Good morning, everyone. On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers took on the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. This was a critical game for the Packers as they were trying to save their season from potential disaster. Once again, the Packers shot themselves in the foot repeatedly with a whole bunch of errors that resulted in a 15-9 loss. Let’s go ahead and recap how this game went.
The Lions avoided disaster on the opening kickoff when the catch was muffed. The ball was recovered by the Lions’ kick returner, who then ran to the Detroit 38 yard line. From there, Detroit’s offense was able to move the ball down the field to potentially score the first points of the game. Jamaal Williams, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and D’Andre Swift got touches during this drive, which got all the way to the Green Bay 7 yard line before the Packers defense stopped them from scoring. Rashan Gary did a great job on the fourth and one pass that resulted in a turnover on downs. From the 7 yard line, the Packers offense went down the field on a drive that lasted around 6 and half minutes. The first play of the drive was an 18-yard pass completion from Aaron Rodgers to Romeo Doubs, who unfortunately hurt his ankle after the play was over. Jon Runyan, Jr. was also hurt during the drive, but he came back later in the game. The Packers had a first and goal from the 5 that was set up by a third and one pass completion to Marcedes Lewis that went for 19 yards. Unfortunately, the Packers didn’t convert the goal to go situation into a touchdown because of an Aaron Rodgers throw that hit the facemask of a defender, went up in the air, and was picked off by the Lions in the end zone. After the pick, the Packers defense was able to keep Detroit from doing anything and forced them to punt. Amari Rodgers returned the punt for 10 yards to the Detroit 48, giving the Packers great field position. The offense faced a third and 10 from that spot. Aaron Rodgers found Allen Lazard for a pass completion that nearly went all the way for a touchdown. Lazard was stopped short of the goal line, setting up a first and goal from the 1 yard line. The first play was a run by AJ Dillon that went nowhere. The second play was a play in which Rodgers threw incomplete out of bounds. The third play was another run that went nowhere. They decided to go for it on fourth down. Rather than give the ball to Aaron Jones, the offense tried a trick play pass to David Bakhtiari that would’ve worked had Aaron Rodgers thrown a better ball. Instead, Rodgers threw the ball short and was intercepted by Aidan Hutchinson in the end zone. The Lions were able to keep themselves from giving up a safety on their next drive. However, the defense of Green Bay was able to keep them from scoring any points. Amari Rodgers did not go for the ball at all on the ensuing punt, which allowed Detroit to down the ball at the one yard line of Green Bay. The Packers offense was able to get out of that bad situation and nearly had another red zone scoring opportunity. During this drive, Aaron Rodgers took a sack on a play where both Allen Lazard and Robert Tonyan were wide open for a potential big play. On the following play, Aaron Jones was able to get 15 yards to set up a fourth and 3. The offense decided to go for it and converted it at first. Allen Lazard looked to have caught a big pass that got Green Bay to the Detroit 12 yard line. However, the play was challenged by Lions head coach Dan Campbell. The officials decided that the pass was barely incomplete, resulting in a turnover on downs (thus wasting a 7 and a half minute drive). With 2:35 left, the Lions were able to go down the field to score the first touchdown of the game. The first play got the Lions to the Green Bay 30 thanks to a weak unnecessary roughness penalty against Jaire Alexander. The drive concluded with a touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Shane Zylstra that was followed by a ridiculous series of events. The extra point kick was pretty much shanked by the kicker, but there was an awful penalty called on Jaire Alexander for “running” into the kicker. To me, the kicker flopped and was given the call anyway. The Lions then decided to go for two points. Jamaal Williams ran in mostly untouched for the two point conversion. With that, the Lions had an 8-0 lead entering halftime.
The Packers offense started their first drive of the second half at their 33 yard line after a nice kick return by Keisean Nixon. Three plays into the drive, they faced a third and 4 from the 39 yard line. Aaron Rodgers connected with Christian Watson for an 18-yard pass completion that got the Packers into Lions territory. On the next play, Aaron Jones was tackled for a loss of 6 yards. 2 plays after that, Aaron Rodgers nearly connected with Samari Toure for a potential touchdown. Because Rodgers did not put enough power on the throw, Lions safety Kerby Joseph was able to deflect the pass. After the play, Rodgers was obviously mad that the play didn’t result in a TD. Pat O’Donnell punted the ball to the Detroit 13, where it was fair caught. Kingsley Enegbare was denied a sack thanks to a dumb roughing the passer penalty. Jared Goff was literally falling down and Enegbare just touched the helmet to get him down by contact. Thankfully, Jaire Alexander jumped the following pass and returned the interception to the Detroit 23 yard line. However, the Packers did nothing with the opportunity as Aaron Rodgers threw a pass that Kerby Joseph easily picked off after jumping the route intended for Robert Tonyan. After that, the Packers defense forced the Lions to a three and out and punt back to Green Bay. From their own 46, the Packers finally got on the board after a 7 play drive. On second and 3 from the Detroit 20 yard line, Rodgers connected with Allen Lazard for a touchdown pass that got Green Bay on the scoreboard for the first time. Rather than kick the extra point, the Packers went for two to tie the game. The pass, however, went incomplete and short of the goal line, keeping the score at 8-6. Rather than get a stop, the defense (once again) allowed the opposing offense to go on a time-consuming touchdown drive. The drive nearly stalled after an incomplete pass on third and 15 from the Detroit 25. I said “nearly” because there was an awful holding penalty against Nixon that gifted the Lions a free first down. After that penalty, Jamaal Williams got the majority of the touches, tiring out the defense in the process. The drive ended with a three yard touchdown pass in which James Mitchell easily beat Darnell Savage and was open for Jared Goff to throw to him. The extra point was good, giving Detroit a 15-6 lead with 14:51 left in the fourth quarter. After the ensuing kickoff ended in a touchback, the Packers started their next drive in the hopes of getting a score. During this drive, Aaron Rodgers was able to convert a third and 17 with an 18-yard scramble. There were a few penalties on this drive on both teams, including an offensive pass interference penalty on Allen Lazard and a defensive pass interference penalty on Detroit that gave Green Bay a first down at the Lions 14. The Packers were not able to get a touchdown after the penalty and settled for a field goal, which was easily made by Mason Crosby from 25 yards away. With 6:36 left, the Lions got the ball back and were looking to run out the rest of the clock. Ultimately, the defense got the stop the Packers needed after the Lions went for it on fourth down and failed. From their own 43 yard line, the Packers actually had a chance of winning the game, even with a shortage of weapons. Aaron Jones and Romeo Doubs left the game with ankle injuries, plus Christian Watson suffered a second concussion. On third and 5, Aaron Rodgers connected with Samari Toure, who made a great diving catch and nearly lost the ball after being stripped of it. Thankfully, the ball went out of bounds at the Detroit 17. Here’s the situation: the Packers had 42 seconds and 2 timeouts to work with. Even without Aaron Jones, the offense could’ve ran it with Dillon or went with short passes. Instead, the Packers went deep and incomplete 4 plays in a row, ending the game and giving the Lions a 15-9 win. With this loss, the Packers are now losers of 5 straight and are 3-6 on the season.
(Here are the "lowlights" of this game, provided by the official YouTube page of the NFL.)
The offense, more specifically Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers, learned absolutely nothing from their performance against Buffalo. Against the Bills, the Packers relied on the running game, which produced over 200 yards. I thought that the Buffalo game was going to be the first step into an offensive attack that should’ve been the plan from the start. Instead, Aaron Jones only got 9 carries for 25 yards and 2 catches for 20 yards. It did not help that Aaron Jones suffered an ankle injury late in the game and was not able to finish it. Thankfully, it’s not too serious and he should play next week. Still, it’s pretty much criminal that the BEST PLAYER ON OFFENSE RIGHT NOW is barely getting any touches while Aaron Rodgers is throwing passes that are either underthrown, overthrown, or out of bounds. Yes, Rodgers threw for 291 yards, but he was 23 of 43 on the day and finished with 3 picks, 1 TD, and a passer rating of 53.5. The first pick was a fluke play in which the ball bounced off of a defender’s facemask. The other two were on Rodgers himself. That trick play to David Bakhtiari would have worked with a better-thrown ball. The third pick was an ill-advised throw that Kerby Joseph easily jumped. There were plenty of opportunities where Rodgers missed wide open targets. One in particular was when Allen Lazard and Robert Tonyan were both wide open for a potential touchdown. Rodgers didn’t see either of them and the play resulted in the only sack allowed by the Packers offensive line (which played well in passing situations while being iffy in run situations). Another play was when Rodgers did not see a wide open Josiah Deguara and threw the ball out of bounds. Allen Lazard led the receivers with 4 catches for 87 yards and a touchdown. I wish he would’ve scored on the play that was followed by the failed goal line situation. There was another play in which Lazard was covered perfectly by Jeff Okudah. Rodgers made a great throw and Lazard nearly caught it (it was caught at first, but was ruled incomplete after a challenge). It did not help that both Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson left with injuries. Doubs suffered a high ankle sprain and could miss a few weeks. I just hope for the best for Watson and his concussion situation. The sequence of events that really made me scream into a pillow (which I actually did) was after the Samari Toure catch and near lost fumble. The offense had 2 timeouts left, so they didn’t have to go throwing on all four plays. Instead, Rodgers went deep all four plays only for all of them to fall incomplete. That sequence ended the game and gave the Packers a fifth straight loss. This was an embarrassing performance by the Packers offense. The Lions defense entered the game giving up the most points of any team in the NFL. It’s inexcusable that the Packers only scored 9 POINTS AGAINST THIS DEFENSE!
On the bright side, the Packers defense only allowed 15 points to a Lions offense that was averaging over 30 points at Ford Field. The two touchdown drives that they allowed were after times when the offense did not do their part (in other words, COMPLIMENTARY FOOTBALL). Once again, the defense allowed over 100 rushing yards, including 81 yards by Jamaal Williams (who used to play with Green Bay). The absence of De’Vondre Campbell was kinda felt in the defense, as well as the injuries to Eric Stokes and Rashan Gary. Gary, in particular, was lost for the season once it was learned that he suffered a torn ACL. I feel so awful for Rashan Gary because I thought that this was going to be the year where he goes on to win the defensive player of the year award. Instead, he has to watch the rest of the Games either at home or on the sidelines in street clothes. I do pray that he recovers fully next year. A number of the injuries suffered by Green Bay was due to the artificial turf in Ford Field. Granted, it’s not like AstroTurf back in the 1970s and 1980s, but it’s still lazy that some teams have artificial turf. Hopefully the players argue in the next negotiations about having natural grass (as long as it’s maintained properly) at every stadium. Anyway, back to the defense. I want to give kudos to Jaire Alexander, who made a great play on the interception that should’ve been followed by offensive points. Kudos to the defense for also getting that fourth down stop when the Lions tried to ice the game with a conversion attempt with 2 minutes left. Hopefully a change is made to have Darnell Savage not play safety because he’s always been beat or lost, including on Sunday when he gave up a wide open touchdown. We’ll see what’s next for the defense for the rest of the season. One thing that I want to see is less penalties called on them (and as a team overall).
On Special Teams, I’m glad that there were no turnovers. Amari Rodgers did his job safely as punt returner in the fact that he didn’t muff a punt. There was one punt where he allowed the ball to go to the one yard line, but I kinda thought that the ball was going to bounce into the end zone. Keisean Nixon had a nice kick return that thankfully wasn’t called back due to a weird penalty. On the other side, there were no huge kick or punt returns allowed by Green Bay’s coverage unit. It helped that the game was played indoors and there were a few touchbacks on kickoffs. Pat O’Donnell and Mason Crosby did their thing while the line didn’t allow any kick to get blocked. A bad thing that happened was a bogus penalty that occurred when the Lions kicker flopped and fell down after Jaire got close to him. Yes, there was contact with the cleats, but I thought that the kicker was going for an Oscar for Best Flop in Football. One thing that I was relieved to see was that the Special Teams didn’t contribute to any additional points scored by the Lions (other than that weird penalty that led to a two point conversion). Once again, the Special Teams unit played the most consistent on Sunday.
Overall, this loss was embarrassing for the Packers. This was a supposed “get right” game for them against a struggling Lions team. There were too many self-inflicted wounds on all sides of the ball. Turnovers, lack of discipline that led to penalties, and a total lack of complimentary football led to this loss. I’m not sure if this team will make the playoffs, but anything can happen in the second half of the season. Next up for Green Bay is a home game at Lambeau Field against the Dallas Cowboys, who are coming off their bye week. I’ll be at the game hoping for the best. My pregame thoughts on that one will be posted earlier than usual due to me being in Wisconsin for the weekend. Hope you all have a great week. Go Pack Go, win or lose.
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