All you ever hear about these days is that Packer management screwed this up or isn’t doing enough to bring in more players to “help” Aaron Rodgers. Contrary to what is believed, as Jay Glazer noted, the Packers did try to get receiving help before the trade deadline, including offering a first-round pick, but found no deal takers. The “experts” also fail to note that the Packers will likely have the worst cap problem of any team next offseason. And let’s not forget to that Rodgers had a WR1 in Davante Adams for six seasons, and still didn’t make it to the Super Bowl, in fact the Packers saw two straight losing seasons as Rodgers stopped listening to Mike McCarthy and did whatever he felt like, which is what this season is feeling like, since Rodgers is being permitted the “excuse” of not having enough “weapons.”
Last week I noted that Rodgers was making mistakes that were hard to blame on his receivers, and it was frustrating to listen to or watch his body language. He has been throwing passes that he should know better than be throwing: those “floaters” around multiple defenders, and the ones that bounce off linemen, and he did it again in back-to-back red zone possessions that resulted in interceptions in the end zone. First we see this pass bounce off a lineman’s back into the air; we’ve seen this before...
…and it’s just a jump ball for these three guys:
The second red zone interception was another “floater” off his back foot to who we think is supposed to be David Bakhtiari (as a “tackle eligible receiver”) where the defenders had plenty of time to react to it:
So much for “trick” plays. And then on a fourth-and-3 play, Rodgers again gambled on a deep throw and lost, this time with a completion to Allen Lazard overruled on replay.
After the loss on downs, the defense just threw up their arms and said we give up, allowed the punchless Lions a gift touchdown just before halftime, with Jair Alexander adding 15 yards via penalty to the 15-yard catch he already allowed. So despite gaining 206 yards of offense in the first half, the Packers trailed 8-0 after the defense even permitted a two-point conversion run by former Packer Jamaal Williams.
The second half didn’t start any better. After a punt on their first drive, a Jared Goff interception put the Packers near the red zone, but Rodgers threw his third interception of the game on the second play; again only he can be faulted, clearly throwing the ball behind Robert Tonyan:
The Packers did finally score, but managed to foul up a two-point conversion try. The Lions then marched downfield to score and make it a 15-6 game early in the fourth quarter, and you had the feeling that this was it. Was it possible for the Packers to have an even more embarrassing defeat as last week’s at home against the Panthers, now with Romeo Doubs out with an injury? You betcha. With the Packers driving, Lazard was called for offensive pass interference even though he wasn’t even targeted on the play. A subsequent interference call on Lions negated that mistake, but the Packers again failed to convert inside the 10-yard line, but at least this time got a field goal out of it.
With the score 15-9, it was time for the defense to step-up. A penalty put the Lions at first-and-20 at their own 13-yard line. But no, an unnecessary roughness penalty gave the Lions a first down at the 36-yard line. Then it was fourth-and-3 at the Packers 43-yard line just before the two-minute warning. What would the Lions do? Goff pulled a Rodgers and misfired, and the Packers had the ball with 2 minutes to play, needing a touchdown to tie and an extra-point to win. Could they do it against the team with the worst record in the league?
With under a minute to play Rodgers again rolled the dice on a fourth-and-short play and this time connected with Samori Toure for 32 yards to the Lions 17-yard line. Then:
Incomplete deep right to Lazard
Incomplete short left to Lazard
Incomplete deep middle to Amari Rodgers
Incomplete deep left to Sammy Watkins; the veteran Watkins can be seen throwing up his arms in frustration: Where TF are you throwing the ball? Don’t blame this on me!:
Game over. The Packers out-gained the Lions 389 to 254 and still lost in shameful fashion. Not that Rodgers hasn’t had a history of bad games against the Lions, but at least those games had Matthew Stafford to contend with.
The Packers have lost five games in a row for the first time since 2008, which was Rodgers first season as the starter. The Packers lost four of those games by a total of 14 points, and at that time that at least looked “promising,” given that Rodgers still won 6 games that year while Troy Aikman won just one game his first season, and Peyton Manning just 3 (speaking of Manning, the Volunteers spent just one premature week at #1, looking awful against previous #1 Georgia). The Packers prognosis after this awful loss doesn’t look good with Doubs out; I don’t know why anyone thinks the Packers should be favored against the Titans on Thursday, and then it is on the road against the currently unbeaten Eagles, and then against the Cowboys.
Before the by-week shows up after a road date with the Bears, the Packers could be limping with a shocking 3-10 record toward their worst season since the 2005 season, their first losing season since 1991. In fact that was the Packers only losing season during Brett Favre’s 16-year tenure. In Rodgers 15th year as a starter, it seems certain that this will be the Packers fourth losing season during that time. Packers fans should know better by now to see that Rodgers is really no better than any other quarterback who put up impressive numbers (Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers. Drew Brees—hell, you can even throw in Dan Marino) but were never that impressive come playoff time.
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