Good morning, everyone. On Saturday night, the Green Bay Packers took on the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Divisional Round at Lambeau Field. Entering this game as the number one seed in the NFC, the Packers were looking to make a return trip to the Super Bowl. They were 2 wins away and they had the cold and the home crowd in their favor. Not only that, but some key players were coming back, including Za’Darius Smith, Jaire Alexander, Randall Cobb, and Whitney Mercilus. Despite everything going the Packers’ way, they couldn’t get it done on Saturday night against the 49ers. I know it will be tough to recap this, but I have to. Let’s get started.
The first drive for the Packers went spectacularly, as they had no problem moving the ball down the field for the first touchdown of the game. They started at the 31 yard line after a short 15 yard kick return by Amari Rodgers. They quickly got into 49ers territory after a 14 yard pass from Aaron Rodgers to Davante Adams on the second play and a 19-yard catch and run by Aaron Jones on the fourth play. After two more Rodgers to Adams connections for a first down, AJ Dillon finished off the last 11 yards on two rushing attempts. He powered through the 49ers defense for a 6-yard touchdown that (with an extra point kick by Mason Crosby) gave the Packers a 7-0 lead with 9:25 left in the first quarter. The Packers defense forced the 49ers to go three and out on their first possession of the game. A false start penalty did not help matters during the drive. On third and 12 at the San Francisco 38, Za’Darius Smith went through the line and sacked Jimmy Garoppolo for a loss of 9 yards, turning the crowd (and me watching at home) nuts. The punt was downed by the 49ers at the Green Bay 25 yard line. From there, the Packers went on a drive that looked like one that was once again going for a touchdown. They got two first downs before Marcedes Lewis caught a pass and was stripped of the ball by linebacker Fred Warner. The ensuing fumble was recovered by Keaundre Greenlaw at the San Francisco 42. The Packers defense supposedly got a fumble recovery of their own after Rasul Douglas stripped WR Brandon Aiyuk of the ball, with Krys Barnes recovering the fumble and returning it to the SF 40. The refs looked at the replay and ruled that Aiyuk didn’t take enough steps for possession, thereby ruling the play as an incomplete pass. Rashan Gary ultimately ended the drive with a five yard sack of Garoppolo on third down. The punt was fair caught by Amari Rodgers at the Green Bay 16. From there, the Packers did pretty much nothing on offense. After a 4-yard run by Dillon, Aaron Rodgers threw incomplete two straight times intended for Dominique Dafney, including a deep pass attempt on third and 6 from the Green Bay 22. Corey Bojorquez punted 42 yards to the SF 38, where it was downed by Equanimeous St. Brown. The Packers defense responded by forcing yet another three and out. On third and 11 from the San Francisco 37, Adrian Amos made a great play by breaking up a pass by Garoppolo. Amari Rodgers only had a 6-yard punt return before he thankfully went out of bounds at the Green Bay 17. On the next drive, the Packers went three and out thanks to a false start penalty on Allen Lazard and a 6-yard sack of Rodgers on third and 8 by Samson Ebukam. After the punt by Bojorquez and a short return that went to the SF 34, the Packers defense got another three and out thanks to Rashan Gary’s second sack of the game. After the punt return by Amari Rodgers, in which he once again got safely out of bounds, the Packers started their next possession at their own 25 yard line. The good news was that the drive wasn’t a three and out. The bad news was that the Packers were still forced to punt after a blunder on a fourth and 2 at the Green Bay 46. Rodgers was trying to make the defense jump offsides. I yelled at the TV that if you’re going to go for it, then actually go for it. AJ Dillon was available for this short yardage situation. Instead, there was a delay of game penalty and the Packers punted back to San Francisco. From their own 23, the 49ers went on their first productive drive of the game. There was supposedly a fumble by Deebo Samuel during the drive, but on the play, the refs ruled that his forward progress was stopped. Even though he clearly fumbled, Matt LaFleur couldn’t challenge it because of the forward progress rule. The 49ers managed to get all the way to the Green Bay nine yard line before the drive ended in disaster. First, there was an offensive holding penalty that pinned them back 10 yards. After that, Jimmy Garoppolo ran to his right, evading pressure in the process, and threw a desperation pass intended for George Kittle. The pass was intercepted by Adrian Amos at the Green Bay 4 yard line with 56 seconds left in the first half. On the third play of the drive, the Packers got into field goal range, although the play should have resulted in a touchdown. Rolling to his right, Aaron Rodgers found a wide open Aaron Jones on a wheel route pass. Jones made a jump and spin catch and began to run. Rather than turn on the jets, Jones cut inside because of the safety possibly getting the angle. Had he stayed to the sideline, he would have either gotten a touchdown or pushed out of bounds. He was tackled in bounds, forcing the Packers to use their last timeout and limiting their playbook to only a couple of plays. On first and 10 from the SF 14, Rodgers was strip-sacked by Nick Bosa and lost the ball. After the fumble was recovered by Lucas Patrick, Rodgers spiked the ball with three seconds left, setting up a 39-yard field goal attempt for Mason Crosby. The kick was blocked by San Francisco thanks to Tyler Lancaster doing nothing to prevent the block. After one half of play, the score was still (a very nervous) 7-0 in Green Bay’s favor.
The second half didn’t start well at all for the Special Teams unit as they gave up a huge kickoff return to Deebo Samuel that gave the 49ers the ball at midfield. The 49ers offense then went on a 12-play drive that gained a couple of first downs. The Niners were forced to settle for a 29-yard field goal after a couple of penalties made them try to convert a third and 16. Krys Barnes laid a big hit on Deebo Samuel, who got shaken up on the play but was able to come back. The 29-yard field goal by Robbie Gould was good, cutting the lead to 7-3 midway through the third quarter. The Packers’ first drive of the third quarter ended in a three and out after two straight incomplete passes by Aaron Rodgers (including a dropped pass by Josiah Deguara) and a pass completion to Aaron Jones that only went 6 yards. After the punt by Corey Bojorquez, the 49ers started their next possession at their 28 yard line. On the first play, De’Vondre Campbell had a missed opportunity for a pick six after Jimmy Garoppolo threw a pass to the flat. Thankfully, Kenny Clark sacked Garoppolo on third down, forcing the 49ers to punt yet again. Amari Rodgers was able to fair catch the punt cleanly at the Green Bay 28. From there, the Packers went on a 16-play drive that took more than 9 minutes off the game clock. It was a mix of run and pass plays, with the biggest play of the drive being a 25-yard pass completion from Aaron Rodgers to Davante Adams that got Green Bay into scoring range. They nearly scored a touchdown on the drive, but a false start penalty on Dennis Kelly and a sack of Rodgers by Arik Armstead forced them to settle for a 29-yard field goal, which was not blocked this time. The field goal was good, giving the Packers a 10-3 lead midway through the fourth quarter. At this point, the snow began falling on the field. I am not going to lie when I say my heart was racing during this final quarter. The crowd was roaring all night long, especially during this 49ers drive. I was getting more nervous as the Niners were moving down the field. The biggest play for the defense occurred at the end of this drive. This play should have been the death knell for the Niners. On fourth and 1 at the Green Bay 19 yard line, Jimmy Garoppolo handed the ball off to Elijah Mitchell. Rashan Gary got through the line and tackled Mitchell for a loss of 1 yard (with the help of De’Vondre Campbell). With a little over 6 minutes left in the game and the ball at their own 20, the Packers had a prime opportunity to get a few first downs and seal the game (and maybe get another score in the process). Instead, the Packers offense went three and out thanks to an incomplete pass on second down and Rodgers getting sacked for a fifth time in the game. What happened next was a disaster that was inevitable with how bad the Special Teams unit played all season long. After Steven Wirtel snapped the ball to Corey Bojorquez for the punt, he pretty much let Jordan Willis go through and block the punt. What made it worse was that the Packers players just stood there with no urgency as the ball was recovered by Talanoa Hufanga for a touchdown. The extra point kick by Robbie Gould tied the game at 10-10 with 4:41 left in the game. With the lead now gone, there was at least plenty of time for Rodgers and the offense to go down the field for the game-winning field goal or touchdown. Instead, what happened during the failed drive was a major blunder by Aaron Rodgers. On third and 11 from the Green Bay 28, Rodgers threw a heave to a double-covered Davante Adams, which fell incomplete. Allen Lazard was wide open down the middle of the field on the play. Bojorquez punted back to the 49ers, who started their final drive with 3:20 left in the game. The defense tried their best to keep the Niners from running out the rest of the clock, but they weren’t able to, despite the crowd being on their side. When Deebo Samuel converted a third and 7 from the Green Bay 38 with a 9-yard run, the end result was inevitable. The 49ers ran out the rest of the clock and set up a 45-yard field goal attempt by Robbie Gould. The kick was good as time expired, giving the 49ers a 13-10 win that eliminated the Packers from the playoffs at Lambeau Field. With the loss, the Packers once again come up short of their goal of winning the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Before I go over the bad, which was offense and Special Teams, I want to go over the defense’s performance on Saturday night. Other than that final drive, the defense played lights out for all four quarters. Rashan Gary was the player of the game, with 2 sacks and 4 tackles (3 for negative yards). In addition to Gary, Za’Darius Smith and Kenny Clark each got one sack for the game. Preston Smith led the defense with 9 total tackles, while De’Vondre Campbell and Krys Barnes each had 7 total tackles on the night. Adrian Amos played well too, totaling 6 tackles and grabbing the Packers’ lone interception of Jimmy Garoppolo. There were two instances where the defender (Eric Stokes in one and De’Vondre Campbell in the other) should have gotten a pick six rather than try to tackle the receiver on a flat route. Eric Stokes is a rookie after all, but I thought that he read the play well. With the way the defense was playing all game long, a pick six by either player would have totally iced the game. Joe Barry’s unit came to play against the 49ers. That defense was championship caliber, especially with that fourth down stop with over 6 minutes left in the final quarter. It’s a shame that the performance was wasted by the offense.
Speaking of which, that was not the best performance by the Packers offense against the 49ers. After the first drive, which was great, the Packers did next to nothing. The fumble by Marcedes Lewis totally changed things for the offense. Matt LaFleur did not call his best game, while Aaron Rodgers did not look his best at finding open targets. Other than Davante Adams (who finished with 9 catches for 90 yards), he found Aaron Jones for a huge 75-yard gain that should have either resulted in a touchdown or set up a touchdown. Jones made the mistake of cutting inside when he should have turned on the jets. The worst thing that could have happened if he did that was that he was pushed out of bounds, which would have saved a timeout. Though to be honest, that timeout would have been wasted on trying to jump the defense offsides. Speaking of timeouts, there was another situation where after Davante Adams made a great catch in the third quarter, there was no sense of urgency to get back to the huddle and Rodgers had to signal timeout. That timeout would have been useful in the final minutes. Rodgers had a lot of trouble in the pocket on Saturday as he was sacked 5 times by the 49ers defense. It did not help matters that 1: David Bakhtiari wasn’t able to play, and 2: Billy Turner was put at left tackle over Yosh Nijman, who played very well at that position all season. The worst play for Rodgers came in the fourth quarter, when he heaved a pass in the direction of Adams when he had Allen Lazard wide open down the middle of the field. Had Rodgers hit Lazard, and Lazard caught the pass, the Packers could have easily gotten into field goal range and won the game. AJ Dillon wasn’t able to play for most of the second half because of fractured ribs that he suffered while blocking for a kick return. He should have been used for the final minutes after the fourth down defensive stop. The offense as a whole blew this opportunity in front of their home crowd.
As bad as the Packers offense performed on Saturday, at least they didn’t have a play that immediately resulted in points for the 49ers. 10 points were basically given to the 49ers on Special Teams thanks to a blocked field goal before halftime, which was followed by the 49ers scoring a field goal on their first second half possession, and a blocked punt that was recovered for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. What was maddening was that the players showed no urgency to recover the ball after the punt was blocked. On each of those plays, one player failed to block anything. On the field goal that was blocked, it was Tyler Lancaster. On the punt, it was long snapper Steven Wirtel. In addition to those mishaps, there were a couple of decent returns allowed, including one by Deebo Samuel that went to midfield in the opening kickoff of the second half. Amari Rodgers thankfully did not have any turnovers while returning kicks. He even went out of bounds on a few of the punt returns. As a whole though, the Special Teams unit came up bad in the worst possible time. I think that Maurice Drayton had coached his final game as leader of Special Teams. He should have been fired after the field goal at the end in which there were only 10 players on the field.
Overall, I am disappointed in the way that the season ended for Green Bay. This loss will sting for a while because it might be the last time a number of players wear the Green and Gold, including Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams, Za’Darius Smith, Randall Cobb (who didn’t get a single catch on Saturday), and many others. I envy the front office for the tough decisions that they have to make in the offseason. This feels like the end of an era for the Packers. 30 years of consistent Hall of Fame level quarterback play with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers leading the way could come to an end. If this was Rodgers’ last game as a Packer, I would rather see him retire than go somewhere else. Despite the ending, I am thankful for the ride that was the 2021 Packers season. It was full of great moments, including the “I Still Own You” game against the Bears at Soldier Field in Week 6 and the Rasul Douglas interception that sealed the Cardinals game in Week 8. No matter what happens in the offseason, I will always be a proud Packers fan. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are, unfortunately, the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page.)
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