Pick the top play from the Packers’ Week 8 loss to the Buffalo Bills

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” Would Friedrich Nietzsche feel differently if he had been forced to watch the 2022 Green Bay Packers?

The meaningless suffering continued for the Packers on Sunday as they, predictably, made the trip up to Buffalo and fell 27-17 in a game that looked much closer than it actually was. To start with the positives, the Packers showed competency on the offensive end for the first time in weeks and leaned on Aaron Jones to be the offense’s engine, even when down double digits.

The rookie wide receivers continued to show flashes of promise as well. Romeo Doubs put together a nice performance highlighted by a second-quarter touchdown after a few weeks riddled with mistakes. Seventh-round pick Samori Toure also made the most of his recent opportunities, catching a scramble drill touchdown late in the fourth. With the Packers staying put on deadline day, if they expect to salvage anything from a disastrous season, these two young pass catchers will be integral to the effort. The top plays were a bit easier to come by this week, so let’s jump in.

Doubs gets the Packers on the board

After the Packers’ opening possession ended in a turnover on downs in Bills territory, the Bills only needed one pass to march 61 yards down the field and score. In desperate need of a response against the league’s best offense, the Packers predictably went three and out. Smelling blood in the water, the Bills went in for what felt like a kill shot against this Packers team and used just four plays to move 51 yards and widen the lead to 14-0.

However, the Packers gave into the demands of, well, everyone on the next drive and made their two backs a focal point. Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon combined for 54 of the Packers’ 80 yards on the 12-play touchdown drive capped off by Romeo Doubs’ first touchdown since week 4. It may have been his best highlight of the season as the rookie spun his head around a few times before coming down with the pass over the back of Taron Johnson. Per Next Gen Stats, this was Doubs’ sixth target in motion this season.

Jaire saves a touchdown with the INT

Unfortunately, the small glimpse of competency on offense was not enough to keep up with the Bills, who put together drives of 80 and 56 yards to close out the half up 24-7. After both teams traded field goals to open up the second half, things went mostly quiet. The Packers put together another strong drive on the ground down 27-10 in the third quarter but failed to convert in Bills territory once again. Josh Allen quickly gave them a new lease on life with an interception, but Rodgers’ pass was tipped and picked off on the very next play. A comedy of errors that would have been even funnier if not for the deeply felt pain in our hearts.

With 12:00 to go in the 4th, the Bills got to work on putting the final nail in the Packers’ coffin. The rookie running back James Cook made his presence felt in one of his few snaps this game, taking a pass all the way down to the Packers’ 7-yard line and setting up the Bills for the kill shot. But on Halloween eve, Jaire Alexander channeled Michael Myers himself and helped the Packers rise from the dead with a goal-line interception. The turnover was the cap to an excellent night from Alexander, who stuck mostly to covering Gabe Davis (ask Joe Barry why) all night and shut him down.

Samori Toure catches his first NFL TD

The Packers continued their short-lived horror villain revival on the next drive, as Aaron Rodgers used his legs to make some magic happen: a sight for sore eyes indeed. Rodgers emphasized last week that getting out of the pocket could provide a jolt to the lifeless offense and we saw a bit of it here. After a beautiful contested catch by Doubs, Rodgers scrambled down to the Bills’ 37-yard line.

Then, with 6:32 left in the game, Samori Toure earned himself a metric ton of snaps next week with one scramble drill play, abandoning his route and turning inside to give Rodgers a wide-open throw. Moral victories don’t exist for a 3-5 team with this much disappointment surrounding it, but this was certainly a nice way to end things and a small building block for next week.

That’s it for this week’s top plays. The Packers’ commitment to the run game and Aaron Rodgers’ pocket movement brought with it a few more big-play opportunities to choose from, and we hope to see the momentum carry over into Sunday against the Detroit Lions. Be sure to keep it locked here and join us for a halftime chat during Sunday’s game on Twitter Spaces @acmepackingco.