Good morning, everyone. It’s crazy that we got through this 18-week season. It wasn’t the first time, though. In 1993, when there were 16 games in the schedule for each team, the NFL experimented with 18 weeks (2 bye weeks). The results were mixed, so the NFL went back to 17 weeks the following year. In my opinion, there should have been an extra bye week when a 17th game was added for this season. The Green Bay Packers concluded the regular season with a road game against the Detroit Lions, who were playing for nothing but pride. Since the Packers clinched the number one seed in the NFC last week, there was no reason for the starters to play more than a half at the most. The Packers had chances to win, but they came up short. Want to know what exactly happened at Ford Field? Let’s find out now.
The Packers started this game on offense, with both David Bakhtiari and Josh Myers back on the O-Line. Their first drive got off to a great start with a 28-yard pass connection from Aaron Rodgers to Allen Lazard that got Green Bay into Detroit territory. Later in the drive, Rodgers connected with Davante Adams twice to convert a third down. I got a little nervous when Rodgers scrambled for 7 yards after the second third down conversion. Right before the playoffs, I didn’t want Rodgers to take a big hit. Thankfully, he slid down and threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Allen Lazard to finish the drive. The extra point kick by Mason Crosby was good, giving the Packers a 7-0 lead midway into the first quarter. The defense got off to a great start as well, ending a Lions drive after only a few plays. On third and 5 from the Detroit 43, Dean Lowry sacked quarterback Jared Goff for a loss of 8 yards, forcing the Lions to punt back to Green Bay. The Lions, however, tried a fake punt pass. Thankfully, the pass went through the hands of the receiver, setting the Packers with great field position. They did nothing with it as they went three and out after a sack of Rodgers on third down. The punt by Corey Bojorquez pinned the Lions deep in their own territory at the 7. 3 plays later, the Lions pulled off a great trick play. Goff faked a toss and then handed the ball off to Amon Ra St. Brown, who then tossed it to Tom Kennedy. Kennedy then threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Kalif Raymond. The extra point kick was good, tying the game at 7-7 with 1:29 left in the quarter. The Packers tried to answer back with a touchdown to retake the lead, but the possession ended with a failed fourth down conversion attempt. At least Davante Adams broke Jordy Nelson’s mark for most receiving yards in Packers history during the drive. As a result of the fourth down conversion failure, the Lions got the ball at their own 43. They had no problem going down the field as Goff was torching the defense during the drive. Goff connected with St. Brown for a 2-yard touchdown to finish the drive. After the extra point, the Lions took a 14-7 lead with exactly 7 minutes left in the first half. On the ensuing possession, the Packers offense answered back with a 7-play, 75-yard drive that resulted in a touchdown. On second and 6 from the Detroit 29 yard line, Aaron Rodgers found Allen Lazard for his second touchdown of the game (a great catch by Lazard on the play). The score would have been tied at 14 if Mason Crosby made the extra point. Instead, the kick went wide right, resulting in a 14-13 deficit with 2:34 remaining. The defense wasn’t able to stop the Lions from getting a score before halftime. At least they kept Detroit to only a field goal, which was good from 34 yards out with 2 seconds left. A Jordan Love kneel down ended the first half with the Packers trailing by a score of 17-13.
In the second half, most of the starters, including Aaron Rodgers, were pulled out of the game. MVS did exit the game with a back injury, which I pray that is not too serious. After the defense forced the Lions to punt on their first drive, disaster struck when Juwann Winfree fumbled the ball after catching a short pass from Jordan Love. The ball was recovered by Detroit at the Green Bay 36 yard line. From there, the Lions took advantage of the turnover by scoring a touchdown after only one play, which was a TD pass (that involved some trickery) from Jared Goff to tight end Brock Wright. The extra point kick was good, giving the Lions a 24-13 lead with 7:41 left in the third quarter. During the ensuing possession, the Packers got a free first down on a fourth and 2 thanks to a neutral zone infraction penalty against Detroit. For most of the drive (after the 34-yard catch and run by Dominique Dafney), AJ Dillon and Patrick Taylor ran for good chunks of yards to help the Packers get to field goal range. The drive stalled at the Detroit 17 yard line after 2 straight incomplete passes by Love. The 36-yard field goal by Mason Crosby was good, cutting the lead to 8 points with 7:38 remaining in the third quarter. After the Lions went three and out, the Packers scored another touchdown on their next drive to take the lead. Starting on their own 43, the Packers went down the field in 12 plays, taking up nearly 7 minutes of game time. Running back Patrick Taylor got all the rushing attempts during this drive, including the 1-yard touchdown run. They tried to go for 2, but the pass to Amari Rodgers fell incomplete, keeping the score at 24-22 with 14:12 left in the fourth quarter. The Lions then went on a 14 play drive that took up over 7 minutes of game time. Jamaal Williams and D’Andre Swift had no problem running the ball during this drive as the Lions were trying to run out the clock. Thankfully, the defense kept the Lions to only a field goal, giving Jordan Love a chance to take the lead on the next drive. On the ensuing drive, the Packers took the lead with a short pass that Josiah Deguara took all the way for a 62-yard touchdown that was awesome to see. Jordan Love ran it in for the two-point conversion after faking a handoff. The 30-27 lead did not last long, as the defense gave up yet another touchdown to Detroit. During the Lions drive, Chandon Sullivan hurt his knee. I pray that this injury is also not too serious. Swift went mostly untouched for a 14-yard touchdown that (with the extra point) gave Detroit a 34-30 lead with 1:54 left in the game. Jordan Love had two chances for either a game-winning or game-tying drive. On both possessions, Love was picked off by Detroit. To be fair to him, the first pick bounced off Amari Rodgers’ hands into the hands of C.J. Moore. In between the picks, the Lions scored a field goal to increase their lead to 37-30, which was also the final score of the game.
With the loss, the Packers finished the regular season at 13-4. It was kind of a bummer that the Packers didn’t finish the season with a win. At least the Packers didn’t have anything to play for as they clinched the top seed the previous week. Offensively, the Packers put up 30 points even though Aaron Rodgers and some other starters only had played a half. Rodgers threw 2 touchdown passes in that first half, with both of them going to Allen Lazard (who finished with 75 yards on 5 catches). Davante Adams had 6 catches for 55 yards, setting a new franchise record for receiving yards by a Packers receiver with 1,553 (Jordy Nelson had 1,519 in 2014, which Adams broke). Josiah Deguara had 3 catches, including the 62-yard touchdown catch and run from Jordan Love, who didn’t perform badly. Again, it’s tough to fault him for times when he is pressured by the defense. Tyler Davis almost caught a touchdown pass from Love in the third quarter, but he dropped it in the end zone. AJ Dillon and Patrick Taylor combined for 116 rushing yards, with Taylor getting the touchdown run in the third quarter. For the offensive line, I was happy to see David Bakhtiari and Josh Myers back in the lineup. For Bakhtiari, it was his first game back since he tore his ACL on New Year’s Eve 2020. Thankfully, he didn’t get hurt during the game before he was pulled out of action. The O-Line only allowed a couple of sacks on the day. It was a bummer that Jordan Love didn’t lead the Packers to a win, but I was glad that he got more experience in this game. I hope that he only plays during garbage time in the playoffs. I pray that everyone gets healthy on offense before the divisional round. I also hope that they have no bad turnovers from here on out.
On defense, it was clear that the Packers missed De’Vondre Campbell, with him being inactive for this game. The middle of the field was constantly exploited by the Lions offense for most of the game. In addition to normal plays, the Lions pulled out a few trick plays, including two of them that ended in touchdowns. Amon Ra St. Brown led the receivers with 8 catches for 109 yards and 1 touchdown. Kalif Raymond was the recipient of the first trick play touchdown that covered 75 yards, while Brock Wright got the other trick play TD that covered 36 yards. Jamaal Williams ran for 43 yards on 13 rushing attempts, while D’Andre Swift added 30 yards and a touchdown on 7 rushes. I have no worries for the defense as some of the starters, other than Campbell, did not play the whole game. With the hope of Za’Darius Smith and Jaire Alexander coming back, I hope that the defense plays awesome in the postseason. I also pray that Sullivan’s injury is not too serious.
On Special Teams, I was glad that they didn’t allow a fake punt pass. The pass went through the receiver’s hands, which was a major sigh of relief. Mason Crosby made each of his kicks, except for one extra point after the Packers’ second touchdown of the game. Corey Bojorquez punted well on Sunday, pinning the Lions inside their own 10 yard line on his only punt. Other than his troubles on offense, Amari Rodgers did well on kick and punt returns in David Moore’s absence (he was still on the COVID list). At least the Packers did not allow a huge punt or kick return to Detroit. At the end of the day, the Packers played well on Special Teams. I hope that the good play continues come playoff time.
Overall, it was a bummer that the Packers didn’t finish the regular season with a win. At least they got the Manningcast curse out of the way. For those who don’t know, any player who was interviewed by Peyton and Eli Manning on MNF had their team lose in the next game. There’s no way that the Packers will lose after that. They’ll have to wait and see who they play in the divisional round. Whether it’s the Eagles, the Rams, the 49ers, or the Cardinals, I have no doubt that the Packers will be ready to face them at Lambeau Field in 2 weeks. 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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