Good afternoon, everyone. On Saturday night, the Green Bay Packers took on the Carolina Panthers at Lambeau Field. The Packers had the lead throughout the entire game, but it was not pretty at times (especially in the second half). I am here to give you my thoughts on what exactly transpired in this game. Without any delay, let’s get started.
The Panthers had the ball on offense to start the game. During their first drive, they faced a third and 2 from their own 31 yard line. The Packers defense got lucky as DJ Moore dropped a pass from Teddy Bridgewater that would have converted the third down. Instead, the Panthers punted to Green Bay’s Tavon Austin, who fair caught the punt at the Green Bay 19. From there, the Packers offense went on their first drive of the game. During the drive, RB Aaron Jones ran for 46 yards on a third and 1 and got Green Bay into field goal range. 4 plays after that, QB Aaron Rodgers found TE Robert Tonyan for a 1-yard touchdown pass that gave the Packers a 7-0 lead (the PAT kick by Mason Crosby was good). After the kickoff went into the end zone for a touchback, the Panthers took over on offense at their own 25. On the second play of the drive, Bridgewater found WR DJ Moore for a 37-yard pass completion that got them into Green Bay territory. 2 plays after that, Bridgewater found TE Ian Thomas for a 15-yard completion that got Carolina to the 22 yard line. After that play, the Packers defense made sure that the Panthers only got a field goal on the possession. Preston Smith sacked Bridgewater for a 4-yard loss on second and 10, and a third down pass ended up short of the first down marker. The 36-yard field goal by Joey Slye was good, decreasing the lead to 7-3. After another kickoff ending in a touchback (this time by Carolina), the Packers offense started their next possession. On third and 7 from the Packers 28, Davante Adams caught a pass from Aaron Rodgers for a 14-yard gain. After the play, he was penalized for taunting by the officials. I don’t think that he really did anything that warranted a penalty against him. Later on, Rodgers caught the defense offsides and went deep for Marquez Valdes-Scantling. The pass went incomplete, but Carolina’s Troy Pride was called for defensive pass interference, which gave Green Bay a free first down. After the penalty, the Packers offense continued to move the ball down the field for another score. On third and goal from the Panthers’ 6 yard line, Aaron Rodgers scrambled to his right for his third rushing touchdown of the season (also setting a franchise record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 31). After the touchdown, Rodgers celebrated with his signature belt while Allen Lazard gave him another invisible crown.
With the score now 14-3 in Green Bay’s favor, Carolina was looking to respond with their own touchdown to make it an interesting game. The Panthers were going down the field in a drive that took over 6 and a half minutes of game time. They got all the way to the Green Bay 1 yard line before this play happened. On first and goal, Bridgewater was trying to reach over everyone else for the goal line. LB Krys Barnes punched the ball from the QB’s hands, forcing a fumble that Kevin King returned to the Carolina 47 yard line. From there, the Packers offense went on another touchdown drive that took 7 plays to complete. Other than a scramble by Aaron Rodgers and a pass completion to Davante Adams, it was Aaron Jones’ drive. He ran all over the Panthers defense on his way to a touchdown, which he was untouched thanks to the blocking by Green Bay’s O-Line and receivers. With the extra point, the Packers took a commanding 21-3 lead over Carolina. The Panthers quickly went three and out after three straight incomplete passes by Bridgewater (shoutout to Jaire Alexander for the pass breakup on third and 10). The Packers got the ball back after the punt was downed at their own 25. With 3:28 left, Green Bay had a chance to increase the lead before halftime. This time though, the Packers did not score on the possession. What did not help matters was that Rodgers got sacked for a loss of 10 yards by Brian Burns on second and 10 from the Carolina 41. Rodgers scrambled for 10 yards, but the Packers were still forced to punt. JK Scott punted 35 yards to the Carolina 5, where the ball was downed by Adrian Amos. After a 20-yard pass completion to DJ Moore, Bridgewater threw incomplete 3 straight times again, with breakups by Adrian Amos and Chandon Sullivan. Just like that, the Packers had another chance to put more points on the board before the first half ended. On third and 9 from the Green Bay 32, Rodgers rolled to his left and threw to Allen Lazard for what should have been a big gain to put Green Bay into field goal range. The problem was that the ball bounced off of Lazard’s hands and fell incomplete. A JK Scott punt to the Carolina 11 yard line ended the first half with the Packers up 21-3 over the Panthers.
Even though the Packers missed a couple of chances to increase the lead before halftime, they had the ball first to start the third quarter. It’s safe to say that the drive went nowhere as Green Bay went three and out. On second and third down, Aaron Rodgers threw incomplete to Davante Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, setting up another punt by JK Scott (which went to the Carolina 36 yard line). The Packers defense got to a good start in the second half by forcing the Panthers to punt after only a 5-play drive. On second and 10 from the 46, Teddy Bridgewater was sacked by Krys Barnes for a loss of 6 yards. A short pass on third down did not move the chains for Carolina, forcing them to punt back to Green Bay. Starting at their own 15, the Packers were looking to at least move the chains on their next drive. After 2 plays went for 8 yards, the Packers faced a third and 2 from their own 23. Rodgers was sacked on the play by Derrick Brown, forcing Green Bay to go three and out again. The punt did not flip the field, as it gave the Panthers the ball at (pretty much) midfield. Carolina’s offense took advantage of the short field by driving down the field for their only touchdown on the night. On second and 7 from the Green Bay 13, Bridgewater found an opening and ran for the touchdown (he even pointed at a teammate to block the defender during his TD run). After the PAT kick was good, the lead was cut to 21-10. The next drive for Green Bay ended in yet another punt after Aaron Jones was tackled for a 2 yard loss on a third and 4 pass play. The punt by JK Scott went all the way to the 1 yard line, but it was returned for 19 yards to the Carolina 20 yard line by Pharoh Cooper. From there, the Panthers went on a 16-play drive that took nearly 9 minutes of game time. They were methodically moving the ball down the field and got all the way to the Green Bay 7 before some controversy happeened. On third and goal, Bridgewater fumbled the ball after a 5-yard scramble (forced by Chandon Sullivan). The ball was recovered for a touchdown by Ian Thomas, but the score was nullified by an offensive holding penalty. Bridgewater then connected with Curtis Samuel for a 13-yard gain from the 17 yard line. Rather than go for it on fourth down, the Panthers settled for a 22-yard field goal by Joey Slye, cutting the lead to 21-13 with 8:39 left in the game. With the lead now down to 8, it was up to the Packers offense to finally get something going. Thankfully, the Packers move the ball past midfield for the first time in the second half. A key play during the drive was when Rodgers found Allen Lazard for a 22-yard pass completion that got Green Bay into field goal range. The drive was halted after Rodgers got sacked on third and 6 from the Carolina 25. In the cold, Mason Crosby made the 51-yard field goal that gave the Packers an 11-point lead with 3:44 left. The Packers defense somehow let the Panthers to get a field goal to cut the lead to 8 again on their next drive. On third and 1 from the Carolina 45, DJ Moore caught a short pass and got past 3 defenders on his way to a 40-yard gain. Immediately after the play, head coach Matt Rhule brought the field goal unit out for a 33-yard field goal by Slye, which was good. In a sense, the decision was good because it gave the Panthers an extra timeout due to the 2 minute warning. For Green Bay, all they needed to do was get a couple of first downs to seal the win. With 1:53 left, they faced a third and 4 from their own 31. Aaron Rodgers was once again sacked by Brian Burns, this time for a loss of 14 yards. As a result, the Packers punted back to the Panthers, who started their next drive at their own 20 due to a holding penalty on the return by Cooper. The Packers defense made sure that the 24-16 lead was going to stay that way, as they forced the Panthers to turn it over on downs after an incomplete pass on fourth down (also after an interception was nullified due to an offsides penalty). A kneel-down by Rodgers ended the game with the Packers winning 24-16, which was the final score last season between these 2 teams.
With the win, the Packers are now 11-3 on the season. After seeing other outcomes during Week 15 of the NFL season (including the Rams losing to the winless Jets), I am thankful that the Packers got the ugly win over Carolina on Saturday night. Offensively, this was a “tale of 2 halves” for the Packers. After 3 straight touchdown drives to open things up, the Packers did not score again until Mason Crosby’s field goal late in the fourth quarter. 5 of the last 6 drives ended in punts, with some of those drives being three and outs. The offensive line had no answer for the Panthers pass rush in the second half, as they allowed a total of 5 sacks. For most of that stretch, the Packers tried to do some bubble screens, which were shut down by the defense for minimal yardage. I have to give major kudos to the Carolina defense for playing hard on Saturday night. Even with the struggles later on, the offense did some things good. For instance, the running game was very efficient, with Aaron Jones rushing for 145 yards and a touchdown on Carolina’s defense. AJ Dillon only had one carry, but that one carry went for an 18-yard gain. Hopefully Jamaal Williams recovers quickly from his thigh injury that he suffered on Saturday night. Aaron Rodgers had an OK stat line, with 149 passing yards and 2 total touchdowns (1 passing, 1 rushing). His touchdown pass to Robert Tonyan brought him up to 40 touchdown passes on the season. He is now the only QB in NFL history to throw for at least 40 touchdowns in 3 different seasons (2011, 2016, and 2020). He is also the franchise leader in rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 31. The touchdown catch by Tonyan brought him up to 10 on the season. Allen Lazard almost got the catch at the end of the first half in a play that resembled the Rodgers to Jared Cook one at Dallas in the playoffs a couple of years ago (January of 2017, to be exact). Despite the drop, he still led the receivers with 5 catches for 56 yards. From now on, the Packers need to be efficient on offense for all 4 quarters, especially come playoff time. I have no doubt that they will fix these issues before next week’s game. I also hope that Corey Linsley comes back soon to help the O-Line.
In a game where the offense did not produce well in the second half, I am glad that the defense came to play hard against the Panthers offense. Sure, there were some negative moments, including a couple of penalties and a few missed tackles, but they got the key stops when they were needed the most. Krys Barnes made a fantastic play to prevent a touchdown by punching the ball out of Teddy Bridgewater’s hands and forcing a fumble (which was recovered by Kevin King). Adrian Amos had a great game on Saturday night, getting a total of 7 tackles while deflecting 3 passes and sacking Bridgewater once. Jaire Alexander and Chandon Sullivan also had a couple of pass breakups each for the Packers defense. Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith each got one sack on Saturday night. Despite only getting 3 sacks, there were times when the pass rush pressured the QB to throw it away (including forcing an intentional grounding penalty on the final drive of the game). Once again, I must give credit to the Panthers for playing well even with the injuries that they had (including Christian McCaffrey missing most of the season). I think that there is a bright future under head coach Matt Rhule. As with anything, we will see what happens with new head coaches. For the Packers defense, they have a tough test against the Titans next week. I have plenty of hope that they will get the key stops and help the Packers win that game (and beyond).
On Special Teams, the Packers played better than in previous weeks. There were no long returns allowed for touchdowns and they did not turn the ball over. Mason Crosby made every kick, including a 51-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter. Once again, I am thankful that Crosby has been with the Packers since his rookie season in 2007 and that he has come through in the clutch on numerous occassions. JK Scott punted 6 times on Saturday night, with a couple of them being inside the opposing team’s 20 yard line. Hopefully he continues to be consistent (but less needed) come playoff time. If there is one thing on my wish list for the playoffs, it is this: a kick or punt return touchdown by Tavon Austin that completely gives Green Bay momentum for the rest of the game. Regardless of whether that happens or not, I hope that there are no major mistakes made by the Special Teams unit from here on out.
Overall, it was not the prettiest win by any stretch for Green Bay. As always, a win is a win and the Packers are now 11-3 on the season. Green Bay actually has a chance to clinch the top seed on Sunday night. Here is what needs to happen: the Packers have to beat the Titans and the Rams have to beat the Seahawks. If that doesn’t happen, they can clinch it in Week 17 against the Bears. For now, the Packers need to focus on Tennessee. I will go into more detail about that game later. Have a great day and a very merry Christmas, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page.)
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