Good evening, everyone. On Sunday afternoon/evening, the Green Bay Packers took on the Baltimore Ravens in a game that was closer than I thought it was going to be. There is no such thing as style points in the NFL. I am glad that the Packers got the win on Sunday. Want to know what exactly happened at M&T Bank Stadium? Let’s find out now.
At first, it did not look good for the Packers defense. The Ravens offense with Tyler Huntley at quarterback was having no problem going down the field. During their first drive, Huntley found tight end Mark Andrews for a 44-yard pass play that got Baltimore into scoring range. Later in the drive, Huntley was able to scramble for a first down on a short fourth down. The 14-play drive was cut short thanks to a fourth down stop of Huntley at the Green Bay 7 by linebacker De’Vondre Campbell. The Packers offense did not take advantage of this opportunity and punted after a three and out. On third and 4 from the 13 yard line, Aaron Rodgers threw incomplete to Davante Adams on what would have been a big play. Corey Bojorquez punted to the Baltimore 40, but a catch interference penalty called on Isaac Yiadom gave the Ravens the ball at the Green Bay 45. From there, the Ravens had no problem scoring a touchdown on this drive. Mark Andrews caught a 7-yard touchdown pass that (with the extra point kick by Justin Tucker) gave Baltimore a 7-0 lead with 2:33 left in the first quarter. Amari Rodgers had a nice kick return that got the Packers to the 35, but it was called back because of a holding penalty on Jonathan Garvin. As a result, the drive started at their own 16. Actually, it began at the 11 due to a false start penalty on Dennis Kelly. Rodgers was able to convert that first and 15 with a 17-yard pass completion to Allen Lazard. 3 plays later, Lazard caught another pass for a first down on third and 4 from the Green Bay 34. At the start of the second quarter, Aaron Rodgers made back to back completed passes to Davante Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling that got the Packers into scoring range. On the next play, Rodgers threw incomplete, but there was a roughing the passer penalty against the defense, giving the Packers a free first down at the Baltimore 9 yard line. 2 plays later, AJ Dillon ran it in for a 2-yard touchdown that (with the extra point by Mason Crosby) tied the game up at 7-7 with 12:50 left in the first half. The defense was once again unable to stop the Ravens from scoring a touchdown on their next drive. The drive for Baltimore again ended with a Mark Andrews touchdown catch from Tyler Huntley, this time from 9 yards away. The extra point kick was good, giving the Ravens a 14-7 lead with 7:11 left in the half. Thankfully, Amari Rodgers was able to protect the ball as he took the kickoff to the Green Bay 23. From there, the Packers offense went on their second scoring possession. On the second play of this drive, Aaron Rodgers connected with tight end Tyler Davis for a 22-yard pass play that got Green Bay at pretty much midfield. After that play, the Packers had no problem moving the ball down the field through the air and on the ground (with Aaron Rodgers even scrambling for a few yards). On second and 2 from the Ravens 15, Rodgers connected with AJ Dillon for a 13-yard pass play that gave the Packers first and goal at the 2. 3 plays later, Rodgers connected with Davante Adams, who made a crossover move that fooled the defender and caught the pass in the end zone for his 70th career touchdown reception. Adams is now second all time in Packers history behind Don Hutson for touchdown catches (he passed Jordy Nelson’s mark of 69 touchdown catches). A punt exchange and a kneel-down by Baltimore ended the half with a 14-14 tie (on the Packers’ possession, the officials missed a blatant pass interference penalty when MVS was pretty much tackled).
The Packers offense was able to score a touchdown on their first drive of the second half. During this drive, the Packers were able to convert a couple of manageable third downs. It was a mix of run and pass plays as the Packers had no problem going down the field. This efficient drive concluded with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers to RB Aaron Jones, who was wide open in the end zone. Mason Crosby’s extra point kick was good, giving the Packers a 21-14 lead with 7:40 left in the third quarter. The Ravens tried to answer back with a touchdown of their own, but they had to settle for a field goal after a false start penalty messed up a fourth and one conversion attempt. The field goal by Justin Tucker was good from 38 yards away, cutting Green Bay’s lead to 4 points with 3:20 remaining in the third quarter. The Packers had to start at their own 12 yard line on their next drive after almost fumbling a short kickoff. The bad field position didn’t matter as the Packers went on another time-consuming touchdown drive. During this drive, Matt LaFleur won a challenge when he saw that the Ravens had 12 men on the field on a first and 10. After that successful challenge, the Packers went all the way down the field for a touchdown. The drive ended with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Marquez Valdes-Scantling. On the play, MVS caught the ball and stretched it past the goal line as he was getting tackled. For Aaron Rodgers, that was his 442nd career touchdown pass, tying Brett Favre for most all time in Packers history. The extra point kick was good, increasing the lead to 11 points with 12:54 left in the fourth quarter. On the next drive for Baltimore, the Packers defense forced them to go four and out. On fourth down, Tyler Huntley threw incomplete, giving the Packers the ball at the Baltimore 29. Unfortunately, the Packers had to settle for a field goal on this drive after an incomplete pass to Allen Lazard on third and goal from the Baltimore 11. The field goal was good, giving the Packers a 31-17 lead with 9:26 left in the game. From here, the Packers almost gave this game away. The Ravens were able to get two straight touchdowns via a Tyler Huntley scramble. In between these touchdowns, the Packers went three and out when they should’ve had a game-sealing drive that took up the rest of the clock with nearly 5 minutes left. Tyler Huntley scored the second touchdown with 42 seconds left in the game. Rather than just kick the extra point and tie the game, the Ravens decided to go for two to take the lead. Huntley went for Mark Andrews on the play, but the pass was deflected by Darnell Savage and fell to the ground, keeping the score at 31-30. AJ Dillon recovered the onside kick, sealing the win for the Packers.
With the win, the Packers are now 11-3 on the season. In addition, they clinched the NFC North for the third straight season. Other than another slow first quarter and messing up opportunities to seal the game, I thought that the offense played well on Sunday in a hostile environment. Entering Sunday’s game, Aaron Rodgers was at 439 career regular season touchdown passes, 3 behind Brett Favre’s mark of 442. Against the Ravens, he tied that mark with a touchdown pass each to Davante Adams, Aaron Jones, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Rodgers threw for 268 yards on the day in addition to the touchdowns. A couple of plays stand out, including a few clever play-action fakes and a pass to MVS in the third quarter that only he can make possible. Rodgers was not the only one to have a milestone moment. Davante Adams passed Jordy Nelson for second all time in touchdown receptions by a Packer. Nelson had 69 in his career with Green Bay while Adams now has 70 in his career. Weirdly, Adams was covered by two defenders for most of the game. That’s why he only had 6 catches for 44 yards, including that touchdown in the second quarter. Marquez Valdes-Scantling led the receivers with 98 yards on 5 catches, including his touchdown in the third quarter in which he reached out the ball to the goal line. Marcedes Lewis got in on the action as well with 3 catches for 40 yards. I wanted Lewis to score so badly on that catch and run that set up the field goal in the fourth quarter. Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon combined for 80 rushing yards (58 for Jones, 22 for Dillon). In addition, Aaron Jones caught Rodgers’ second TD pass, which Jones was wide open for. The offensive line played well once again, keeping Rodgers mostly upright on Sunday against the Ravens defense. A couple of things need to be worked out, including the slow starts and the wasted timeouts. The playoffs are almost here, so I hope that the Packers fix those mistakes quickly. I have total faith in head coach Matt LaFleur and the staff for this task.
Defensively, the Packers played well enough to get the clutch stops when they mattered. For example, De’Vondre Campbell was able to tackle Tyler Huntley before he went in for a touchdown on the first drive. Right at the end of the game, Darnell Savage deflected the pass that was intended for Mark Andrews on the two-point conversion attempt. Other than that, Savage had a tough game covering Mark Andrews. In fact, Andrews was at times tough to cover at all as he got 10 catches for 136 yards and 2 touchdowns on the day. Tyler Huntley ran for 73 yards and the other 2 touchdowns for Baltimore on 13 rushing attempts. It was frustrating at times because he was able to escape the pass rush a few times. The defense missed Kenny Clark a lot on Sunday. With that being said, the front played well at points without him. Eric Stokes proved that he can cover receivers well even after getting crossed over by them. One time, he deflected a pass from a receiver‘s hands after getting crossed over. I just hope that Jaire Alexander comes back to help the secondary soon (same thing with Za’Darius Smith and the pass rush). Even though the defense gave up 30 points, I have no doubt that they will rebound on Christmas Day.
On Special Teams, I am thankful that there were fewer mistakes. The mistakes that were made, however, can’t be ignored. For example, there was a penalty that wiped off a nice kick return by Amari Rodgers. On another kickoff, the kick was short and the Packers were lucky to recover the ball after it bounced off a player. Thankfully, Mason Crosby made all of his kicks and did not kick a ball out of bounds. Corey Bojorquez punted a couple of balls well, but he did not get his last punt past midfield, giving the Ravens great field position for the final touchdown. Luckily, there was better coverage on the kick returns than against the Bears a week ago. The onside kick was recovered by Green Bay this time around (thank you, AJ Dillon). I am also thankful that there were no blocked kicks that could’ve been disasters for Green Bay. I just hope that things improve more on Christmas Day (and beyond).
Overall, it was a tough win in a hostile environment. Despite missing several players to injury (or COVID), the Ravens gave the Packers their all. Thankfully, the Packers came away with the win in the end. Next up for Green Bay is a home game at Lambeau Field on Christmas Day against the Cleveland Browns. I will talk more about this game later. Have a good night, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page.)
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