Green Bay Packers: Takeaways from dicey 24-20 win over Jaguars

The Green Bay Packers topped the Jaguars, 24-20, and these are the big takeaways.

Matt LaFleur improved to 21-6 all-time as head coach of the Green Bay Packers on Sunday following a 24-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was an ugly win for Green Bay, but eventually the talent gap was just too large for Jacksonville to overcome.

The Packers did their best to let Jacksonville stay in the game. The Jags returned a punt 90 yards for a touchdown, and Green Bay had two turnovers. Let bad football teams hang around and bad things happen. Luckily, the Packers were able to hang on for dear life. Ugly wins still count.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the Packers’ victory:

– Aaron Rodgers is on a mission to show the NFL he’s still an elite quarterback. Despite the windy conditions on Sunday, Rodgers was on fire, finishing 16-of-20 passing for 200 yards and two total touchdowns in the first half. He had an ugly interception in the second half, but finished the game 24-of-34 passing for 325 yards and three total touchdowns.

– Speaking of Rodgers, the 36-year-old quarterback can still scoot. Rodgers scored his first rushing touchdown of the season on a five-yard scramble before the end of the first half, which gave the Packers a 14-10 lead.

– Marquez Valdes-Scantling is finally stacking success. After catching a 50-yard touchdown last week against the 49ers, Valdes-Scantling followed that up with a 78-yard touchdown grab against the Jaguars. He was the Packers’ best player on Sunday, finishing with four catches for 149 yards and a touchdown.

– Davante Adams had a bad game relative to his standards. He had two bad drops and a fumble inside Green Bay’s own half. That said, give credit to Adams for battling through an ankle injury and returning to the game for what was ultimately the game-winning touchdown grab.

– Aaron Jones did not look right. Jones finished with a final stat line of 13 carries for 46 yards (3.5 average). As a whole, the Packers running game looked bad against a weak Jaguars front seven.

– The defense is starting to gel after taking their lumps earlier in the season. Adrian Amos grabbed an interception against Jake Luton to help turn the tide in the Packers favor late in the second quarter. Preston Smith, Za’Darius Smith and Rashan Gary all finished with one sack.

– Punter J.K. Scott had a rough game. Scott has always struggled in cold weather. He shanked a punt with just over two minutes left that gave the Jaguars excellent field position for a potential go-ahead score.

The Packers moved to 7-2 after Sunday’s win and control their own destiny for the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC Playoffs. Green Bay heads to Indianapolis next week for a pivotal matchup against the Colts (6-3).