Monday night’s Packer game didn’t
go exactly to “script,” which was that whichever team was turnover prone lost
the game that they otherwise should have won according to the stat sheet. As in
their loss to the Eagles, the Packers turned the ball over three times against
the Lions—this time a fumble, a muffed-punt and an interception—and forced none
themselves. Yet the Packers squeezed-out a victory on Mason Crosby’s third
field goal as time expired, 23-22. Although the Lions dominated early in the
first half, with Matthew Stafford completing 12 of 16 passes for 219 yards
while Aaron Rodgers managed just 99, the Lions only mustered 13 points and the
Packers just did enough to pull within 3 at the half.
Neither team did much offensively
in the third quarter, and the Lions for the entire half. Although the Packers
tied the game with a field goal to open, Packer mistakes allowed the Lions to
kick three subsequent field goals for a nine-point lead despite the fact the
Lions only covered 44 yards on those possessions. Although some commentators
wailed about two illegal use of hands penalties (they were judgment calls, in
my opinion) which extended Packer scoring drives late, the Lions’ offense also was
to blame, with Stafford completing just 6 of 16 passes for 46 yards. While the
Packers did have a “balanced” offensive attack overall on paper—277 net yards
passing, and 170 yards rushing thanks to the return of Jamaal Williams—it
didn’t “translate” as well as it should have on the field because of continuing
inconsistency.
Yet the Packers were still down
22-13 in the fourth quarter, with another hair-pulling interception near the
goal line appearing to be according to the script of an inevitable defeat.
Still, given the fact that it was the Lions they were playing, there was reason
to believe in miracles. Stafford obliged by being his unaccountably listless
self at opportune times, and Rodgers arose to throw 147 of his 283 yards passing in the fourth quarter. After
the first illegal use of hands penalty nullified a sack on third-and-10,
Rodgers found rookie Allen Lazard on a 35-yard TD strike, and following a Lion
punt, the Packers burned the final 6:46 marching 77 yards on 14 plays, with
Williams deliberately falling down near the end zone instead of running it in
in order burn more clock to leave just enough seconds to end the game on
Crosby’s field goal.
The Packers are amazingly enough
5-1 and 3-0 in the NFC North division despite their inconsistent play, and the
fact is that they have yet to have the kind of dominant performance on both
sides of the ball that would suggest that the team is jelling as a whole, and not
just winning by sheer good fortune—in this case, playing a Lions team that
could not take advantage of the gifts they were handed. Still, winning—even
ugly—early gives the team more breathing room to find out what it needs to do
to become a great team.
As an aside, Matthew Stafford has
not missed a start for Detroit since 2010, and he remains their “franchise”
quarterback despite the fact that the Lions have had few runs to the playoffs,
and haven’t won when they did. Despite throwing for more than 4,000 yards seven
consecutive seasons, Stafford just doesn’t appear to be what you would call an
“elite” quarterback. Of course that doesn’t mean that a quarterback has to be
“elite” to make it to the Hall of Fame; Troy Aikman wasn’t an “elite”
quarterback—he was just fortunate enough to play with players who were “elite”
at their positions, which allowed HOF voters to overlook the fact that Aikman
barely threw more touchdown passes than he did interceptions. I’m not sure that
anyone would say that Warren Moon was a better quarterback than Phil Simms, but
Moon is in the HOF and Simms isn’t. Stafford will almost certainly surpass
60,000 yards passing if he stays healthy, and that will almost guarantee him a
spot in the HOF. But as Monday night’s game demonstrated, the numbers don’t
tell the whole story; he has a losing record as a starter in the regular
season, and winless in three playoff appearances.
No comments:
Post a Comment