Good morning, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers took on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. It was an ugly game for the Packers, as they lost to the Bucs by 28 points. I am here to give you my thoughts on what exactly happened in this game. Let’s get right into it.
The Packers had the ball first to start the game. Aaron Rodgers was leading the offense down the field for the first points. The drive was going well until they got to the Tampa 21 yard line. An incomplete pass on third and 8 forced the Packers to settle for a 39-yard field goal by Mason Crosby. The offense got the ball back after the defense forced the Bucs to go three and out on their first possession. The offense then went on an 11-play, 80-yard drive that culminated in a Packers touchdown. On third and 4 from the Tampa Bay 7, Rodgers scrambled to the end zone for a touchdown, while being hit late by Antoine Winfield, Jr. The celebration by Rodgers was an homage to a “Key and Peele” sketch. The officials looked at the play and reversed the ruling, saying that Rodgers’ knee was down at the one (wasting that celebration). The problem was that he was not hit by a defender until he went for the end zone (he also went head first instead of sliding). Aaron Jones ran it in on the next play to give Green Bay a 10-0 lead. The defense forced the Bucs to punt after a 7-play drive that ended at the Tampa 48. Up 10-0 with 13:07 left in the second quarter, the Packers now had a chance to increase their lead. Unfortunately, Rodgers threw only his third pick-six of his career (the second one against the Bucs). Bucs CB Jamel Dean perfectly read an out route by Davante Adams and picked the pass off for a 32-yard touchdown return. The pick-six decreased Green Bay’s lead to 10-7. On the next drive, Rodgers threw another pick to the Bucs (though there was an offsides that was not called). The ball bounced off of Adams’ hands into the hands of Bucs safety Mike Edwards, who returned it all the way to the Green Bay 2. Ronald Jones ran it in for a touchdown on the next play, giving the Bucs a 14-10 lead. The Packers did nothing on their next possession, going three and out and punting it back to the Bucs. The punt by JK Scott did not really flip the field, as it gave the Bucs the ball at their own 35 (not great). From there, Tampa Bay’s offense went down the field to score a touchdown after an 11-play drive. For some reason, there was no pressure on Tom Brady on third and goal from the 7 yard line. Brady found an open Tyler Johnson for a touchdown that increased Tampa Bay’s lead to 11 points. After another three-and-out by the Packers, in which Rodgers was sacked on third and 3 by Lavonte David, the Bucs had a chance to once again increase their lead before halftime. Staring from their own 38, the Bucs went down the field in less than 2 minutes for another touchdown. Brady found Rob Gronkowski in the back left corner of the end zone for a 12-yard TD pass that gave Tampa Bay a 28-10 lead with 1:02 left in the first half. The half ended on a 12-yard sack of Rodgers by Ndamukong Suh (who still plays dirty to this day).
The Packers defense at least limited the Bucs to a field goal to start the second half. At first, I thought that the kick was going wide right. The wind brought the bay back to the left and helped it go between the uprights, giving the Bucs a 31-10 lead. 3 punts later (2 by Green Bay, 1 by Tampa Bay), the Bucs had the ball at their own 15 with 5:27 left in the third quarter. On third and 12 from the Green Bay 42, Brady threw incomplete to Scotty Miller. The problem was that Josh Jackson did not turn around and hit Miller, causing him to be flagged for pass interference. 2 plays later, Ronald Jones ran it in for his second touchdown of the game. After that score, it was apparent that the game was decided. Weirdly, Rodgers was still out there for 2 more offensive possessions, which both resulted in punts. On that second possession down by 28, Rodgers was viciously sacked by Devin White. I was glad that Rodgers was out of the game after that hit. There was no point in risking injury down by that much when there is plenty of season left. Once the backups came in, the game was in the books. The Bucs got plenty of rushing yards in garbage time as they ran out the clock to seal a convincing 38-10 win.
With the loss, the Packers record is now 4-1 on the season. After the Packers went up 10-0, the game became a disaster of epic proportions. What changed the momentum, in my opinion, was the 2 consecutive interceptions by Rodgers (who finished with a 35.4 passer rating, his second worst ever). What also did not help was that the run game was mostly shut down by the Bucs defense. Once it was 28-10, the Packers were pass happy for the rest of the game, while failing to score another point. The offensive line did not play well for Green Bay, giving up 5 sacks and not giving Rodgers time to throw at all. Rick Wagner did not play well subbing in for David Bakhtiari, who suffered a chest injury during the game. Hopefully the injury to Bakhtiari is not too serious. The only good thing that came out of this game for the offense was this: RB Aaron Jones became the first player in Packers history since Billy Howton in 1952 to score a touchdown in his first 5 games of a season.
Defensively, the Packers did not play well for most of the game. There was little to no pressure on Tom Brady from the get-go. He was given plenty of time (and space) to find an open receiver. There were also plenty of times where only 3 men were rushing the passer, including on the touchdown pass to Tyler Johnson. Rob Gronkowski led the Bucs receivers with 5 catches for 78 yards and a touchdown. Ronald Jones ran for 112 yards and 2 touchdowns during the game. There were a couple of times where Tom Brady should have been picked off, including a drop by Adrian Amos. It was not a good game on either side of the ball on Sunday. At least there were no turnovers on Special Teams (plus Mason Crosby making both kicks). JK Scott punted a total of 7 times, matching his season total through the first 4 games combined. Most of them were not field-flippers, as only 2 went inside the 20 yard line of Tampa Bay.
Hopefully this loss acts as a wake-up call for the Packers as they move on to next week. They will be playing against the Houston Texans on the road. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great Monday. Go Pack Go.
(Here are the "low-lights" of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page.)
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