The Green Bay Packers finally ended their six-game losing streak with a 20-17 overtime win over the New York Jets. The Packers trailed 17-7 in the fourth quarter before mounting the comeback win. Trey Smack booted a 26-yard field goal in overtime to give the Packers the victory. Here are 10 things we learned from the Packers overtime win over the New York Jets.

Packers Come Back to Beat the Jets, Number One: Lukas Van Ness Came Up Big

The Packers defense needs Lukas Van Ness to step up and play well in the absence of Micah Parsons and for the second straight week, Van Ness got the job done. The former Iowa star made nine total tackles and recorded 1.5 sacks in the game. Van Ness also hit Geno Smith four times.

Van Ness also did a good job against the run. He had three tackles for loss and made some big stops.

Number Two: Penalties Hurt Badly

The Packers continued to play sloppy football against the Jets. The team was credited with 14 penalties for 133 yards. They also had at least three penalties that were either declined or offsetting.

How bad was it? Until late in the game, the Packers had nearly as many penalty yards against them as offensive yards gained.

Too many of these were careless penalties like lining up offsides, taunting, and late hits. The Packers were able to overcome the lack of discipline to win this game, but they cannot keep having to overcome such basic, fundamental mistakes and the other team on a week-to-week basis.

The Packers need to clean this up quickly or this could be a very long season.

Packers Come Back to Beat the Jets, Number Three: The Offensive Line Remains a Problem

The Jets sacked Jordan Love three times and hit him three more. While that is better than what happened a week ago against the Vikings, the offensive line still struggled to get the job done, both in pass protection and blocking for the run.

Injuries definitely played a part, but this team cannot seem to find any rhythm with the offensive line. Also, when injuries struck, the team was still reluctant to play rookie Jager Burton and went back to Donovan Jennings and Jacob Monk.

Number Four: Skyy Moore Had a Big Impact

Return specialist Skyy Moore made a big play that helped the Packers rally the game in the fourth quarter. Moore ran back a punt 63 yards to help spur the Packers fourth quarter comeback. It was a great return. Many players would have called for a fair catch, but Moore made the first tackler miss and made some good cuts to get the big return going.

Moore also had a 43-yard kick return in this game. He gives the Packers special teams a legitimate weapon in the return game, something they certainly struggled with last season.

Packers Come Back to Beat the Jets, Number Five: MarShawn Lloyd Had a Mixed Game

Running back MarShawn Lloyd had his ups and downs in this game. The good news: he scored his first NFL touchdown on a six-yard pass from Love in the second quarter.

The bad news: he had a key fumble that gave the Jets the ball in Packers territory and helped them take the lead in the second half.

Today, the Packers had running back by committee, with Kaleb Johnson carrying eight times, Lloyd six and Chris Brooks four.

Number Six: Keisean Nixon Struggled

A big part of the Jets offensive strategy was to pick on cornerback Keisean Nixon. Even though the Packers have a rookie corner starting in Brandon Cisse, the Jets felt more comfortable attacking Nixon. Nixon also committed a flagrant 34-yard pass interference penalty.

Nixon played well last week against the Vikings but was victimized early and often in this game. Last year, Nixon was inconsistent. He appears to be true to form again so far this season.

Packers Come Back to Beat the Jets, Number Seven: Injuries Continue to Mount

The first series of the game was disastrous for the Packers from an injury standpoint. On the second play, wide receiver Jayden Reed suffered a neck injury and had to be carted off the field.

One play later, Zach Bako-Bewele injured his knee and did not return. That hurt an already compromised Green Bay offensive line.

Aaron Banks also left the game early due to an apparent toe injury.

The Packers cannot would be hurt if Reed misses time, but Bako-Bewele is the team’s best offensive lineman and losing him could be catastrophic. We will check his status early this week.

Number Eight: 3rd Down Still a Problem

The Packers struggled on third down in Week 1 on both sides of the ball and that continued against the Jets. The Packers offense was just 1-of-9 on third down in the game and failed to convert their only fourth down try.

Meanwhile, the Jets offense was successful on 8-of-19 third down tries or 42 percent of the time.

Thankfully, the Green Bay defense stepped up late in the fourth quarter and in overtime, but they cannot continue to lose the battle on the money downs this season.

Packers Come Back to Beat the Jets, Number Nine: An Old Friend Hurt the Packers

Former Packers edge rusher Kingsley Enagbare sent a message to the Packers that they made a mistake in not retaining him.

Enagbare recorded a sack, forced a fumble, had a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit. He made three total tackles for the game, but all of them were impactful.

Number 10: Short Turnaround

It wasn’t pretty, but the Packers badly needed this win. Now, they have a quick turnaround with the home opener against the Atlanta Falcons coming up Thursday night.

The team still has a lot of work to do to clean up their mistakes in all three phases of the game, but ending their losing streak and earning their first victory of the year gives them something to build on.

 

 

 

Follow Gil Martin on Twitter @GilPackers

Click here for more great Packers coverage

Check out our YouTube channel here