GREEN BAY – The Packers' offense finally looked a lot more like everyone expected it to since the start of the season.
The question after Sunday's lopsided 31-7 win over the Bears at Lambeau Field is whether that type of offensive explosion is a one-off, or a new baseline.
"You can't just do it one time," Head Coach Matt LaFleur said. "You've got to do it consistently. The best teams will do that. They'll do it week in, week out, no matter who they're playing, and that's got to be our standard."
Perhaps the most shocking thing about the Packers' 2-2 start coming into Week 5 was that the offense hadn't scored more than 22 points. It put up less than 20 each of the last two games.
That doesn't fit the capabilities of a unit featuring Jordan Love, Christian Watson, Matthew Golden and Tucker Kraft. The absence of Josh Jacobs and loss of Jayden Reed certainly have factored in, and a makeshift offensive line with various moving parts was struggling early, too.
But now the line, with changes at the guard spots, is settling in and coming around. Kraft is closer to being his pre-ACL self. And the receiving duo of Watson and Golden has put on film how dangerous it can be downfield.
"There was a whole lot on display out there today," said Watson, whose two TD catches give him six on the season. "We can be as good as we want to be."
Those two combined for 12 catches and 266 yards, with five of those 12 grabs gaining chunks of between 31 and 53 yards. The Bears played a ton of single-high safety and paid for it, unable to stop the big play.
"I think the day they had today kind of just speaks (to) … how good the offense can be," Love said. "It just shows right there. Those are two guys that are dominant factors.
"We get flowing like this and they're making plays and we're able to take advantage of what the defense is doing. That's just a little bit of show(ing) what's possible."
On top of that, nobody dropped a pass, another bright spot as no one had been immune to the dropsies thus far.
Love went 25-of-31, an 80.6% clip after coming in with a 56.5% completion rate, in part due to a league-leading number of drops.
"Obviously you want every game to be like this, but football is an imperfect game," said Golden, who had his second 100-yard outing this season and of his young career. "You could try to be as perfect as you can, but it's never gonna happen."
Flawed or not, a performance like this needs to happen again, preferably as soon as next week.
It's possible Kevin Zeitler could take over at right guard for Travis Glover and provide another veteran presence up front, but kudos to Glover regardless for helping steady the ship the last two games.
The ground game still hasn't found itself, either, despite getting its first two rushing TDs of the year.
MarShawn Lloyd (who had the two TDs), Pierre Strong Jr. and Kaleb Johnson combined for 22 carries worth 64 yards, a shade under three per rush. More than half the yards (33) came on two runs, so the other 20 produced just 31.
That's just not cutting it, as the backs suffer from too many negative runs that make the offense predictable on second and third downs.
"We've got to establish a better run attack," LaFleur said. "It's just got to be I would say a little bit more consistent.
"It's harder when you're sitting there in second-and-(long) when everybody in the stadium is probably thinking pass."
The two-sack sequence at the end of the first half that blew a scoring opportunity in good field position will prove more costly against a team not missing its starting QB like the Bears were.
But not everything can be repaired in one game, and the Packers made multiple fixes as it was Sunday.
There was a lot to feel good about after what both LaFleur and Love termed a "rocky" start to the season. The overarching message is the offense's best outing to date needs to become something to build upon, not just reminisce about in the coming weeks.
"Our guys approach it the right way," LaFleur said of the work ethic, mindset and energy the players bring to their daily duties. "It's not a surprise to me we're showing a little bit of improvement.
"I still think we've got a ways to go."
