Matthew Golden — Week 3: Twelve Targets, a Hundred Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Saturday, Sep 26
Golden led the Packers with 12 targets and 100 yards, caught 5, and scored his first touchdown of the season, 15 yards on second and seven with 8:21 left in the fourth. His 45-yard catch on third and eleven from the Green Bay 12 with 9:18 left in the first was the largest gain in win probability on any Packers offensive play of the night, and he converted three of six third-down targets, in a 35–14 loss to the Falcons.
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Nothing to nothing, nine 18 left in the first quarter, third and 11 at the Green Bay 12. Jordan Love threw deep right to Matthew Golden, 40 yards in the air, and Golden took it to the Atlanta 43 for 45. +4.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 9.5 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest gain by either measure on any Packers offensive play all night. One snap earlier a deep throw to the right for him, on second and 11, had fallen incomplete. Christian Watson's four-yard touchdown finished the drive four minutes of clock later.
The line: 12 targets, five catches, a hundred yards, one touchdown, four first downs, +4.6 expected points on the targets, the most of any Packer thrown to. The catches: the 45; eight yards on second and 10 with 46 seconds left in the half; 12 on third and two on the first drive of the second half, converted; the touchdown, 15 yards short right on second and seven with eight 21 left in the fourth, down 27 to seven, his first score of the season; and 20 yards on third and 10 to the Atlanta 10 with a minute 28 left, two snaps before Love was intercepted at the three. The seven misses: deep on second and 11, second and 13 and third and five in the first half — the third-and-five at the Atlanta 28 came one snap before a 47-yard field goal was blocked — a short one with 50 seconds left in the half, deep right on third and 11 in the third quarter ahead of a punt, and two short throws in the fourth. Five of his 12 targets traveled 20 or more yards in the air and one was caught; a hundred 99 air yards in all. One more play is not in his line: a deep throw his way on first and 10 from the Green Bay 33 with four 44 left in the half drew a 34-yard pass interference flag. Six targets before halftime, six after. Six third-down targets, three caught, three converted, half of Green Bay's six conversions on 15 tries.
12 targets led the team ahead of 10 to Watson, eight to Tucker Kraft and seven to Skyy Moore, 23 percent of Love's 53 throws, and the hundred yards led the team by four over Watson. It was the first hundred-yard receiving game of his career: his rookie high was 86, and Week 1 was 95.
Back in June the preview called Golden a watchlist: the fiftieth receiver off the board, a locked-in starting job after a rookie year of three targets a game, with September targets as the test — six a game would mean the job is what the price says, three would mean the org chart was only an org chart. Week 1 was 12 targets and 95 yards with none of four third downs converted. Week 2 was six targets, 58 yards, every catch a first down. Thursday was 12 again, a hundred yards, three third downs converted, and the touchdown. Three games: 30 targets, 15 catches, 253 yards, one touchdown — 10 targets a game against the six the preview set as the bar, on a night Green Bay threw 53 times without Jayden Reed, inactive with a neck injury per NBC Sports. Green Bay is at the Buccaneers on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Matthew Golden's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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