How 3 NFL teams gave away games on Sunday

#2 Packers-Lions

In our second example, the explanation is much easier. The Packers travelled to Detroit with their number two and three receivers being ruled out, an average week of preparation according to Aaron Rodgers and a tense situation between their quarterback and head coach.

However, when you look at the Packers’ box score and see Mason Crosby missing four field goal attempts plus a PAT and you see that this was an eight-point game you would assume that they should have won this game if the kicker had connected on three of those FGs. With that being said, Green Bay put themselves into a hole they couldn’t climb out of anymore by what they did in the other facets of the game.

After an eight-play opening drive by the Lions that included a nullified touchdown grab by Kenny Golladay covering half the field, the Lions are forced to punt, but Kevin King comes into the picture after blocking the gunner from the opposite side and has the ball touch him off the bounce.

Detroit’s Jamal Agnew recovers at the one and LeGarrette Blount punches it in for the early lead. There has to be call by return-man Tramon Williams for when the punt is too short to catch like “Peter”, signalling his teammates to get out of the way. You can see Williams wave his arms, but either his call wasn’t loud enough or King didn’t make a good enough effort to get out of the way. I think it was a little bit of both.

Ty Montgomery takes the ensuing kickoff all the way back to the Lions’ 35-yard line, but a holding penalty pushed them back to their own 12. After a pass interference call helps the Packers extend the drive on third-and-long, Green Bay fakes zone to the left out of an ace set to that side and Rodgers boots the other way.

He has the two tight-ends coming across the field and both are wide open, but you can tell that the distance between them isn’t far enough. So as the ball goes slightly above Jimmy Graham’s head, he tries to reach up for it, tips it and it falls to the turf instead of into the hands of Lance Kendricks.

(9:00) After a clutch scramble and completion on a deep-in route by one of the rookie receivers, something similar seems to happen when the Packers come out with a double-stack out of the tight split. They have the two receivers from the right running a double post concept, which clears up space for Davante Adams coming across the field. However, running back Aaron is also running a flat route which occupies the underneath defender, but Rodgers can’t really step into the throw and Jones tries to high-point it as well even though Adams might have a touchdown if that ball lands in his hands.

That’s when Mason Crosby misses his first field goal from 41 yards out slightly to the left. When the Lions take over they run Kerryon Johnson first and then isolate Golladay on an inside fade route versus Green Bay’s DB Josh Jackson.

The rookie slightly misjudges the ball and can’t get up into his jump anymore, so the receiver plucks it off his head, goes down the sideline and cuts back inside the safety Haha Clinton-Dix with a mean stiff-arm. In two attempts from the six Blount pounds it into the end-zone for his second touchdown. Even at the PAT the visiting team messes up, as they rough the kicker and push the ensuing kickoff to mid-field.

When the Packers take back over inside their own 15, they gain three yards on a Montgomery run and then on second down another rookie juggles the pass at the sideline after what would have resulted in a fresh set of downs.

Now it’s 3rd & 7 and the Packers need to make a play being down 14:0 already. They once again come out in that set with four tight receivers and try something similar to defeat the Lions’ two-high safety alignment. They run a little mesh concept on the inside with one of the rookies coming over the linebacker and Adams going underneath him, while corner routes are supposed to draw the underneath coverage once again.

However, Montgomery comes out of the backfield and wants to sit down his route in front of the linebacker and Adams just runs him over on his way, leading both players land on the ground. Rodgers is now forced to his right and moves all the way outside the numbers in hope of Jimmy Graham working back towards him on the scramble drill since he can’t find his crosser. The right defensive end Romeo Okwara chases him down, strips him from behind and the Lions are back in business just outside the opposing red-zone once again.

The Packers D does a pretty good job holding them to a field goal and the ball goes back to their offence. After a nice completion on an angled corner route off a zone-split fake, Aaron Rodgers takes the Pack down to the Lions’ 30 with several outstanding runs.

They fail to connect on a deep comeback route off play-action, Rodgers slightly overshoots the 6’5” Equanimeous St. Brown on a fade in the end-zone and on third down the defensive backfield does a tremendous job bracketing all the receivers in a cover-one robber look, so Rodgers is forced to just throw it away. That’s when Crosby misses for the second time from 41 yards out, as he hits the upright.

After a nice third-down conversion to a deep crosser, the Lions have a 50-yard bomb to Marvin Jones taken off the board by offsetting penalties and then the defence comes up big once more with a sack and tackles short of the sticks to force another punt.

As the visitors take back over, Rodgers hooks up with Graham on a nice out-and-up route followed by a completion to Adams on a dig route over the top off the linebackers, who needed to step up because of the run-fake. On the following play, the Packers almost get a huge gain to the five-yard line, as they motion a receiver across into trips and see man-coverage with one high safety as a corner trails the motion man and the third receiver runs his seam route all the way across the field.

However, after a three-yard run, they get a big completion from a similar look to Adams as Rodgers steps up in the pocket and they are inside the Detroit 10 anyway. In three attempts, including a zone-split run on first, an overthrown back-shoulder fade to Graham out wide and no receiver getting any separation against man coverage on third, they can’t cash in and ask Crosby to trot out onto the field again. This time he curves it to the right from 38.

At this point, they should be within a touchdown, but the defence doesn’t get encouraged as they hold the opposition to just one first down thanks to excellent man-coverage on the back-end and blowing up a slip screen out of a bunch set. Rodgers and company now take over from their own 15.

He completes two nice out-routes, but on 2nd & 2 is when they just give the game away. They come out in a trips set to the right with Graham as the single-receiver in a short split to the left. The Lions counter with another two-high safety alignment and a four-man rush.

On the trips side, the inside receivers run a post and deep-in route, but not only do the Lions line up their top two corners against those guys to signal man-coverage, once he sees the DBs trailing his guys he has to go to St. Brown on the short-in because the corner has the longest way to get to the ball, especially with how deep he is lined up, and it’s their worst cover-guy on the field.

You can see how the quarterback looks left initially and I have no doubt he knows where he should go with this ball, but I think he is tired of those rookies and shifts back to the opposite side to see if he can get it to his tight-end breaking outside or running back going into the flats. Yet, a Lions rookie D-lineman DaShawn Hand is in his face at that point and as Rodgers tries to keep the ball away from the rusher instead of bringing it into his body, the ball is knocked loose and Hand recovers inside the Packers 30-yard line.

Detroit goes the rest of the way in four plays including a penalty and as safety Clinton-Dix is cleared out by the eyes of Stafford being locked in on an out-route by his tight-end, Marvin Jones breaks inside for an eight-yard score at the back-line of the end-zone with 15 seconds left in the first half.

The Packers would go on to make a run for a comeback in the second half despite another missed field goal and extra point try, but Crosby’s first make to cut the final score to 23-31 with two seconds left is not really indicative of the how the game went.

And you can blame the kicker for all those misses and say that in principle those 13 points that were left on the board would have changed the outcome, but there was something fundamentally wrong with this team on Sunday. Rodgers’ overall numbers of 32/52 for 442 yards with three TDs and no picks, resulting a QB rating of 108.0 are excellent.

Statistically the Packers absolutely dominated their division rivals in every major category – 30 compared to 18 first downs, 6.9 yards per play instead of 4.6 and 521 total yards over 264, but they also had three turnovers and three first downs surrendered by penalty, plus more importantly I thought their all-around execution, especially on offence was absolutely horrendous.

The defence easily played well enough to win this game, but they were put in really tough spots throughout the first 30 minutes. Green Bay made mistakes on special teams, the skill players on offence messed up some of their routes and not only did Rodgers lose two fumbles and struggle with that banged up knew his attitude and disinterest was infectious to the rest of the offence. The Packers didn’t deserve to win this game.

Edited by Nishant Jayaram