Good morning, everyone. On Monday night, the Green Bay Packers took on the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field. For some reason, the Packers wore their all-white uniforms at home. The game was filled with plenty of drama. I am here to give my thoughts on what happened in this game. With no further delay, let‘s get started.
The Packers started the ball on defense in this game. The first play they gave up was a flea-flicker pass that gave the Lions a great chance to put points on the board. Thankfully, the defense held Detroit to only a field goal after that first play. Granted, the Lions messed up with fumbling the snap on first down. The Packers offense started the game with a three-and-out due to a third down drop by Geronimo Allison. For the second straight drive, the Lions connected on a deep pass on the first play of the drive. A few plays later, it looked like that the Packers held Kerryon Johnson short of the goal line on fourth down from the one. To me, he didn’t cross the plane with the ball. One official signaled touchdown while the other signaled turnover on downs. In the end, the Lions were given the touchdown and a 10-0 lead. On the ensuing possession, Green Bay was driving down the field to potentially get a score. Aaron Jones lost the ball on a fumble, which was recovered by Detroit. After the turnover, the Packers defense held the Lions to only three points inside the 10 yard line. The Packers finally got on the board during their next drive, with some help from the officials. On third and 5 from the Detroit 33, Geronimo Allison dropped another pass that would have been a first down. However, defensive holding was called against Detroit and the drive continued. Fast forward to third and 5 from the 13. Jimmy Graham dropped a touchdown and the Packers were set up for a field goal. Luckily, the Lions has too many men on the field. The result was that the Packers were given a fresh set of downs. 2 plays later, Aaron Rodgers threw a shovel pass to Jamaal Williams, who went 5 yards for a touchdown. Just like that, the Packers were back in it. The defense forced the Lions to punt after Za’Darius Smith sacked QB Matthew Stafford on third and 13 from the Detroit 48. Despite starting the next drive at their own 6, the Packers went methodically down the field for a score. They pretty much milked out the rest of the clock on this drive. I thought that the Packers were going to score a touchdown on this drive to take a 14-13 lead at halftime. They were at the 10 yard line when it went backwards. A holding penalty on first down and a play that went for negative yards on second down forced Green Bay to give up on third down and kick a field goal to make it only a 3-point deficit at halftime.
The Packers started the second half on offense, looking for a chance to take the lead for the first time in this game. After a 25-yard pass from QB Aaron Rodgers to TE Marcedes Lewis, the Packers were stopped on third down with an incomplete pass. Mason Crosby made the 48-yard field goal to tie the game at 13-13. The defense forced the Lions to punt after Preston Smith and Kyler Fackrell shared a sack of Stafford on third and 9 from the Detroit 27. Darrius Shepherd made a mistake on the punt by not fair catching it. He fumbled the punt and the Lions recovered, giving them the ball in scoring range. The defense responded by not allowing a touchdown after the fumble. Matt Prater made a 41-yard field goal to put the Lions up by 3 points. The Packers’ next drive went nowhere after a holding penalty on first down and a sack of Aaron Rodgers by Damon Harrison. Once again, the defense held the Lions to only a field goal, which put the Lions up by 6. The Packers were forced to punt after a third down drop by Jake Kumerow. Green Bay responded on defense by forcing Detroit to punt on the next drive. Preston Smith sacked Stafford on third down. The offense quickly got into scoring range after a 46-yard catch by Marquez Valdes-Scantling. On third and 7 from the Detroit 12, Darrius Shepherd let the ball bounce off his helmet and into the hands of Justin Coleman for the interception. Coleman returned the pick 55 yards to the Green Bay 43. Once again, the defense forced the Lions to settle for a field goal. The third down play was originally ruled a catch and fumble by Kerryon Johnson. Matt LaFleur challenges this call and the ruling was reversed to an incomplete pass. That was the correct decision by the officials to reverse the ruling. Johnson clearly didn’t have possession of the football. Matt Prater made his 5th field goal of the night from 54 yards away.
Here’s the situation: the Packers were now down by a score of 22-13 with over 12 minutes remaining in the game. Aaron Rodgers and the offense responded by scoring a touchdown on the next drive. On third and 10 from the Detroit 45, Rodgers was sacked by Kevin Strong. However, Trey Flowers was called for a questionable hands to the face penalty, giving Green Bay a fresh set of downs. 3 plays later, the Packers scored on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Allen Lazard. It was a great throw by Rodgers and a great catch by Lazard. The extra point brought the Packers to within 2 points. After the Packers forced Detroit to punt, the offense had the ball at their own 18 with 6:46 left in the game. This drive was a great example of clock management and smart decision-making by the coach and the offense. Rodgers was leading the team down the field for the game-winning score. The receivers were helping him by catching the passes. Allen Lazard caught a few of them during this possession. On third and 4 from the Detroit 16, Rodgers threw an incomplete pass that was intended for Kumerow. Once again, Trey Flowers was called for a questionable hands to the face penalty. With no timeouts left for the Lions, the penalty gave the Packers the win. Jamaal Williams made a smart play by going down at the 3 when the Lions were pretty much letting him walk into the end zone. After 2 kneel-downs to get the game clock to just 2 seconds left, the Packers called timeout. This gave Mason Crosby another chance to be the hero for Green Bay. He made the 23-yard field goal as time expired and the Packers won by a score of 23-22. Crosby and a lot of other players celebrated by doing a Lambeau Leap into the stands. To be fair, Hunter Bradley helped Crosby get up to the stands.
The 23-22 victory over the Lions improved the Packers’ record to 5-1 on the season. The Packers are now 3-0 in division games for the first time since 2012. This win was not pretty by any means, as there were many mistakes that the Packers made, especially early on. There were dropped passes by a few receivers and backs, including a wide-open touchdown pass dropped by RB Aaron Jones. The Packers were -3 in turnovers last night against the Lions. Normally, a team loses when they lose the turnover battle. The defense held the Lions to 5 field goals, with 3 of them in the red zone. Kerryon Johnson was held to just 34 rushing yards on the night. Matthew Stafford was sacked 3 times on the night (one by Za’Darius Smith, 1.5 by Preston Smith, 0.5 by Fackrell).
Without Davante Adams, the Packers could not afford to lose another receiver to injury. On the first play of the third quarter, Geronimo Allison got hit hard and was out for the game with a chest injury. He was also evaluated for a concussion. Allen Lazard stepped up in a big way last night, with clutch catches in the last drive. He was the one with the great touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. Aaron Rodgers threw for 283 yards and 2 touchdowns in this game. Once again, the interception was not entirely on him. The ball bounced off of the helmet of Darrius Shepherd, who also lost the punt earlier in the game. When it mattered most, Rodgers made clutch throw after clutch throw. Jamaal Williams went for 136 total yards in this game (104 rushing, 32 receiving). He had the 5-yard TD catch in the second quarter.
It was great to see Mason Crosby kick the game-winning field goal. I have to admit that the officials played a part in helping that happen. I understand that the NFL officials are just humans, like everyone else in the world. They should be able to get the calls on the field right all the time. Most of the time, the officials do not get them right. There were so many bad calls and non-calls last night against both teams. The two hands to the face penalties against Trey Flowers were very questionable. Clearly, he didn’t have his hands on the face of a Packers player on the first one. Before the game-winning drive, the officials missed a defensive pass interference against the Packers. For some reason, Matt Patricia did not challenge that ruling. I hope that the officials do better than what happened last night.
At the end of the day, I will take the Packers victory no matter how ugly it is. They have a short week to prepare for Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders at Lambeau Field. For now, the Packers are 5-1 and are on top of the NFC North. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!
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