My Thoughts from the Green Bay Packers at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10/4/2026)

Here are my thoughts from today's 17-14 Green Bay Packers win at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

The offensive line showed noticeable improvement.  It took bringing in multiple veteran players this past week, but something was clearly different. Jordan Love had time in the pocket rather than running for his life almost every snap.

It was good to see the team finally commit to the run game too. Losing Chris Brooks early was unfortunate, as was the Kaleb Johnson fumble, but the team managed to have some big runs which opened up the passing game by forcing the Buccaneers' defense to respect it. 

A lot of the same issues still persist though. Green Bay had double-digit penalties again as well as some key drops by the receivers. There were two more late-game fumbles, including the one lost by Johnson and another Love interception, all of which kept the Buccaneers in the game until the end. They aren't going to win many games against better teams if those don't get cleaned up.

Tucker Kraft seems to be getting back in form. Not having to be kept as an extra blocker certainly helped but he showed his value as a short-distance outlet for Love, giving him someone he can dump the ball off to in a hurry with the ability to pick up extra yards after the catch.

Losing Edgerrin Cooper on defense hurts though. It's too early to know for sure how serious of an injury he sustained but his playmaking ability was on display prior to him being carted off the field. Hopefully it's not something that will knock him out for the season.

How good is kicker Trey Smack? That 58-yard field goal at the end of the half was a thing of beauty. It once again justified the Packers' decision to trade up and draft him.

I am a little worried about punter Daniel Whelan though. While mostly still consistent, he seems to have at least one bad punt per game, including this week's 36-yard punt that gave Tampa Bay great field position prior to their first touchdown drive.