Good morning, everyone. On Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field, the Green Bay Packers took on the Washington Redskins in the second to last home game of the season. The Packers won the game, but it was an ugly affair. As always, I am here to give you my thoughts on what exactly happened in this game. Let's get right into it.
The Packers defense got off to a great start, forcing Washington to go three-and-out after a third down sack of Dwayne Haskins (split by Kenny Clark and Kyler Fackrell). New punt returner Tyler Ervin returned the punt 10 yards to midfield. From there, the offense went down the field for the first touchdown of the game. RB Aaron Jones ran it in for the score from 4 yards out, giving Green Bay a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter. The defense forced Washington to punt after only 3 plays again. During the drive, safety Adrian Amos sacked Dwayne Haskins on first down. Even with a 9-yard pass play on third and 14, Washington punted back to the Packers. Tyler Ervin returned this punt 12 yards to the Washington 48 yard line. Unfortunately, the offense went three-and-out after QB Aaron Rodgers was sacked on third and 9 by Ryan Kerrigan. Luckily, the defense forced Washington to a three-and-out for the third time in a row after an incomplete pass on third and 1. Tyler Ervin returned this punt 18 yards to the Green Bay 43 yard line. From there, the offense went down the field for their second (and final) touchdown of the day. The 5-play, 57-yard drive ended with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to tight end Robert Tonyan. The touchdown gave the Packers a 14-0 lead with 34 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Packers defense did not force a three-and-out, but they forced Washington to punt anyway. On third and 7 from the Green Bay 47, Preston Smith sacked Haskins for a loss of 5 yards. The punt was fair caught at the 12 by Ervin, giving the offense the ball there. The drive started great with a 42 yard run by Aaron Jones to the Washington 46. After that, it was a three-and-out as Aaron Rodgers threw incomplete on third down to Jimmy Graham. Jake Kumerow was open on the play, but Rodgers did not see him. The result was that incompletion and a punt back to the Redskins. JK Scott pinned Washington deep in their own territory (the 5 yard line to be exact). Even with this bad field position, the Washington offense went down the field in 11 plays for their first touchdown. The drive almost resulted in a turnover for the defense in Green Bay territory. On second and 13 from the Green Bay 32, it appeared at WR Steven Sims, Jr. was stripped of the ball by LB Blake Martinez. The fumble was recovered by Adrian Amos and the Packers thought that they had possession of the ball. After the officials looked at the play, they ruled that the receiver was down by contact. With that ruling, Washington kept possession of the ball. The very next play, Haskins found Kelvin Harmon for a 30-yard pass to the Green Bay 2. RB Adrian Peterson ran it in on the next play for the touchdown. The extra point attempt was missed to the right, resulting in a score of 14-6. The offense went down the field to get a potential score before halftime. Keep in mind that the Packers get the ball first in the second half. They got all the way to the Washington 27 yard line (thanks to Jamaal Williams' 9-yard run to convert a fourth and 5) before the drive ended in disaster. One play after the fourth down conversion, Rodgers held the ball too long and was strip-sacked by Ryan Anderson, who also recovered the fumble. Thankfully, Adrian Amos intercepted Dwayne Haskins right before halftime, keeping the score in Green Bay's favor at the halfway point of the game.
The Packers offense went down the field for a score to start the second half. Unfortunately, they had to settle for a Mason Crosby field goal after Aaron Rodgers threw incomplete to Davante Adams on third and 4 from the Washington 15. The field goal increased the lead to 17-6 with 10:06 left in the third quarter. The defense forced Washington to another three-and-out after Kenny Clark sacked Dwayne Haskins on third and 10 from the 25. Tyler Ervin returned the punt 11 yards to the Washington 49 yard line. The offense did nothing with the drive and they went three-and-out. On third and 5 from the 44, Aaron Rodgers threw incomplete to Allen Lazard, resulting in the punt by JK Scott that went for a touchback. The Redskins went down the field for another score. During this drive, there was another injury scare with Za'Darius Smith, who ended up going back on the very next drive. The defense stopped Washington on third and 10 from the Green Bay 36, setting up a 52-yard field goal. The kick by Dustin Hopkins was good, decreasing Green Bay's lead to only 8 points. The next drive for the Packers offense ended up being a missed opportunity for another score. With Aaron Jones wide open on third and 9 from the 36, Aaron Rodgers missed the throw to him. If that throw was made, the Packers would have scored their third touchdown of the game. Instead, it was incomplete and the Packers punted back to Washington. The defense forced Washington to punt back to Green Bay after an incomplete pass on third and 6 from midfield. The punt was fair caught by Ervin at the Green Bay 11 yard line. From there, the offense went down the field while taking time off the clock in the process. The 14-play, 74-yard drive took up 7 minutes and 24 seconds before ending with a 33-yard field goal by Mason Crosby, which gave Green Bay a 20-9 lead. The field goal would not have happened if not for some clutch throws by Rodgers and hard running by the backs (Jones and Williams). The defense unfortunately allowed Washington to score a touchdown with 1:17 left in the fourth quarter. I have to give credit to rookie WR Terry McLaurin for making a great catch in the end zone for the touchdown. The two-point conversion attempt was stopped by Blake Martinez, resulting in the score being 20-15. Thankfully, the onside kick was recovered safely by Davante Adams, sealing the victory for the Packers.
With the win, the Packers are now 10-3 on the season with three games left to play. Before the game, I thought that this was going to be at least a three-touchdown win for Green Bay. After the score was 14-0, the rest of the game was very ugly, especially on offense. The highlight for the offense was Aaron Jones, who rushed for 134 yards and 1 touchdown. He also caught 6 passes for 58 yards against Washington. It is very clear that he is the feature back for the Packers, with all due respect to Jamaal Williams. Some of the failed drives for the offense did not involve Jones at all, including the three-and-outs. Aaron Rodgers did not have his best day on Sunday against Washington. There were plenty of times when he held the ball for too long instead of finding the open guy underneath. Sometimes, that resulted in getting sacked by Washington. That included the strip-sack near the end of the first half. There were also some missed opportunities for more touchdowns in the game. Rodgers missed a wide open Jake Kumerow in favor of trying to get to Jimmy Graham. He also missed the throw to a wide open Aaron Jones for a potential score in the start of the final quarter. In the 7 minute and 24 second drive, he made a great throw to Aaron Jones to convert a third and 14. It was nice to see Robert Tonyan get a touchdown pass from Rodgers. The offense needs to do a lot better in the last 3 weeks against division rivals. I think that they will get their act together.
Defensively, the Packers sacked Dwayne Haskins a total of 4 times. Kenny Clark had 1.5 sacks, while Preston Smith and Adrian Amos had one each. The first sack of the game was split between Kenny Clark and Kyler Fackrell. They did allow Washington to run for 121 yards, including 42 by Derrius Guice (before he left the game with a knee injury) and 76 by Adrian Peterson. Even though I don't like Peterson, I have to give respect to him for still running hard at the age of 34. It was Adrian Amos who had the interception for Green Bay, in addition to a sack, 7 tackles and 2 pass break-ups. Blake Martinez had 10 tackles, including the stop on the two-point conversion. On Special Teams, a few good things happened. For one, they had 4 punt returns by Tyler Ervin that went for positive yards, with the longest being 18 yards. Mason Crosby made all of his kicks (2 field goals, 2 extra points), while JK Scott pinned Washington deep in their own territory on 2 of his punts. Thankfully, there was not a disaster on the onside kick, as it was recovered by Davante Adams (who had 4 catches for 41 yards on the day).
Overall, it was an ugly win for the Packers. Head Coach Matt LaFleur is now the only coach in Packers history with 10 or more wins in his first season. The only thing that matters is the victory, but the Packers need to perform better in the next three weeks (especially on offense). I think that they will get it done, starting with next week against the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field. For now, it's another Victory Monday for the Packers. 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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