Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers played against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. This game was a chance for Green Bay to go 10-3 and possibly clinch their second straight NFC North title under head coach Matt LaFleur. At times, the Packers did not play their best on Sunday. At the end, though, they got the job done against the Lions. Let’s go into detail about what happened in this game.
The Packers started this game on the defensive side of the football. They did not look good to start things off, as they let the Lions offense go down the field for the first touchdown of the game. The drive ended with a one-yard shovel pass TD from Matthew Stafford to tight end TJ Hockenson that gave Detroit a 7-0 lead. On their first drive, the Packers offense quickly tied the game after a 3-play drive that ended with a 56-yard TD pass from Aaron Rodgers to Davante Adams. On the play, Adams jumped for the catch and evaded defenders on his way to the end zone for the TD. The extra point by Mason Crosby tied the game up at 7-7 with 8 minutes left in the first quarter. The defense did much better on their next drive by forcing Detroit to go three and out and punting back to Green Bay. Tavon Austin fair caught the punt at the 31 yard line, where the offense started their next scoring possession. During the drive, they converted a couple of third downs via the run (an Aaron Rodgers scramble on a third and 4 and a Jamaal Williams run on a third and 1). The drive concluded with a great back-shoulder throw and catch from Aaron Rodgers to Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 14-yard touchdown pass. The touchdown, plus the extra point, gave the Packers a 14-7 lead with 14:11 left in the second quarter. The next two drives (one for each team) ended in a punt. During the Packers defense’s possession, Matthew Stafford was sacked on back-to-back plays by Dean Lowry and Rashan Gary. On the offensive possession, they had a third and 5 changed to a third and 10 because of a false start penalty called on David Bakhtiari. After the penalty, Rodgers threw incomplete to Allen Lazard after a great deflection by Lions CB Darryl Roberts. After JK Scott punted the ball into the end zone for a touchback, the Lions started their next offensive drive. During this drive, the Packers had a couple of penalties that helped the Lions go down the field (in addition to screen passes galore). There was a defensive offside penalty on Dean Lowry and, later, a defensive holding penalty against Chandon Sullivan on a play that went for negative yardage. 4 plays later, the Lions scored on a 3-yard touchdown run by D’Andre Swift that tied the game up at 14-14 (extra point made by Matt Prater). Even though the Packers had no timeouts remaining, they had 1:27 to go down the field for at least a field goal before halftime. Unfortunately, the drive ended with an incomplete pass to Aaron Jones on third and 3 from the Green Bay 42. JK Scott punted to the Detroit 14, where the ball was fair caught by Jamal Agnew. After 3 completed passes by Matthew Stafford, the Lions were almost in field goal range with 20 seconds left. On the next play, Darnell Savage ran for Stafford and sacked him for a loss of 10 yards. Stafford managed to spike the ball with 8 seconds left. He then tried to go for the touchdown before halftime after Preston Smith jumped offsides. The pass went incomplete, but the penalty gave them another shot with no time remaining (a half or a game can’t end with a defensive penalty). On that untimed down, Matthew Stafford was sacked for a loss of 4 yards by Kenny Clark, ending the first half with the score tied at 14-14.
The Packers started the second half on the offensive side of the ball. During the drive, the Packers were saved from a three and out with a defensive holding penalty on an incomplete pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Later in the drive, the Packers had to overcome two offensive holding penalties that would, in some cases, ruin drives. 2 plays after the second holding penalty, the Packers faced a third and 14 from the Detroit 42 yard line. Aaron Rodgers found Valdes-Scantling for a 21-yard pass completion that converted the third down and kept the drive alive. The offense converted 2 more third downs on their way to a touchdown. On third and goal from the 6 yard line, Rodgers found an opening and ran for his second rushing touchdown of the season. With the extra point by Crosby, the Packers took a 21-14 lead with 6:11 left in the third quarter. That long drive gave the defense plenty of rest before they took on the field. Jaire Alexander deflected a third down pass of Matthew Stafford, forcing the Lions to punt after a three and out. After the punt return by Tavon Austin (which only went for 2 yards), the Packers started their next drive at their own 21 yard line. From there, the offense went down the field on a 12-play drive that nearly lasted 8 minutes. This drive was mostly run plays with a couple of pass plays to Robert Tonyan. Aaron Rodgers scrambled for another first down during the drive. After Jamaal Williams converted a third and 1 from the Detroit 8, the Packers had first and goal from the 4. Rodgers found Tonyan for a 4-yard touchdown pass that increased the lead to double digits with 12:01 left in the fourth quarter (28-14 to be exact). The next drive for the defense was sloppy, to say the least. There were a total of 5 penalties against the Packers defense, which helped the Lions score a touchdown on this drive. One of those penalties was on a third and 7, which ended up being an incomplete pass. The penalty was defensive holding on Adrian Amos, which gave the Lions a free first down. There was some controversy when a catch by Marvin Jones, Jr. was ruled incomplete. Interim head coach Darrell Bevell challenged the ruling, which stood as called after review. On the next play, the Lions got a pass completion to TJ Hockenson for a first down. After 2 more defensive holding penalties, the Lions scored on a 2-yard TD run by Kerryon Johnson.
With the lead now changed to 28-21, it was now time for the Packers offense to get another score to seal the game. On the third play of the drive, Rodgers found Davante Adams for a short completion. Adams turned it to a 29-yard catch and run after juking a defender. The catch and run brought the Packers into Detroit territory at the 35 yard line. 3 plays later, the Packers were forced to settle for a field goal. On the third down play, Rodgers threw the ball away as he was getting hit and brought to the ground. There was a bit of worry after Rodgers initially did not get up, but he got to the sideline by himself. The field goal attempt was brought 5 yards back due to a false start penalty on Elgton Jenkins. Mason Crosby made the field goal from 57 yards anyway, giving the Packers a 10-point lead. Things almost turned disastrous on the ensuing kickoff, as Jamal Agnew returned it 71 yards to Green Bay 33 yard line (thanks to Crosby for pushing him out of bounds). On the previous drive, Matthew Stafford was roughed up by Kenny Clark during a scramble. Rather than risk further injury, the Lions brought in Chase Daniel to finish the rest of the game. Even with the advantage in field position, the Lions were forced to settle for a field goal by the Packers defense (plus an offensive pass interference penalty that nullified a touchdown). The field goal by Matt Prater was made from 32 yards away, decreasing the lead to 7 points. The Lions tried some trickery with the onside kick, but the ball went out of bounds during the attempt (giving the Packers automatic possession of the ball). A third down conversion pass to Robert Tonyan from Rodgers sealed the 31-24 win for the Packers.
With the win, the Packers are now 10-3 on the season. In addition to that, they won the NFC North for the second straight year (thanks to the Buccaneers beating the Vikings earlier on Sunday). Regardless of how weird this game was at times, the Packers did what they had to do to win against a division rival. Offensively, the Packers scored on 5 of their 7 possessions on Sunday (not counting the kneel-down drive). Aaron Rodgers had a great game, completing 26 of 33 passes for 290 yards and 3 touchdowns with a 133.6 passer rating. In additon to his passing stats, he ran for a 6 yard touchdown in the first drive of the second half. Davante Adams reached a milestone on Sunday, which I will talk about now. For many years, Don Hutson had the franchise record for most consecutive games with at least 1 touchdown reception with 7 games in a row (he accomplished this in 2 of his seasons with Green Bay). With the touchdown reception on Sunday, Davante Adams broke that mark with his 8th straight game with a touchdown catch. I applaud him for breaking that mark that stood for a few decades. Marquez Valdes-Scantling had a great game receiving, catching 6 passes for 85 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown was an awesome back-shoulder catch against one of the Lions defenders. He was determined to get that ball and get the score on that play. Robert Tonyan caught his 9th touchdown of the season on Sunday, which was great to see. What I also liked from Tonyan was a block that took out three Lions defenders during a pass play. In the running game, Aaron Jones ran for 69 yards and Jamaal Williams ran for 38 yards (including a couple of key third down conversions). In addition to his 38 rushing yards, he made some key blocks that helped the offense move the ball down the field (including 2 blitz pick-ups). Entering the last 3 games of the season next week, I think that the offense will hot their peak just in time for the playoffs to start. It will take every one to do their part (including the offensive linemen) to get that done. I have no doubt that they will score plenty of points on a week to week basis.
On defense, the Packers played a bit sloppy at points. They did keep the run game in check, which was great. The bad part was a combination of penalties and allowing too many easy completions to Matthew Stafford and the Lions receivers. There was no excuse for the Packers having 5 penalties in one drive on defense during a drive in the second half. That drive was basically giving a free touchdown to Detroit on a silver platter. Even with the mistakes that the defense made, they still got key stops when they were needed the most (especially after the long kick return by Jamal Agnew). The Packers defense got 4 sacks of Matthew Stafford, including 2 sacks right at the end of the first half (one by Darnell Savage and one by Kenny Clark). Rashan Gary was running like a cheetah during his sack of Stafford. Jaire Alexander once again played great, proving that he should be considered for All-Pro this season. He is the best defensive back on the Packers roster, which means that the opposing QBs don’t really throw to his side most of the time. The rest of the CBs, including Chandon Sullivan, need to step their game up for the last 3 games of the regular season (plus the postseason). I have no doubt that the safeties (Adrain Amos and Darnell Savage) will continue to play well for Green Bay. For defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, these last few games are crucial. The defense needs to do a better job at holding on to double digit leads and not allow easy completions and garbage time points (especially against inferior opponents). These things, also including penalties, can come back to haunt the Packers against the top teams in the NFL. I have plenty of hope that the defense will fix these issues and get to their peak in this final stretch of the season.
Once again, the only good things for the Packers on special teams were Mason Crosby and no turnovers. Every kick that he attempted was made, including the 57-yard field goal that increased the lead to 10 points. In addition to the kicks, Crosby was the player who pushed Jamal Agnew out of bounds on the big kickoff return that was immediately after the 57-yarder. With how inconsistent some kickers are in the NFL as of recent past, I am thankful for Mason Crosby as the Packers’ kicker. JK Scott only punted twice, with one of them being a touchback and the other one being fair caught inside the 20 yard line of Detroit. During these last few games of the season, the big returns should be kept to 0 because anything like that would give the opposing team momentum that might spark an upset of Green Bay. If there are too many big mistakes in the postseason, then Shawn Mennenga’s job could be in serious jeopardy. Hopefully the Packers don’t have to worry about that.
Overall, it was a good win for the Packers as they are now 10-3 with 3 games left in the regular season. With the NFC North clinched, the next step is to get the number 1 seed in the NFC. As long as they finish with the same record as the Saints (who Green Bay has a head-to-head tiebreaker against), I think that they will get that clinched. As always, the goal for the Packers is to go 1-0 each week. The next game for them is a Saturday night game at Lambeau Field against the Carolina Panthers. Even though the Panthers are out of playoff contention, the Packers can’t take them lightly. I will talk about this game in more detail later. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page.)
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