{"id":216665,"date":"2025-07-18T11:11:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T11:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/216665\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T11:11:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T11:11:13","slug":"5-takeaways-from-packers-preseason-loss-to-broncos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/216665\/","title":{"rendered":"5 takeaways from Packers\u2019 preseason loss to\u00a0Broncos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Each Packers QB turned the ball over once.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/sean-clifford\/\" title=\"Sean Clifford\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sean Clifford<\/a>&#8216;s came on an interception late in the first half, which set up a Broncos TD after a long return. LaFleur said the offense had a good play dialed up for the coverage Denver&#8217;s defense was in but didn&#8217;t follow through as Clifford tried to hit tight end <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/joel-wilson\/\" title=\"Joel Wilson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joel Wilson<\/a> deep over the middle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to flatten that route a little bit more and try to show up into that window quicker,&#8221; LaFleur said. &#8220;Sean threw it to the right place. Whether it was within the timing of the play, I&#8217;ve got to go back and look at the tape on that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All in all, the execution has to be better.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rookie QB <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/michael-pratt\/\" title=\"Michael Pratt\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Pratt<\/a>&#8216;s turnover came early in the third quarter on a strip-sack, setting up a Denver field goal. He tried to scramble up the middle with the pocket collapsing but didn&#8217;t protect the football.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, Clifford finished 6-of-10 for 43 yards, while Pratt was 10-of-16 for 52 yards. Running back <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/emanuel-wilson\/\" title=\"Emanuel Wilson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emanuel Wilson<\/a> had 13 carries for 41 yards and receiver <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/malik-heath\/\" title=\"Malik Heath\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Malik Heath<\/a> made three catches for 22 yards.<\/p>\n<p>Just 10 first downs and 168 total yards of offense made for a disappointing night of work, which LaFleur did not put entirely on the quarterback play.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to see more fight from our guys,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Just the lack of ability to move the football, both in the running game and the passing game \u2026<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The production kind of speaks for it, but it wasn&#8217;t just on (the QBs). It&#8217;s on everybody. We&#8217;ve got to block better up front, we&#8217;ve got to finish runs better, we had a couple drops. Collectively, all 11 have to be better in order for us to have any success offensively.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The new kickoff rule appears to have a major flaw.<\/p>\n<p>After Green Bay&#8217;s safety, Denver executed a free kick from its own 20-yard line, which is no different than the longtime rule.<\/p>\n<p>But with the kicker able to boom a kickoff almost to the goal line, and the set-up zone in the same place on the field, the fact that the kickoff was from the 20 rather than the 35 made no difference.<\/p>\n<p>Receiver <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packers.com\/team\/players-roster\/dimitri-stanley\/\" title=\"Dimitri Stanley\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dimitri Stanley<\/a> was only able to return the ball to the Green Bay 29-yard line.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t really like it,&#8221; LaFleur said of the new rules being applied this way in this instance. &#8220;You lose the advantage you get from the safety. People are starting in the same spot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The last week of training camp and preseason will be a gut check for players looking to make the roster.<\/p>\n<p>The Packers have another joint practice and preseason game left, at home with Baltimore, before roster decisions are made on Aug. 27.<\/p>\n<p>LaFleur said he&#8217;s not sure how he&#8217;s going to handle playing time for the starters against the Ravens, but his message to the rest of the roster was pretty clear.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The thing I challenged our team on is you&#8217;ve got to check yourself every play,&#8221; LaFleur said. &#8220;Are you giving your max effort? Are you straining the way we want you to strain? Is the style of play what we want to see?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;ll be a good opportunity for all of us to evaluate and see the guys that really want to put it all out there, not only for themselves but for the team.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each Packers QB turned the ball over once. Sean Clifford&#8216;s came on an interception late in the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,2426,7,45284,34,36829,38838,506,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-216665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-broncos","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-denverbroncos","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-green-bay-packers-at-denver-broncos-2024-pre-2","14":"tag-homepage-cp","15":"tag-news-gameday","16":"tag-news-game-recap","17":"tag-news-stories","18":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114873937652929682","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}