The Detroit Lions pulled out all the stops. Two successful trick plays set a tone for the Lions, as they scored two touchdowns off of well executed gadget plays and while the Packers rallied late, two interceptions by Jordan Love sealed the loss for the Green and Gold.
The Packers desperately wanted to leave this game without an injury to a key player. Chandon Sullivan and Marquez Valdes-Scantling both left the game injured. The severity of the injuries were not disclosed. Aaron Rogers, Josh Myers and David Bakhtiari all started and played well. All three players were watching by the start of the second half. Aaron and company scored the first points of the game on a thirteen play, 74 yard touchdown drive that ended with a 1 yard dart pass from Rodgers to Allen Lazard. Lazard seemed covered but Rodgers threw it behind the Lion defender who had his back turned to the play.
The Packers started with their first team defense and they held on the Lions first possession thanks to a sack from Dean Lowry. The Lions then tried a fake punt pass that went through the hands of Lion Godwin Igwebuike. The Packers seemed set up for a quick second score but Rodgers was sacked on third down by a blitzer and the Packers punted.
The Lions did not let their first trick play failure change their game plan. A double reverse wide receiver pass scored a 75 yard touchdown and evened the score. The Packers turned the ball over on downs after failing to convert on a fourth and four. The Lions took the lead by driving 57 yards on ten plays that featured the younger brother of Packer Equanimeous St. Brown. The Lions smaller and younger St. Brown torched the Packers defense with eight catches for 109 yards including a touchdown.
A key turning point in the game was a fumble by Juwann Winfree. With Green Bay trailing 17-13 early in the third quarter, Love dropped a short pass to Winfree in the flat. When Winfree turned upfield, the Detroit defender was able to strip him of the ball. Detroit wasted no time, dialing up their next trick play, A reverse flea flicker pass by Goff to a wide open Brock Wright on first down. The catch and run resulted in a Lion touchdown, resulting in a score of 24-13.
The Packers played most of their second team defense in the second half and the unit failed in the fourth quarter. Jordan Love led three scoring drives for eighteen points in the second half, capped off by his run scoring two point conversion which gave the Packers a three point lead with less than five minutes remaining in the contest. The Lions scored again, then sealed the victory by intercepting Love twice in the final minutes. The Packers must now wait to see who and when they play in two weeks. They know where. Packer fans can enjoy their team on the Frozen Tundra in two weeks.
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Ya Paul, this was a meaningless game, and it showed. A lot of the starters only played the 1st half, and LaFleur was a little pissed off during his presser. He expected better overall performance from the backups. The Lions came out ready to fight, and they deserved the win. Good to see that Bahk and Myers got some real game reps, and no significant injuries, as of now. On another note in the NFL; according to Mike Florio at PFT; the Vikings have fired both Rick Spielman and HC Mike Zimmer. Also, according to Adam Schefter, Da Bears have fired HC Matt Nagy, no word yet on GM Ryan Pace.
Aaron Rodgers vanity game cost them MVS. How severe is yet to be determined. Would have liked to have seen Jordan Love push the ball down the field more. I get it, run the ball and complete short passes to build his confidence. Granted, he didn’t have much to work with for a deep threat. Still, he’s got a big arm, he needs to use it. He seems robotic, too mechanical. You gotta think the Bucs beat the Eagles and the Cowboys beat the 49ers. That’ll leave us with either the Rams or Cardinals in the divisional round. Which means the Bucs and the Cowboys face off. The Packers likely opponent would be the Rams. With Cam Akers back from injury and OBJ and Von Miller now playing a significant amount of snaps and being a factor. The Rams won’t be the same team they beat in November. We’ll need Alexander.
Mick, I think LaFleur was pissed off in part, because both of the starting safeties were in the game on the two successful trick plays. Savage was the deep safety on the first trick play and Amos was the deep safety on the second trick play. On the first trick play it looked like Amos as the strong safety could have recognized the free receiver and carried him down the sideline, but Savage was deep and should have at least been in reasonable position to make a tackle. On the second trick play Savage and Amos switched assignments with Amos playing deep. The outcome was basically the same. Bottom line is they call them safeties for a reason and both the Packer’s starting safeties failed on the trick plays.
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I’m sure the Packers defense must teach the OLBs and the ILBs to not waste their time trying to chuck a RB or receiver that crosses their path within 5 yards of the line. To me the Packers linebackers should chuck some of these receivers. I counted at least 3 times when Amon Brown crossed the linebackers path within 5 yards of the line and the Packer’s linebackers did not lay a hand on him. A simple shove could have disrupted the timing between the receiver and QB. This is not the first game this has occurred when a RB or receiver runs right by a OLB or ILB without so much as a push, bump, or shove, in fact to me it has become a very bad habit. I can see why an OLB might let a RB run by them when in full pass rush mode. An ILB should always disrupt a receiver crossing their face. It is the ILB’s territory and they need to claim the territory otherwise teams will keep sending receivers across the line to get free releases for first downs, big plays, and TDs.
Nice to see Bakhtiari and Josh Myers in the game. What was disturbing to me was that once Rodgers had a more solid offensive line, he went right back to holding on to the ball forever.
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Still not seeing anything from Jordan Love. On the first interception, he locked focus on where he was going with the ball, then his slow wind up allowed the defensive lineman to jump up and deflect the pass. On the other side of the field the Packers had a receiver with two steps on his corner and open field towards the end zone. Two INTS in crunch time is going to lose you every game.
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We need Alexander back because the fewer snaps you can have with Sullivan and/or King on the field the better. Brady will go to the Super Bowl again targeting whichever of his receivers are matched up against those two.
I’d love to see the Packers hire Fangio after JB’s defense shits the bed in the NFCCG as they are wanting to do. Won’t happen but it would sure be nice to see the Packers get serious about fielding a respectable defense.
Without question! This ^^^^.
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While Barry has done a few things much better than his predecessors, his weaknesses still outweigh his strenghs as DC.