GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers were terrible in the red zone, couldn’t tackle and were destroyed for a number of big plays on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Oh, and they lost their mistake-prone franchise quarterback to a groin injury.

Here are five takeaways from the Packers’ win and what they mean for this week’s NFC North showdown against the Detroit Lions.

1. Too many large pieces

The Jaguars passing attack is good. Brian Thomas, Christian Kirk and Evan Engram provide a talented trio for quarterback Trevor Lawrence, whose demise has been greatly exaggerated. Thomas will dominate the NFL for a long time, Kirk is an established playmaker, and Engram caught the second-most passes by a tight end in NFL history last year.

Lawrence destroyed the Packers on Sunday. It’s not just that he threw for 308 yards, even with Kirk and Thomas out with injuries. It is the dam of large pieces. The Jaguars had eight completions of 20+ yards. And that was with Jaire Alexander in the lineup; PFF loaded Alexander with a 2-yard completion Sunday, but he limped off the field after the Jaguars’ final touchdown.

Lions quarterback Jared Goff has thrown 10 touchdown passes and 13 incompletions in the past four games. Yes, that is correct. He is one of three quarterbacks in NFL history with four consecutive games with a passer rating of over 125. He ranks first in the NFL in yards per attempt and second in passer rating.

The Packers have allowed 26 completions of 20+ yards this season, sixth most in the league. Even while playing one less game than some quarterbacks, Goff is eighth in 20-yard completions and first in 20-yard touchdowns.

In the end, Green Bay beat the Jaguars as Jeff Hafley’s defense forced two more turnovers, Xavier McKinney’s interception and Edgerrin Cooper’s sack/strip turned into short field touchdowns.

“They’re a good football team,” coach Matt LaFleur said of the Jaguars. “They have a lot of players. They have three very good receivers, they have a stud running back, a stud quarterback and a stud tight end. I knew they were going to make their shots. It was just a matter of staying resilient.

“Obviously, the sequence where we had the sack/fumble and the 5-yard recovery and our ability to come in and score, you could argue that was the difference in the game. Twice our defense set us up with great field position and we were able to capitalize, which was a lot.”

Still, the Lions have just five giveaways all season. Goff hasn’t had an interception since the third quarter of Week 3, and the Lions have just one turnover in their last four games. It would be nice to understand things. Quickly.

2. Terrible approach

Green Bay’s tackling has been OK all season. Not problematic, but not exceptional.

He was terrible against the Jaguars.

By our unofficial count, the Packers have missed 19 tackles — eight more than their previous season high. Isaiah McDuffie, Edgerrin Cooper and Javon Bullard each had three. They couldn’t tackle the aptly named Tank Bigsby. They couldn’t bring Thomas down. On Lawrence’s touchdown run, Packers defenders poured off the quarterback like rain on a freshly waxed car. Green Bay missed eight tackles on that drive alone.

Leos are renowned for their physicality.

Their rushing backfield of the powerful David Montgomery and the electric Jahmyr Gibbs are two of the best at breaking tackles — a total of 50, according to PFF — and gaining yards after contact in run games. Additionally, they are 10th and 11th, respectively, in yards per catch.

In the end, only Green Bay’s Tucker Kraft has a higher YAC average than Detroit’s Sam LaPorta. At the reception, Amon-Ra St. Brown is a Bulldog who ranks among the leaders in missed tackles and Kalif Raymond is third in YAC per catch among receivers with at least 10 catches.

With playmakers everywhere he looks and a creative offensive coordinator in Ben Johnson to get the ball into space, Goff is the second-highest YAC receiver.

Lions are very good. They will move the ball. The Packers linebackers, at the very least, have to ground them.

“We didn’t play well enough today,” McKinney said. “I think as a team we didn’t play well enough and we know that. We’ll enjoy it, but we have to go back there tomorrow. A big game is coming up. We have to be ready for next week.”

3. Red zone issues

The Packers gained 422 yards, were plus-1 in offense and won time of possession by more than 9 minutes. And yet they needed Malik Willis’ late hit to Jayden Reed to beat the Jaguars.

Why was it so hard?

Easy.

The Packers found a dead zone in the red zone.

They were 1-of-4 in the first half when they dominated the drive, but barely led 13-10 and finished 2-of-6. (It was really 2-of-5; the final red-zone failure was en route to the win of the game.)

After back-to-back punts to start the game, Green Bay led 8 to Jacksonville’s 15. On second-and-11, Jordan Love threw a league-worst ninth interception. Perhaps it was the groin injury that finally took him out of the game, but his pass to Romeo Doubs lacked enough zip and was picked off.

McKinney gave Love another opportunity moments later with his sixth interception. A 21-yard pass interference penalty on a pass to Doubs set up Josh Jacobs for the touchdown.

Green Bay then led 20 to Jacksonville’s 9. An illegal shift by Christian Watson on first-and-goal ended that, with a drop screen to Emanuel Wilson on third-and-goal going nowhere. The field goal made it 10-0.

After Jacksonville’s first touchdown, Green Bay started at the 30 and drove to Jacksonville’s 19. On third-and-6, Love’s deep throw to Watson got him well out of bounds for an incompletion. The field goal made it 13-3.

Early in the fourth quarter, Cooper’s fumble gave the offense the ball at the 5, and Willis hit Tucker Kraft for a 3-yard touchdown to make it 27-17.

The Packers were fortunate to beat the Jaguars while missing three opportunities in the red zone. For the season, Green Bay’s red zone success rate is 50.0%. Only five teams are worse. The Lions are eighth in red zone defense (47.4 percent) and third in goal-to-go (53.8 percent). That season-long problem needs to be fixed quickly.

4. Pass Rush Goes AWOL

Usually it’s “Three overreactions”, but let’s add two quick strikes.

It goes without saying that the Packers can’t muster another poor pass rush against Goff. After dominating last week against Houston, Green Bay’s front generally went nowhere against Lawrence. The only sack was Cooper’s pivotal play. Lawrence was pressured on nine of 35 dropbacks.

Preston Smith had a quarterback hit on the first pass play; However, the Packers’ defensive front was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the game.

Worth noting: Goff’s passer rating this season is 123.9.

5. Josh Jacobs to the rescue

Packers running back Josh Jacobs will have his own story, but again, it goes without saying that he was the driving force behind Sunday’s victory.

He carried 25 times for 127 yards and two touchdowns. Jacobs always runs hard. The line always jams hard. But there seems to be an understanding when Love is out that the running game needs to go from good to dominant.

That was the case with Jacksonville. Jacobs broke two tackles on the 38-yard touchdown run. He forced five on that drive and three on the next, a drive that stalled Doubs’ layoff on a potential big gain.

The Lions are 22nd with 4.66 yards per carry. Some of that is the scoreboard — lopsided scores sometimes mean easy runs — but the Packers will need Jacobs and their line to be at their physical best no matter who’s playing quarterback.

“I think we still left a lot on the table, man,” Jacobs said. “There were some runs I could have turned around. I wish I had pressed it a little differently and things like that. I’m still watching this, man. I’m definitely proud of what we did as a team.”

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Packers-Jaguars record | Inside the game-winning completion | Brian Gutekunst’s final moves win the game | ‘High level’ of concern for Jordan Love | Packers-Jaguars: Stock report | Packers-Jaguars: The Story of the Game | Packers-Jaguars: Game Highlights | Packers-Jaguars: Live updates | Packers-Jaguars: Big showdown | Three reasons why the Packers will beat the Jaguars | The Packers are missing out on some top wide receivers (including one from Detroit) | Brian Gutekunst’s genius was on display this week