Here’s hoping Malik Willis is good at football

Fall will soon be upon us, if the chill in the air last week was anything to go by, which also means that the NFL season is upon us. I was hyped. The Packers were back in action, opening their 2024 season with an away game against the Eagles. But instead of making a trip to Philadelphia, both teams instead made their way down to Sao Paulo, the most populous city in Brazil as part of the NFL’s international initiative.

While I question whether playing singular contests at international sites actually brings more interest to the sport in these other countries (especially when one considers both the financial costs and the extra mental and physical fatigue such lengthy trips can have on players and coaches), the presentation of the game in Sao Paulo was largely spoken about in a positive manner by players, coaches and other staff from the two teams.

There were obvious issues with the field, which failed to hold up under the duress of a football game. Players were slipping all game and it almost seemed more a test of who could stay on their feet on any given play rather than schemes or athleticism. The less than ideal playing surface seemed to favor offenses, as exemplified by Jayden Reed’s lengthy touchdown catch where his defender flew past him as he made a small cut upfield, the Eagles’ player unable to slow his momentum and instead slipping ten yards towards the sideline.

Still, there were definitely times where the field conditions hurt the offense as well. Saquon Barkley hitting the turf five yards behind the line of scrimmage on his first rush as an Eagle, a few incompletions where Packers receivers slipped out of their cuts, and quarterback Jordan Love looking highly uncomfortable with his footing nearly every time he dropped back to pass.

In Love’s case, it seemed to be having some sort of effect on his body, as towards the end of the game he was seen to have work done on his lower legs by the Packers training staff after each drive. Perhaps it was unrelated cramping or other issues, but either way, the Green Bay quarterback did not look quite as sharp as he did in the final half of the 2023 season.

Which was why, when Love initially went down on the Packers’final drive of the game, I thought that it was perhaps just a continuation of the calf issues he seemed to be having. However, it very quickly became obvious that this was a much more serious injury and as that fact sunk in, the entire season seemed to be in the balance.

I may have accidentally spoken this into existence. A few weeks ago, Casey from the Record Review stopped over at my desk and asked what I thought about the Packers trading for Tennessee quarterback Malik Willis. I said that the Packers probably thought that he had a higher ceiling than either of their other two backup quarterback that they had on the roster at the time due to his athleticism, but his minimal appearance in the NFL hadn’t really done much to convince me of anything. Ultimately, I said, without any thought of what potential curse I would be casting upon the Packers, it didn’t really matter who would be backing up Love, because if he went down for an extended period of time, it didn’t really matter if Willis, Clifford, or Pratt were playing quarterback because Green Bay would still likely be in a tough spot.

Well, one MCL sprain later and I guess we are about to see how right my prediction is. While the injury is not as bad as it potentially could have been, we will likely see Willis (or maybe someone else, who knows) at the helm of the Packers offense for some time. If my memories of the Brent Hundley season are accurate…it could be a tough couple weeks for Green Bay fans.

As icing on the cake, every other NFC North team won, with the Lions winning in overtime, the Bears somehow coming back from being down 17-0 while not scoring an offensive touchdown the entire game, and Aaron Jones scoring a touchdown for the Vikings and doing a Lambeau Leap in celebration. I doubt it’ll feel any better when former Wisconsin running back Jonathon Taylor continues to run over our still seemingly porous run defense this coming week. Ugh. Maybe I’ll just save mowing my lawn for Sunday and save my sanity.

A C ERTAIN POINT OF V IEW

BY

NATHANIEL U NDERWOOD REPORTER