GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love believes the Packers are ready for the regular season.
The Packers had reason to be in good spirits after bouncing back with a solid performance on both sides of the ball during a joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday, two days before the teams meet again for the final game of the season.
“I like where we are offensively,” Love said. “I think we’re ready to go and start the season.”
Packers coach Matt LaFleur did not say on Thursday whether he plans to use his regular players on Saturday. The Ravens do not normally use any of their regular players in preseason games.
So this may have been the last chance for key players from both teams to face an opponent before the regular season begins. The result was a crisp session that was free of the fighting that often mars other joint practices around the league.
“It’s just professional behavior,” Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely said of the lack of pushing or shoving.
The Ravens will play their season opener on September 5 away at two-time Super Bowl defending champions Kansas City Chiefs, while the Packers will face the Philadelphia Eagles on September 6 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
For the Packers, this was an opportunity to rebuild their offense after a disappointing performance last week in Denver. Green Bay’s starters admitted that they were in a Group practice against the Broncos. The starters then rested in the test match, while the reserves of Green Bay were 27:2 defeat.
Green Bay looked much better on Thursday.
Love threw an interception to Roquan Smith early on, but recovered and threw four touchdown passes in red zone drills – two to Romeo Doubs and one each to Christian Watson and Tucker Kraft.
Backup quarterback Sean Clifford, who completed 6 of 10 passes for 43 yards with one interception in the loss to Denver, made a nice long pass to Malik Heath.
“I think we were a little sloppy in Denver, it was just a lot of little details that in the big picture determine whether it’s a good play or not,” Love said. “I think we just focused on all those little details and we did a great job of that today. Then you can go out there and just make plays, make some plays and get the ball to the playmakers. Today we definitely made it a point to get off to a better start.”
For the Ravens, this was a chance for a newly built offensive line to see how well it could protect reigning MVP Quarterback Lamar Jackson. The Ravens lost guards Kevin Zeitler to the Detroit Lions and John Simpson to the New York Jets in free agency, and they traded tackle Morgan Moses to the Jets.
While the Packers appeared to have a lot of success applying pressure, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he liked the way his linemen responded.
“I can’t wait to see the tape, but I was pleased with how tight the bag was 90 percent of the time,” Harbaugh said.
An encouraging sign for the Green Bay Packers defense came from rookie safety Evan Williams. The fourth-round pick from Oregon continued his impressive training camp by intercepting a pass from Ravens backup quarterback Josh Johnson.
“I’m definitely feeling pretty good and pretty confident about my game,” Williams said. “I’m definitely trying to block out all the noise. You hear good noise. You hear just as many bad noises and it’s great to feel like the best in the moment, but it doesn’t mean much if you can’t keep going, you can’t do it the next day.”
NOTES: Ravens All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton met with the team’s training staff after apparently injuring himself while covering Watson. Harbaugh said after practice it was nothing serious. … This joint practice was a reunion of sorts for Jackson and Packers CB Jaire Alexander, who played together in Louisville. “I always joke with him, ‘When are we going to meet in the Super Bowl, man?'” Alexander said. “I think it’s about time.” … The Packers signed DL Keonte Schad, who played this year for the Houston Roughnecks of the United Football League.
___
NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
