Lukas Van Ness, Packers defense keep Green Bay alive in OT win over the New York Jets

It wasn’t pretty but the Green Bay Packers (1-1) walked away with a win at the Meadowlands, defeating the New York Jets (1-1) in overtime, 20-17.

The win ends a six-game losing streak going back to last season, but the Packers won’t be satisfied.

The Jets dominated the game well into the fourth quarter, before the Green Bay defense, led by edge rusher Lukas Van Ness, stiffened up down the stretch and repeatedly gave the offense and quarterback Jordan Love multiple attempts to put the game away.

But for two games in a row, the Packers were completely undisciplined, racking up 14 penalties for 134 yards.

Love and the offense were also largely stagnant. Love finished 16-for-29, 145 yards passing and two touchdowns. But the stat line doesn’t tell the story of inaccurate passes and under-thrown balls from Love, although he did appear to suffer a hand injury in the third quarter.

“There’s a lot we have to clean up,” head coach Matt LaFleur said postgame.

The game should have never went to overtime. After a stuff on 4th-and-1 by the Packers defense, Green Bay had the ball at midfield and only needed one first down to get into field goal range, but the offense couldn’t get it done. The Jets then opted to let the clock expire, so LaFleur attempted a Hail Mary with two seconds left, which failed.

”I was really confused by that,” LaFleur said. “We knew they were going to bring pressure. We weren’t able to pick it up.”

Rookie kicker Trey Smack kicked a game-tying 34-year field goal to force overtime and kicked a game-winning 26-yard field goal in overtime to win the game.

The defense and new coordinator Jonathan Gannon weren’t perfect, but they stepped up when it was needed. Van Ness made big play after big play and had a breakout performance. He finished with nine tackles, four tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and four QB hits. His stuff on 4th-and-1 against former Wisconsin Badger Braelon Allen helped the Packers force overtime. Allen had a touchdown of his own in the first quarter.

Two injuries early in the game stopped play for a significant amount of time. Wide receiver Jayden Reed was carted off with a head injury followed by right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele, who also was carted off with a leg injury. Also, left guard Aaron Banks suffered a new toe injury on Sunday.

Questions surround the offensive line’s health and stability protecting Love.

”We gotta do it. It is what it is. Those are the circumstances,” LaFleur said. “There’s a lot of things that we don’t control. Guys are gonna have to step up.“

LaFleur added he considered putting tight end Tucker Kraft at tackle after momentarily falling to four healthy lineman when right guard Jacob Monk briefly left the game with a stinger.

The result certainly isn’t the marquee game LaFleur needed to cool down his seat, but he’ll take the win considering stars Micah Parsons and Josh Jacobs are sidelined.

LaFleur admitted in his halftime interview that Gannon and the defense were keeping the Packers in the game, acknowledging the offense is struggling, his supposed expertise.

But Green Bay doesn’t have much time to recap Sunday as it’s a short week for the Packers, who host the struggling Atlanta Falcons (0-2) on Thursday night at Lambeau Field.

In other news from Chicago, Bears (1-1) quarterback Caleb Williams went down with a hamstring injury in their loss to the Minnesota Vikings (2-0), who sit atop the NFC North after Week 2.