GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers beat the Carolina Panthers 27-19 on Thursday night. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t easy – these Packers are incapable of such things – but a win is a win, and they have five of them in eight games.

Here are our three big takeaways.

1. Jordan Love’s MVP Argument

Jordan Love’s numbers are mediocre.

His level of play, however, has been worthy of MVP consideration.

Of 29 qualifying quarterbacks, Love is smack dab in the middle with a passer rating of 92.5. He is 22nd in completion percentage. Only five quarterbacks have thrown more interceptions.

But Love has had to carry a heavier load than perhaps any quarterback leading a playoff-caliber team. The pass protection hasn’t been good enough, though it was against Carolina. No quarterback has been saddled with a worse running game. No quarterback has had to overcome more dropped passes or a higher percentage of dropped passes.

Love is not going to win MVP; Buffalo’s Josh Allen, who probably has fewer passing-game targets than Love but at least has a really good running game and reliable pass protection, is in his own tier as the strong favorite at FanDuel Sportsbook.

NFL MVP typically goes to the quarterback with great numbers on a great team. Love won’t finish with great numbers and the Packers aren’t a great team. But they would be absolutely sunk without him. If that’s not valuable, what is?

As coach Matt LaFleur said after a game in which Love threw three touchdown passes: “Can’t say enough great things about him because he’s carrying the burden of everything right now.”

2. Defense Gives Packers Chance to Do Something Special

Before the season, I predicted the Packers would finish with an 8-9 record. The reasoning was rather simple. How could the Packers without Micah Parsons find a way to stop quality quarterbacks with an ineffective pass rush and questionable cornerbacks?

It appears I’m going to be “flying the L” on that one because defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon has turned lemons into lemonade.

Parsons, one of the NFL’s best pass rushers and defensive players, still hasn’t returned to practice. The team’s next-best defensive player, linebacker Edgerrin Cooper, suffered a torn Achilles in Week 4 against Tampa Bay.

And yet, the Packers emerged from Thursday’s game ranked 11th with 20.5 points allowed per game. They are third in yards allowed per play, fourth in yards allowed per passing play and 12th in yards allowed per rushing attempt. Their 15 takeaways through eight games are one more than they had all of last season. They’ve allowed 20 or fewer points in five consecutive games, their best stretch since 2022.

And it’s not as if it’s Xavier McKinney snagging interceptions left and right or Lukas Van Ness has played up to Parsons’ hype. Six players have at least one interception. Five players have forced at least one fumble. Six players against Carolina had one sack, meaning 11 have at least one this season.

At cornerback, Keisean Nixon is thriving in Gannon’s system and rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse is playing beyond his years.  The rookie class of Cisse, defensive tackle Chris McClellan and edge Dani Dennis-Sutton are playing a lot of snaps and all made big plays against Carolina.

With the expectation that Parsons will return to practice next week, a defense that has done more than survive without its All-Pro could really start to thrive for the stretch run.

3. The Run Game Stinks, And It Will Kill Them

A couple weeks ago, the Packers faced the Cowboys, who had the worst run defense in the league at the time. Green Bay managed 57 rushing yards with a 2.2-yard average. On Thursday, the Packers faced the Panthers, who took over as the worst run defense in the NFL. The Packers rushed for 66 yards with a 2.5-yard average.

The running game is a disaster. It’s no longer a matter of a small sample size of games or a bad game or two to skew the numbers. The Packers are averaging 60.6 rushing yards per game, which would be the worst in NFL history, and 2.85 yards per carry.

The Packers have 485 rushing yards in eight games. Ten individuals have more rushing yards through six or seven games. Somehow, they’ve gone from bad to worse, with a 2.58-yard average the last three games.

Their best rushing game was 86 yards at Tampa Bay, which leads to this incredible stat from The AP’s Josh Dubow:

The 5-3 Packers are 5th team since 1933 to rush for fewer than 90 yards in each of the first 8 games of a season. Others:
1990 Colts 2-6
1941 Rams 2-6
1940 Eagles 0-8
1935 Pittsburgh Pirates 3-5

— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) October 30, 2026

Somehow, the Packers are 5-3 despite a running game in which the old “3 yards and a cloud of dust” mantra would be a huge win.

Fewest yards rushing/game for team with winning record thru 8 games of a season:
2026 Packers (5-3) 60.6
2016 Giants (5-3) 68.3
2009 Chargers (5-3) 69.6
2007 Packers (7-1) 72.1
2016 Vikings (5-3) 72.6

— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) October 30, 2026

Green Bay’s running game, in a word, stinks.

The Packers have had six starting combinations on the offensive line and 11 individuals have started a game. Nothing – nothing! – has mattered. Every team has had at least two 100-yard rushing performances and the league median is four. Green Bay hasn’t even reached 90 yards.

The Packers ran the ball 26 times against the Panthers. Against the worst run defense in the NFL, half of them gained 1 yard or worse. The longest of Josh Jacobs’ 21 carries gained 6 yards.

Green Bay won the game but was fortunate to do so. And here’s where this season will eventually be crushed.

At some point, you have to be able to go into your 4-minute offense and run for two or three first downs to win the game. The Packers were in that situation twice vs. Carolina. On the first, they took over with 5:37 on the clock. Every play on the possession was a pass. On the second, Jacobs rushed for 5 yards and 3 yards to set up Jordan Love’s third-down conversion to Christian Watson. However, Jacobs ran for minus-3, 0 and 1 on the next three plays to give the Panthers the smallest glimmer of hope.

If the Packers can’t run the football successfully against the worst run defenses in the NFL, how are they going to be able to run the football against the best defenses?

Packers are averaging 60.6 yards rushing/game and 2.85 yards/carry. That's lowest per carry thru 8 games since 2016 Vikings at 2.71 and lowest per game since 2019 Bengals were at 59.5

The only team in last 80 seasons to be that low in both thru 8 games was Washington in 1961…

— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) October 30, 2026

Seattle and San Francisco, two teams who could be standing in Green Bay’s way in the playoffs, rank second and third in yards allowed per carry. Houston and Buffalo, who loom on the late-season schedule, are eighth and ninth. Next week’s opponent, New England, is 11th.

Eight games into the season, there seemingly is no hope.

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Matt LaFleur said after the game:

“If I’m being honest, not a lot right now, and that’s our job as coaches. We got to figure it out, because it’s not good enough.”

LaFleur and the coaches had all offseason to figure it out. All of training camp and the preseason to get it started. Eight regular-season games to get things pointed in the right direction.

Jacobs is back in the lineup. Veteran blockers have been signed. New line combinations have been tried, including bat-bleep loony ones such as moving Laken Tomlinson from left guard to right guard – a position he hadn’t played since 2016 and hadn’t practiced since joining the Packers.

Nothing has worked. Not even a little bit. Somehow, it’s actually gotten worse.

“I think that’s an area we’ve got to keep getting better at, keep finding what’s working, but we’ve got to improve because, especially late in the game, you’ve got to be able to lean on that,” quarterback Jordan Love said. “Obviously, late in the game, it wasn’t good enough. We weren’t able to finish the way we wanted so that’s something we’ve got to improve on, clean up as an offense and be better there.”

Love’s exactly right. Knowing there’s a problem and actually fixing it, of course, are completely different things.

In 2021, it seemed obvious all along that the special teams would ruin the Packers’ season. In the playoffs against San Francisco, they gave up a blocked punt and lost the game. In 2023, it seemed obvious all along that kicker Anders Carlson would miss a kick to ruin the season. In the playoffs at San Francisco, Carlson missed a field goal and they lost by three.

Now, it seems obvious that in a make-or-break game, the Packers will fail to run out the clock, punt and give up the losing score. It’s only a matter of if that game knocks the Packers out of the playoffs or prevents them from getting there altogether.

Matt LaFleur had the perfect six-letter word for his defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon, following the Packers' win over Carolina. ⬇️https://t.co/aCM9sVLN52

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 30, 2026