Nothing can be easy for the Green Bay Packers.

They went down to the wire with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who had two wins entering Sunday’s game.

They built two 10-point leads and lost both.

They lost their starting quarterback.

They also lost two key members of the secondary.

Fortunately, they didn’t lose Josh Jacobs and traded in late August for Malik Willis.

Jacobs helped the Packers regain the lead in the third quarter. Willis made sure the Packers would escape Jacksonville with a win.

They got high marks in our weekly Packers report after a 30-27 win.

The passing offense

After evaluating the opponent’s passer, Jacksonville’s defense entered the game as one of the worst in NFL history.

Jordan Love’s performance was disappointing to say the least given that fact. He left the game with a groin injury after going 14-of-22 with another interception.

This game felt like a great opportunity for the Packers to get their passing attack going before the gauntlet they’ll have to face in November. Instead, Love left the game, and now his status is up in the air for next week’s matchup against the Detroit Lions.

When Love left the game, Willis saved the day.

Willis won all three games he was asked to play a long stretch.

His first three completions totaled 5 yards as the Packers leaned on their running game. His final completion, however, was his biggest hit — a 51-yarder to Jayden Reed to set up the game-winning field goal.

Coach Matt LaFleur was at a loss for words to describe how well Willis played.

“It was pretty damn impressive,” LaFleur said.

LaFleur’s game plan and lack of support in his passing game against a bad defense was surprising.

So was the fact that the Packers went 27-17.

In the end, nothing will haunt them because of Willis’ heroics.

Grade: B

Rush Offense

Most of the attention will turn to Willis for completing Reed’s key. This is a passing league. The quarterbacks and receivers get all the attention.

However, the hero of this game was the runner who, according to ESPN’s Bill Barnwellit had been a disappointment.

Maybe Jacobs heard about it. Maybe he didn’t. The reality is that he led his team 20-17 after Love left the game with an injury.

Jacobs finished the day with 25 carries for 127 yards and two touchdowns. He was the best player on the field.

The Packers needed Jacobs in Willis’ first start against Indianapolis, and they needed him in Jacksonville. Jacobs delivered both times.

The Packers are excited to have him, and they should be.

Chris Brooks also earns high marks for his football IQ. Late in the game, the Jaguars were trying to let Brooks score as a way to get the ball back instead of letting the Packers win the game on a chip-shot field goal.

Brooks never scored a touchdown in the regular season, but his unselfish play almost guaranteed the win.

His final piece puts the cherry on top of the biggest note of the day.

Note: A

Pass defense

Safety Xavier McKinney’s interception and Edgerrin Cooper’s sack/strip led to 14 points for the Packers.

However, even with rookie star Brian Thomas Jr. and explosive veteran Christian Kirk injured, the Jaguars rallied from a 27-17 deficit.

That Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence was able to go down the field twice with backup receivers to tie the game was disappointing.

Before their late-game woes, the Packers were situationally excellent. The Jaguars missed the first eight quarters. They didn’t convert a third down until their final drive of the game, when they scored the tying touchdown.

Lawrence’s 308 passing yards and two touchdowns would have meant more if Kirk and Thomas could have finished the game. Since they didn’t, it’s a little more disappointing.

They’ll have to be better next week against Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown and an explosive Lions offense.

Grade: C

Rush Defense

Tank Bigsby is hard to approach. He entered the game ranked second among rushers in yards per carry and first in yards after contact per carry.

Bigsby had a nice day, but finished the day with just 78 yards on 18 carries. He did a lot on his own against bad tackles.

The lowest moment of the day came on Lawrence’s touchdown run. Cooper fumbled at the 5 and Lawrence dragged three defenders into the end zone for the Jaguars’ first touchdown of the game.

Finally, the Packers were solid, if unspectacular against Jacksonville’s running game.

Next week, they face a much tougher test against the Lions’ dynamic game.

Grade: B

Special teams

No real mistakes were made on special teams.

Daniel Whelan had a poor goal in the first half from the shadow of his own end zone. He made up for it later with a 63-yard punt that was capped by a great tackle by Bo Melton to force the Jaguars to go the length of the field to tie the game.

Brandon McManus was perfect again. There were no opportunities to return kickoffs and no turnovers in the return game.

Most of the time, all you ask of special teams is to go unnoticed. For the most part, that’s what happened.

Until the end, of course, when McManus made his second game-winning field goal in as many weeks. This one was much shorter than last week’s. His 24-yard field goal as time expired helped the Packers pull victory from the jaws of defeat.

Grade: B

Coaching

To call LaFleur’s game plan in the first half odd might be understating things.

LaFleur was facing the worst pass defense in the NFL.

All of his receivers were healthy and ready to play. However, for some reason, he continued to use heavy formations to put Jacksonville’s quarterbacks on the field.

That came at the expense of putting more of their defensive backs on the field.

His call to end the first half was also interesting.

In a ground game that made it 10-0, LaFleur essentially ran two plays that had no chance after a pre-snap penalty by Christian Watson set up a first-and-goal at the 14.

His decision to take the first ball after winning the coin toss has backfired in each of the last two weeks as well. Sean Rhyan’s holding penalty ended a promising opening. Mistakes like that continue to plague this team.

If he doesn’t turn the ball over, they commit penalties. If I don’t commit a normal penalty, it’s a pre-snap penalty. If not that, he doesn’t take advantage of the other team’s mistakes or score touchdowns in the red zone.

There’s also the feast-or-famine nature of his quarterback that has yet to correct itself, as Love threw another interception. This one, coming against a defense that had only one interception all season, got into the red zone and got points off the board.

Or in Sunday’s case, it could be all of those things coupled with a game plan that didn’t seem designed to take advantage of the opponent’s biggest weakness.

Maybe he had to compensate after Love was hurt during the opening series.

LaFleur also became too conservative late in the game. His final run while leading 27-20 was two uninspired runs followed by a pass that seemed to have no chance. It led to a fumble, and the Packers defense was asked to make the save — which they failed to do.

LaFleur’s had as much success as they come in the NFL, but this wasn’t his best day.

Even defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley got beat up a bit.

After giving up fewer than 10 points in the second half each week since the season opener, the Packers’ defense gave up 17 points in the second half, including a game-tying score in which Lawrence and the Jaguars backup receivers just they marched field.

The crunch time flop overshadows what was a mostly excellent game up until that point.

The Packers gained their first eight third downs and forced two turnovers.

The reality is, the way the Packers played late in the game was inexcusable. The offense didn’t play its part and the defense gave up eight completions of 20+ yards.

This would have been one that would have kept the coaching staff up at night all week if they let it slip. Thanks to the heroics of Willis, Jacobs and McManus, they needn’t have worried.

Note: D

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