GREEN BAY, Wis. -- It wasn't just how many times Jordan Love got hit in the Green Bay Packers' 39-22 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday -- although even that number was more than originally believed -- it was how quickly the quarterback had defenders in his face.
Ten times on Sunday, Love faced unblocked pressures -- the most of any quarterback in Week 1 and tied for the most in a game by any quarterback in the past five seasons, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
Among the 28 quarterbacks to be sacked in Week 1, Love's average time before being sacked was the fourth fastest (3.59 seconds).
"What's disappointing is we had a few protection busts that absolutely should not and cannot happen," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said.
According to the official game statistics, the Vikings registered 15 hits on Love.
When asked what he told the offense after Love was hit 15 times, offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich replied: "18 times actually."
LaFleur and his staff have a long list of things to fix before their Week 2 game at the New York Jets (1:00 p.m. ET, Fox). The offensive line -- and the entire blocking operation -- is at the top of that list.
Perhaps the most telling breakdown of the game came with a little more than 5 minutes left. The Packers had just fallen behind 25-22 after leading 22-10, but they still had a chance if they could put a drive together. Instead, Love was sacked on consecutive plays, losing the second one and giving the Vikings the ball at the Packers' 1-yard line, where they put the game away.
On the first sack, Minnesota's Dallas Turner was unblocked off the left edge despite having two players -- right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele and tight end Mark Redman -- lined up across from him. Neither blocked him, with Redman essentially knocking Bako-Bewele out of the way.
"Yeah, that was a bust," LaFleur said.
"I mean I think that's the type of team they are, so in order to combat that you gotta communicate, be on the same page, focus in," Bako-Bewele said. "I think in the second half, there were some miscommunications here and there that got us beat."
In some ways, it should not have been a major surprise that there were issues with the offensive line. It was a game of musical chairs throughout training camp. One day, guard Aaron Banks would practice a little. The next day, he wouldn't practice at all. He rarely took any 11-on-11 snaps because of a lingering knee issue from last season. It was much the same for Bako-Bewele, who had offseason knee surgery.
Still, the Packers thought Banks would be ready for the season opener but when he was a late scratch at the end of the week, they had a decision to make. Based on the way they practiced for six weeks in camp, it seemingly would have been a choice between playing rookie Jager Burton in Banks' place or putting Anthony Belton at right guard and moving Jacob Monk to left tackle. The problem was that Belton, who started six games at right guard last season, took most of his reps at right tackle in camp because Bako-Bewele was limited.
They did neither.
Instead, Donovan Jennings got the call because he had been better of late in practice, Stenavich said.
With or without Banks, who is looking more and more like a bad signing after Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst gave him a four-year, $77 million contract as a free agent in 2025, the Packers appear to be open to some personnel changes up front.
"We're gonna keep working that this week [now that] Zach [is] kind of more situated at tackle," Stenavich said Tuesday. "So we're gonna kind of rotate a few guys and just see what our best combination is for sure."
The Packers can sit back and say that no other team is likely to blitz as much as the Vikings did. It's defensive coordinator Brian Flores' M.O., and he lived up to it. According to NFL Next Gen stats, the Vikings blitzed Love on 78.3% of his dropbacks -- the fourth-highest rate in any game since at least 2018.
The Packers handled it in the first half -- 189 passing yards and two touchdowns against the blitz -- but melted down in the second, when the Vikings sacked Love four times and picked him off once while blitzing.
That doesn't mean the Jets, or anyone else on the Packers' schedule, will scrap their usual style in favor of the Flores formula, but it might make them throw in a few extra pressures.
The Packers were last in pass block win rate for Week 1 at 9%, according to ESPN Analytics. The next-worst team, the Cardinals, were 22%. Jordan Morgan, making his first start at left tackle, ranked dead last among all Week 1 tackles in pass block win rate. Bako-Bewele was 47th. Among guards, Monk ranked 55th and Jennings 56th. Sean Ryan ranked last (32nd) among centers.
"I think there's some things that we definitely have to get cleaned up that we'll certainly see, I'm sure, this week," LaFleur said. "But that would be a wholesale commitment to go to that style of defense, you don't see a whole bunch of that in the league."