Good evening, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers took on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game. This was the first NFC Title game for the Packers at Lambeau Field since the 2007 season. Unfortunately, like in 2007, the Packers lost the game in heartbreaking fashion in front of they home fans. I am here to give you my thoughts on the game in great detail. It will not be easy, but let’s get this started.
The Packers won the coin toss, but decided to defer to the second half. This meant that the defense would be on the field for Green Bay. It is safe to say that the defense did not start well, as they gave up three straight third down conversions to the Bucs offense. Each of those conversions were done through the air by Tom Brady, who connected to Mike Evans and Chris Godwin on the passes. On third and 7 from the Green Bay 15 yard line, Brady connected to Mike Evans for the first touchdown of the game. On the TD pass, Packers CB Kevin King jumped way too early, which let Mike Evans make the catch in the end zone. The extra point kick by Ryan Succop after the score gave the Bucs a 7-0 lead after a four minute drive. The Packers offense tried to answer back with their own score, but they couldn’t get past midfield on their first possession. A sack of Aaron Rodgers by Shaq Barrett on third and 9 from the Green Bay 43 forced the Packers to punt back to Tampa Bay. The punt by JK Scott only went 38 yards to the Tampa Bay 27 yard line, where the Bucs offense started their second possession. During this possession, the Packers defense forced the Bucs into a third and 13 from their own 35. The defense somehow allowed a short pass to Chris Godwin go 14 yards for a first down. After that, the defense responded by forcing the Bucs to punt it away after 3 more plays, which consisted of 2 incomplete passes and a sack of Brady by Kenny Clark. Tavon Austin made a fair catch at the Green Bay 10, where Rodgers and the offense took over. They were in danger of going three and out after a second down sack of Rodgers by Jason Pierre-Paul, who dominated Billy Turner on the play. However, on third and 15, Rodgers found Allen Lazard for a 23-yard gain and a first down. On the next play, Rodgers found Davante Adams, who took a short pass and ran for a 15-yard gain. 3 plays later, Rodgers threw to Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the hopes that a big play would occur. Valdes-Scantling came up with the 50-yard catch and run for the touchdown despite some good coverage by Carlton Davis. The touchdown, plus the extra point by Mason Crosby, tied the game at 7-7.
On the next drive, the defense forced the Bucs to a third and 9 from their own 28 after a Kenny Clark stop of Ronald Jones and an incomplete pass by Brady. The next play went the opposite way for the defense as they gave up a 52-yard pass completion to Chris Godwin. After that, Leonard Fournette stepped over a defender and ran to his right all the way for a 20-yard touchdown on the ground. It was inexcusable by the defense to not tackle Fournette before he got into the end zone for the score. Just like that, the Packers were down by 7 with 12:24 left in the second quarter. The Packers offense then went on a 15-play drive that almost started inside their own 15. Matt LaFleur challenged the kickoff play, in which the ball somehow did not get into the end zone. After the officials looked at it, they saw that the ball hit the goal line, which resulted in a touchback for Green Bay. From their own 25, the Packers went on a drive that I thought was going to be a touchdown drive. They were getting first down after first down while avoiding a crucial turnover in the process. Robert Tonyan had the awareness to recover a fumble that was lost by Aaron Jones after Jones caught a short pass. 3 plays after that fumble recovery, Jones converted a third and 2 on the ground. Facing their first goal-to-go situation from the Bucs’ 6 yard line, the Packers did not run the ball at all. Instead, Rodgers tried to throw to Davante Adams on all three plays. To be fair, Adams should have caught the first pass for the touchdown. On third down, Rodgers did not see a wide open Allen Lazard on the play. Adams caught the pass, but was out of bounds. As a result, Mason Crosby was called upon to kick a 24-yard field goal, which was good. After the field goal, the score was now 14-10 in Tampa Bay’s favor. With 4:59 left in the second quarter, the Packers had a chance to get a stop on defense and give the offense another chance to score before halftime. After giving up a 19-yard play on third and 2, the defense forced the Bucs to punt before they get into Green Bay territory. After the third down play, which resulted in an incomplete pass, Brady was arguing with the official because he thought that he was roughed up by Za’Darius Smith. Thankfully, no flag was thrown and the Bucs punted back to Green Bay, who started the possession at their own 13. This next possession by Green Bay was crucial in that it could give the Packers a chance to get a score at the end of the half and at the start of the third quarter (remember that they deferred to start the game). After a 23-yard pass play to Allen Lazard that converted a third and 6, there was somehow no sense of urgency to stop the clock with just over a minute left. With the clock now at 38 seconds, the Packers finally got another play off, which resulted in another sack of Aaron Rodgers. On the next play, Rodgers was intercepted by Sean Murphy-Bunting, who should have been called for defensive holding (more on the officiating later). In this situation, all the defense needs to do is to get a stop and keep the score at 14-10. During this possession for the Bucs, Will Redmond dropped an easy interception that would have kept the score as is. What followed that drop was inexcusable for the defense. After the Bucs called timeout, the offense was brought onto the field to convert a fourth and 4, which they did. On the next play, Kevin King let Scotty Mille get in front of him for a 39-yard touchdown pass from Tom Brady. With that turn of events, the Packers were now down by 11 at halfime.
Even with the 21-10 deficit, the Packers still had a chance to decrease that margin on their first second half possession. Unfortunately, that did not happen as Aaron Jones fumbled on a third and 5 pass play. The fumble was recovered by Devin White, who returned it to the Green Bay 8. The worst part was that Jones got hurt on the play. After the fumble, Tom Brady found Cameron Brate for a touchdown pass that gave the Bucs an 18-point lead (the extra point was good). With the score now 28-10, the offense needed a spark to come back. On the next drive, the offense went down the field in 8 plays to cut the lead to 11 points. Rodgers completed passes to 5 different targets, including Marquez Valdes-Scantlng for 24 yards, Davante Adams for 10 yards, Allen Lazard for 16 yards, and Robert Tonyan for the 8-yard touchdown pass. The extra point by Mason Crosby after the touchdown decreased the lead to 28-17. With 9:28 left in the third quarter, the defense needed a stop to help make the comeback happen. 4 plays into the Bucs possession, Tom Brady let out a deep pass that was intercepted by safety Adrian Amos. The interception gave the Packers offense the ball at their own 32, where they went on another scoring drive. There was a missed opportunity during a free play where Davante Adams was left open deep. Rodgers did not see him and threw to Dominique Dafney, who got hit in the head by a defender. That part was not called, but the Packers did get the offsides penalty and 5 free yards. After that penalty, the Packers offense had no problem going down the field with a mix of run and pass plays. On one run play, AJ Dillon carried a defender (or 2) on his way to a five yard gain. Later on in the drive, Jamaal Williams caught a short pass from Rodgers and turned it into an 11-yard gain to the Tampa Bay 13. 2 plays later, Carlton Davis was called for lowering the head while trying to tackle Davante Adams (which is a huge no-no). 3 plays later, Adams got the separation and caught the 2-yard TD pass from Rodgers that cut the lead to single digits. For some reason, Green Bay decided to go for 2 points after the touchdown, even though it was not the fourth quarter yet. Equanimeous St. Brown dropped the pass for the conversion, keeping the score at 28-23.
This next sequence of events, spanning multiple possessions, represents an opportunity wasted by the Packers on offense. On the next drive for Tampa Bay, the Bucs offense was going down the field to maybe get a field goal to increase the lead. On second and 11 from the Green Bay 28, Tom Brady threw a pass that was intended for Mike Evans. The ball bounced off of the receiver’s hands and into the hands of Jaire Alexander for the interception. Jaire Alexander returned the pick to the Green Bay 19, where the offense would get their first crack at getting points off of the turnover. They went three and out on the drive after Rodgers was sacked again by Shaq Barrett on third down. After the punt return, the Bucs started their next possession at their own 38. 3 plays later, Brady was picked off once again by Alexander. Unfortunately, the Packers went three and out for the second time in a row. In both of those possessions for Green Bay after the Jaire Alexander picks, the offense did not run the ball once. After the second straight punt by JK Scott, the Bucs went on a drive that ended in a score. During the possession, Rob Gronkowski somehow got 29 yards on a short catch and run. 3 plays after that, the Bucs were forced to settle for a field goal, which was made by Ryan Succop from 46 yards out. With 4:46 left in the game, the Packers were down by a score of 31-23. They did get a boost from a 30 yard kickoff return by Jamaal Williams to the 34, where the offense took over. AJ Dillon ran for 9 yards to get the drive going. After that, Rodgers found Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 29 yard gain to the Tampa 28. After an incomplete pass on first and 10, Rodgers connected on two straight passes to Davante Adams that set up first and goal from the 8. Once again, there were 3 straight incomplete passes in the goal-to-go situation. On second and third down, Rodgers had room to scramble for at least a couple of yards. Instead, he threw it on both plays. To be fair, Adams was open on third down. Rodgers kinda hesitated due to the defense and the pass fell incomplete. On fourth down, Mason Crosby was called upon to kick a 26-yard field goal, which cut the Bucs lead to 5 points again.
On the ensuing kickoff, Bucs return man Jaydon Mickens made a weird decision to slide down inside of the 20 yard line. The situation for the Packers defense was clear with all 3 timeouts plus the 2 minute warning. They needed to get a stop in order to give Aaron Rodgers and the offense one more chance at winning the game. On the first play, Tom Brady connected with Mike Evans for a 9-yard gain, which led to the 2 minute warning. The defense then took an intentional encroachment penalty that gave Tampa Bay a free first down (but saved the timeout). After 2 Leonard Fournette runs (and 2 timeouts by Green Bay), it was now third and 4 from the Tampa Bay 37. Tom Brady was pressured by Rashan Gary to throw an inaccurate pass that was intended for Tyler Johnson. The pass went incomplete, but Kevin King was called for defensive pass interference, effectively ending any hopes of Green Bay coming back. A Chris Godwin end around run for a first down ended the game, with the Packers losing by a score of 31-26. With this loss, the Packers’ fantastic 2020 season was over in front of their home crowd.
I am not going to mince words about this loss. It’s painful for a number of reasons. In front of the Lambeau Field faithful (about 9,000 fans in attendance), the Packers squandered a golden opportunity to go to the Super Bowl due to numerous mistakes on all sides of the football. On offense, the Packers were not very balanced at all (only 16 carries by the running backs). I know that part of that was due to them being down by double digits at some points in the game. That really does not excuse the multiple times throughout that the offense was put in spread formations. The offensive line did not play their best game as they gave up 5 sacks of Rodgers (plus 21 pressures). This was the game where David Bakhtiari’s absence was felt the most, with Billy Turner and Rick Wagner struggling against Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul. There was no excuse for the offense to go pass heavy near the goal line, especially when the Packers have AJ Dillon in the repertoire of weapons. It was a shame that AJ Dillon only got 3 carries, even when Aaron Jones left the game with a chest injury. Aaron Rodgers did throw for nearly 350 yards and 3 touchdowns, but there were a few mistakes that he made. Those mistakes included not seeing open targets on certain plays and not scrambling on the second goal line situation. There were also a few drops by the receivers, including Davante Adams in the second quarter and Equanimeous St. Brown on the 2-point conversion attempt (which should not have been called). The biggest missed opportunity for the offense in the game was going three and out after both Jaire Alexander interceptions. The 2 turnovers that the Packers committed, meanwhile, were followed up by touchdowns by Tampa Bay. Despite the mistakes by the offense, I have to give major credit to Marquez Valdes-Scantling for playing his butt off. He finished with 4 catches for 115 yards and a touchdown, which was the 50-yard catch and run that tied the game at 7-7 in the second quarter. I also have to give the offense credit for not giving up after the score went up to 28-10, even though they came up short in the end. It was not Matt LaFleur’s best game in terms of play-calling by a long shot. Hopefully he uses the offseason to self-scout and get the offense rolling again next season. There might be different players in terms of the offensive line, wide receiver, and running back rooms, but I hope that the offense does not go on a downward spiral with Rodgers at QB and LaFleur as coach.
On defense, it was like a “tale of 2 halves.” In the first half, the defense kept allowing long third downs and plenty of deep passes. Kevin King, in particular, was responsible for giving up 2 touchdown passes in the first half. The second one to end the first half was beyond inexcusable, both from Kevin King and from defensive coordinator Mike Pettine. The Bucs had no timeouts left, which meant that they went all in on trying for a touchdown. King underestimated Scotty Miller’s speed and allowed an easy touchdown that stunned the crowd at Lambeau Field. That touchdown would not have happened had Will Redmond picked off Brady at the end of the first half. Other than the one sack by Kenny Clark, the pass rush did next to nothing against Tom Brady, totaling just 5 pressures on the day. It stunk that the offense only scored 6 points off of the 3 interceptions of Brady, including getting nothing after 2 Jaire Alexander picks. Speaking of Jaire Alexander, he had a great game as he allowed no catches when targeted (he was targeted only 5 times, including the interceptions). Other than the 20-yard TD run for Leonard Fournette, the Packers defense kept the run game (mostly) in check. I have to give credit to the defense for playing much better in the second half, even though the offense could not capitalize enough on the opportunities given to them. Like on offense, I do expect a few of the defensive players, including Kevin King, to go elsewhere in the offseason. It will be interesting to see what happens in the offseason, but I hope that the defense comes back strong next season.
On Special Teams, there were 2 good things: Mason Crosby and no turnovers. Other than that, it was mostly disappointing. JK Scott might not come back as the punter after Sunday’s game, in which he was inconsistent. At least one of his punts went for over 50 yards. There were no big plays in the return game for Green Bay, but the Packers coverage unit did not allow any huge returns on the other end. Another positive thing that I forgot to say was that there were no penalties on Special Teams. I have a strong feeling that Shawn Mennenga will not be back as the Special Teams coordinator. If he is gone, I hope that Matt LaFleur hires someone that can rejuvenate the unit and get players ready for any situation.
Before I conclude, I want to say something quick about the officiating. For the first 58 minutes, the refs were letting the players play. There were plenty of times where no holdings were called on either side, including a hold by Sean Murphy-Bunting on the interception of Rodgers that was egregious. Another non-call happened on the play that Kevin King got called for defensive pass interference. It was when one of the offensive linemen for the Bucs held Rashan Gary by the jersey in front of an official. About the penalty on Kevin King that pretty much ended the game, it was a penalty by the letter of the low. King did grab Tyler Johnson’s jersey, but the official did not throw the flag until way after the play was over. In fact, it was an official that was far away from the play who threw the flag. My issue is that the refs were letting them play until that point. The fact that the penalty was called that late when the season was on the line was a tough pill to swallow. Regardless of the officiating, the Packers had opportunities to win the game. They should not have been in this position had they gotten at least one touchdown off of a Jaire Alexander interception. At the end of the day, the Packers have themselves to blame for this defeat.
Overall, this loss will sting for a bit. I am sure that the players are more sad than the fans are after this loss. It’s more painful because this was the first NFC Championship game at Lambeau Field since 2007. It’s one of the tougher losses that I have experienced as a Packers fan, including previous NFC Title game losses (2007 and 2014, to be specific). Even with this defeat, I am thankful for the 2020 season. The Packers overcame all of the obstacles, including COVID-19, on their way to another 13-3 record. Regardless of what happens in the offseason, I will always be a Packers fan until my last breath. Stay tuned for future posts, Packers-related or otherwise. Have a good night, everyone. Go Pack Go.
(Here are the [unfortunate] highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page.)
コメント