The Green Bay Packers are on their bye and, frankly, it came at a good time.

Their offensive line is banged up and defensive Devonte Wyatt was described as week-to-week by coach Matt LaFleur on Tuesday.

Furthermore, after a 2-0 start to the season, each phase of Green Bay’s team has laid an egg in some capacity over the last two games. The Packers are a play or two away from being 4-0. Conversely, they’re 1 second away from falling to 2-2, which would have undone all the goodwill they had built up over the first two games.

They’ll have a chance to lick their wounds this week before returning to Lambeau Field on Oct. 12 to face the Cincinnati Bengals. When that game kicks off, it will have been more than a month since the Packers have won a game.

Through the first quarter of the season, they’ve shown flashes of greatness but lack the consistency of that of a true Super Bowl contender. They sit behind the Detroit Lions in the NFC North, with the rematch set for Thanksgiving Day at Ford Field.

The good news for them is that it is still early, and sometimes the early portion of the season is used as a means to search for the team’s identity. They have flashed some high-level potential on offense and defense.

With that in mind, here is our report card from the first four games of the season.

The NFL starts and stops with quarterback play. That was one of the big questions coming into the season. How good is Jordan Love and how good is the passing game after last season ended with one giant thud against a wall comprised of the Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles.

Some of that was passed off as a byproduct of injuries. Through four games, that seems like a fair critique. Love has been excellent to begin the season, and partially because he is more mobile than he was at any time a season ago.

Love has had a passer rating over 100 in three of his first four games, with the notable exception being a disastrous performance by the entire offense against the Browns in Week 3.

Love ranks third in the NFL in passer rating, third in touchdowns and fifth in passing yards per game. Furthermore, he’s been deadly when he’s been protected. He leads the league in completion percentage and has a quarterback rating of 140.9 when he’s in a clean pocket, according to PFF.

Perhaps most importantly, he’s only turned the ball over twice: one strip-sack at Dallas in which you can debate whether he was at fault and one interception at Cleveland. Both plays were pivotal in the Packers’ failure to win.

Last year at the bye, Love was at the top of the league in interceptions. The Packers are still throwing the ball down the field, so Love has not sacrificed aggressiveness in the name of taking care of the ball. That’s an encouraging sign for the rest of the season.

On the receiving end of his passes, Tucker Kraft leads the team in targets and catches with 20 and 16, respectively.

For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the discussion of a receiver emerging as a top option, nobody has separated themselves through four games. Five players have caught at least 10 passes.

The only real separation has come in the scoring department. Romeo Doubs is second on the team with 13 catches but leads the team with four touchdowns after a three-touchdown performance in Sunday’s tie against Dallas.

“Yeah, I just think when his number’s called upon he’s delivered, and I think it’s been his approach,” LaFleur said on Tuesday. “In four years, Rome has done everything the right way. I know that there was a little blip on the screen, but I think that was just a one-off.

“And over time, he does everything the right way in regards to how he prepares, how he supports his teammates, so it’s really cool to see a guy have success like that, and I would expect that to continue because he approaches the game the right way. He comes to work every day with the right mentality. He puts the work in. He does extra work, he does all the little things required to help you become the best version of you. It’s really cool to see.”

Doubs is playing for a contract, and that situation is something worth revisiting.

For now, at least, the Packers are happy with what they’ve been able to get from him and will deal with future ramifications later.

This group should be getting some reinforcements with the return of Christian Watson and three offensive linemen at some point out of the bye week.

The offensive linemen will be a welcome sight. Love was not sacked against Detroit in Week 1. That happens to be the only game in which right tackle Zach Tom played more than one snap. It’s the only game the preferred starting five on the offensive line has played more than one snap, as well.

This group has struggled with a lack of continuity. They’ve played eight offensive linemen through four games, including four at right tackle.

The last two games have been a mess from a protection standpoint. According to PFF, each offensive lineman except for Elgton Jenkins allowed at least four pressures against the Cowboys. That hardly mattered as the Packers piled up 40 points, but it’s still a concern considering Dallas’ pass rush had been incredibly anemic.

The previous week was when disaster struck. Love was pressured on nearly half his dropbacks and sacked five times against the Browns, as they were only able to muster 10 points.

Despite the issues in protection, this group has been productive.

The blemishes in protection and one poor performance against the Browns is all that’s separating this group from a higher mark.

Grade: B

Rush Offense

The previously mentioned issues on the offensive line have been a detriment to the run game, as well. Early in the season, Detroit and Washington loaded the box to slow down Josh Jacobs and force Jordan Love to beat them through the air.

Beat them, he did, which might cause a change in approach from defenses as the season progresses.

Going into Sunday’s game against Dallas, Jacobs was averaging a career low in yards per carry, but there are a multitude of reasons for that. Of course, as soon as NBC’s broadcast of the game pointed that out, Jacobs exploded.

His best game of the year was on Sunday, and he was a key cog in Green Bay’s offense moving the ball up and down the field against Dallas’ hapless defense in the second half. Jacobs scored twice, including once from 19 yards.

Contributing in the run and pass game, Jacobs piled up 157 total yards. He only averaged 3.9 yards per carry, but the 14 carries for 70 yards in the second half was a step in the right direction for Jacobs and a run game that had been woeful through three weeks.

Jacobs has been a workhorse. Emanuel Wilson has just 15 carries, with a majority of those coming on Sunday, when Jacobs was nursing a knee injury that required him to get stitches during the game. So, what changed about the run game in the second half, and is it something that can continue after the bye?

“That we gained some yards, finally. I mean, it’s been a struggle. We all know that,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “Running the football can be interesting at times, because a lot of times early on you might not get many yards or it’s tough sledding.

“And then it’s kind of like a boxing match, when somebody’s throwing body blows. And then you just kind of soften them up as the game goes, and that’s kind of what happened in the game, and then we took advantage of some of the lighter boxes they were playing.

“They played a bunch of shell – probably played a little bit more man than we were anticipating, just based on what they’d shown on tape. But I just thought our backs ran hard, I thought our guys were coming off the ball up front. I still think there’s more out there for us. But I was happy to see it kind of get going as the game progressed.”

A step in the right direction helps, but the Packers need more out of the bye.

Grade: D

Perhaps you’ve heard by now, Micah Parsons is a Green Bay Packer.

His presence has been immense, even if the box score does not always show that. Parsons has only 2.5 sacks, but he has been impactful in each game.

He only had one sack in Sunday’s return to Dallas. It came on a hustle play that saved a touchdown in overtime. But he had 10 pressures, and has had at least five pressures in each of the last three games, according to PFF.

Parsons may be the straw that stirs the drink, but he’s not a one-man band. Rashan Gary has 4.5 sacks and Devonte Wyatt has two. As a team, the Packers have 11 sacks and have looked much more like the dominant group that Brian Gutekunst hoped he had assembled a season ago.

The questions about this group came in the secondary, where the cornerback group is experienced but not fully accomplished.

Nate Hobbs, Carrington Valentine and Keisean Nixon held up incredibly well through the first three games, with the help of Javon Bullard playing in the slot, as well.

The Packers did not allow more than 225 passing yards in any of the first three games. They suffocated Jared Goff, Jayden Daniels and Joe Flacco. The wheels fell off a little bit against Dallas, though, with Dak Prescott tearing the Packers apart. PFF charged Hobbs and Valentine with a combined 9-of-11 passing for 127 yards and three touchdowns.

The question for now is whether that was a blip on the radar, or the start of a troubling trend.

No better way to find out than having to face the Bengals’ JaMarr Chase and Tee Higgins out of the bye.

Sunday’s poor performance in Dallas, and the lack of takeaways, are the only things preventing the most dynamic unit on the team from getting an “A.”

Grade: B+

Rush Defense

When the Packers traded for Micah Parsons, the first question was pretty simple. Were they going to be able to stop the run enough to unleash this pass rush they’d assembled?

After all, the two anchors of their much-improved run defense from the season prior, Kenny Clark and TJ Slaton, were playing on different teams.

Their first game of the season was about as big of a test as you can have as a run defense. Detroit clearly had a desire to try and run the ball down the throat of Green Bay’s defense, but it did not find much room. The tandem of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, or “Sonic and Knuckles” as they like to be called, did not have any success. The Packers held Detroit’s powerful rushing tandem to 44 yards on 20 carries.

They followed that up by shutting down Washington’s run game, as well.

They haven’t been as dominant the last two weeks, but still have not been gashed on the ground, as was the concern when Clark and Slaton walked out the door. Through the first four weeks, the Packers are tied for second in the NFL with just 77.5 rushing yards allowed per game.

If that’s a trend that can continue, Green Bay’s defense will be in real good shape as the weather turns.

Grade: A

Matt LaFleur sounded like he was joking when he was asked about his special teams performance.

 “I think if we can just clean up those catastrophic errors – which, you know, that’s a big ‘if,’” LaFleur said with a laugh, “we’ll be in a much better spot.”

The catastrophic errors, of course, are two blocked kicks that completely changed the complexion of the last two games. Against Cleveland, Brandon McManus had a potential game-winning field goal blocked. Against Dallas, McManus’ extra point was blocked and returned for two points, which flipped a game Green Bay was dominating.

They’ve not alone in those errors. They’ve struggled in covering and returning kickoffs and fielding punts.

Savion Williams is interesting with the ball in his hands but is clearly inexperienced as a returner. Matthew Golden was replaced as a punt returner by Romeo Doubs against the Cowboys.

The Packers don’t have a viable return man on their roster, unless they put the ball back in the hands of every-down cornerback Keisean Nixon, and it doesn’t seem like they’re interested in finding one.

They’ve had at least one open roster spot since placing Jayden Reed on injured reserve, but did not promote Mecole Hardman from the practice squad. In fact, they released him.

On the flip side, punter Daniel Whelan has been great. His 51.8-yard average and McManus’ big kicks against Dallas are the only things saving this group from a failing grade.

Grade: D

Coaching

The last two games have not been Matt LaFleur’s best work. The end-of-game sequence against the Cowboys, when his team showed a complete lack of urgency to win the game in overtime, almost cost them a chance to even settle for a tie.

LaFleur took responsibility for that sequence and vowed to not have it happen again.

“Where we have to clear up the communication is when we’re not in 2-minute mode and then you jump into 2-minute mode. Everybody on the field has to know that and they have to operate as such.” LaFleur said.

“And we were operating more of our no-huddle tempo, which isn’t warp speed, whereas 2-minute is more warp speed. And it’s a bad look, quite honestly. And that’s why you get a bad result, as well. It’s just, the communication and process have got to be cleaned up because we can’t allow that to ever happen again.”

Perhaps more concerning was LaFleur’s comments about a fourth-and-2 in the first half.

LaFleur was right in that, to that point in the season, Green Bay’s defense had not given up a touchdown in the first three quarters of a game. The rebuttal is that his defense being that good is a reason to go for it.

Those types of decisions are the ones that get made in the playoffs, and more often than not, conservative approaches have bitten LaFleur and his team badly in those situations.

Those decisions aside, LaFleur does deserve a lot of credit for the way his team started the season.

There were a lot of questions to answer after losing the final three games of last season. When this year’s schedule came out, they faced two of the best teams in the NFC right off the bat. They won both games in relatively dominant fashion. Early-season showdowns are tough to get ready for, and LaFleur had no room for a soft landing.

Defensively, Jeff Hafley’s group has been mostly excellent. He’s had more tools at his disposal with the addition of Parsons, and he could be in line for a head coaching job if the Packers defense continues to play well.

On the other hand, Rich Bisaccia’s special teams continue to disappoint. They’ve had issues with injuries forcing players into other spots, but that’s a day in the life of a special teams coordinator. Bisaccia needs to fix the catastrophic mistakes that cost the team points each of the last two weeks.

If any organization knows how a catastrophic special teams can rob you of a Super Bowl run, it’s the Packers.

Nonetheless, the excellent first two games of the season gives LaFleur, and his staff, a passing mark.

Grade: C