The Packers entered the
NFC title game decided underdogs, but despite all the reservations and doubts I
knew that they were not only going to beat the 49ers, they were going to “shock”
the world. Aaron Rodgers was going to throw for 300 yards and 4 touchdowns, the
defense was going to stuff the 49er run game and intercept the hapless Jimmy
Garoppolo three times and maybe force a strip-sack fumble, and the Packers
would return the favor and beat them 38-10. The sad reality, of course, is that
the Packers didn’t have a game like that all season; even the win against the
Raiders could have had a much different result had not the Raiders repeatedly
blown red-zone opportunities. The Packers hadn’t beaten a top-tier team all
season, save for the Chiefs who were minus an injured Patrick Mahomes, and a
Seahawk team that was mostly a shell of what it had been during its
back-to-back Super Bowl years.
Reality hit hard, and
early, and before you knew it the Packers were down 27-0 at halftime enroute to
a 37-20 loss. The Packer defense could not stop running back Raheem Mostert if
their families’ lives depended on it. Mostert rushed for 220 yards and scored 4
touchdowns; this is the same guy who played every game this season and rushed
for a modest 772 yards total and scored 8 touchdowns. Remember Timmy Smith? Of
course you don’t, but he was the guy who rushed for 202 yards in the Redskins’
Super Bowl win in 1988 against the Broncos; to put that in “perspective,” he
gained 604 yards total in his entire regular season NFL career. Mostert
probably has a more productive career ahead of him, but it is nevertheless
stunning that the Packers had no game plan to control him, or maybe their front
seven was overrated to begin with. For the Packers to win, they needed to force
Jimmy Garoppolo to carry the team and hope he made more than a few bad
decisions. Instead, Jimmy G just laughed at the Smiths and turned around to
hand the ball off again and again, and stood back and took it all in like any
other fan. He threw a total of 8 passes all game, and he didn’t need to do
more.
As for Rodgers, he did
play a better game that he did the first time around against the 49ers,
completing 31 of 39 for 326 yards and 2 scores. But he also threw an
interception that led to a short-field touchdown, and fumbled the ball at the 49er
25-yard line, nullifying a scoring opportunity. The Packers did open up the
second half with three long touchdown drives, with Rodgers completing 21 of 24
passes, including passes of 65 yards to Davante Adams and 42 to Jimmy Graham.
But it was too late; the Packers needed to strike early and if not build the
kind of lead they did against the Seahawks last week, at least keep the game
within a score. By that metric, the game was over by the end of the first
quarter.
Perhaps the season
shouldn’t be seen as a total loss because winning 13 games and advancing to the
NFC title game was a bit impressive given the Packers uneven play throughout
the season; but then again, their schedule was not one of the NFL’s toughest
this season and they beat teams they should have beaten, if not very
convincingly. The question now is that with a season under their belt, can Matt
LaFleur and Rodgers figure out how to build on what went right and fix what
went wrong with the offense this season. They can’t count on an “easy” schedule
next season to get things “right.”
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