, and Henry followed with a 30-yard run to close out the period. Eight plays later, the Ravens were in the end zone again on another steamroller of a drive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re giving yourself a chance, absolutely,&#8221; LaFleur said. &#8220;Unfortunately in those critical moments when we needed a stop, we didn&#8217;t get it done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The biggest offensive regrets came in the second quarter, as the Packers turned it over on consecutive drives. First, Willis was stuffed on a third-and-1 sneak, and then a fourth-and-1 run from shotgun was also thwarted.<\/p>\n<p>Two plays into Green Bay&#8217;s next drive, Willis was trying to change a play call from the shotgun, and the ball was snapped despite him not beginning any cadence. It went off his facemask and was recovered by the Ravens.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li><strong>How the Packers handle the regular-season finale remains up in the air.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>With Chicago now clinching the NFC North title and the conference&#8217;s other wild cards already with 11 wins, Green Bay (9-6-1) will be the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoffs, unable to improve its position in next Sunday&#8217;s game at Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s unclear what impact that might have on whether or not Love plays again before the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to speak too soon on that,&#8221; LaFleur said. &#8220;We just want to get him through the protocol and then we&#8217;ll have a decision to make.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Similar discussions could be forthcoming with other banged-up players, and the Packers had five more leave this game with injuries, two of them on a cart (DL <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/jordon-riley\/\" title=\"Jordon Riley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jordon Riley<\/a>, Achilles; CB <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/kamal-hadden\/\" title=\"Kamal Hadden\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kamal Hadden<\/a>, ankle), plus three more (S <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/zayne-anderson\/\" title=\"Zayne Anderson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zayne Anderson<\/a>, ankle; CB <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/nate-hobbs\/\" title=\"Nate Hobbs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nate Hobbs<\/a>, knee; WR <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/dontayvion-wicks\/\" title=\"Dontayvion Wicks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dontayvion Wicks<\/a>, concussion).<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot of recovering to do before the playoffs, both on the health front and with the rough three-game losing streak the team is now riding. LaFleur referred to this as &#8220;look in the mirror&#8221; time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think we&#8217;ve got a pretty proud group in there,&#8221; he said of the locker room. &#8220;I think they&#8217;re all disappointed in our performance tonight. These are grown men and I don&#8217;t think they&#8217;re going to shy away from this.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREEN BAY \u2013 The Packers relegated themselves to a wild-card team and the No. 7 seed in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":476865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[202888,11822,80677,80946,51440,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-476864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens-at-green-bay-packers-2025-reg-17","9":"tag-homepage-cp","10":"tag-news-gameday","11":"tag-news-game-recap","12":"tag-news-national-feature","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115796658226721364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}