Coming into today’s divisional playoff game with a continuous rain likely to effect play, the 49ers had the Packers number in recent years, quite different than the Favre era when the Packers were 7-0 in the regular season and 4-1 in the playoffs against them; during the Rodgers’ era the Packers were a horrible 0-4 in the playoffs against the 49ers, and staring at 0-5 since Favre, being 10.5-point underdogs.
The Packers took the ball down the field on their first possession, but it ended touchdownless, (although I thought it was DPI on the pass to Romeo Doubs in the end zone); a short field goal was the result. On the 49ers first possession Darnell Savage dropped a pass right in his hands with a clear field before him, preventing a second-straight game with a pick-6. Brock Purdy may be a better quarterback than Dak Prescott, and I had this feeling that this play would be a bad omen for the Packers.
A sack of Purdy gave the Packers the ball back. A pass to Musgrave was behind him, but another DPI gave the Packers another first down; 49ers linebacker Fred Warner made a couple of big hits to seemingly bring a halt to the drive, but Dobbs made a big 38-yard play on third down as the first quarter wound down; although the Packers out-gained the 49ers 102-22 in first quarter, they led only 3-0. In the rain, Love was apparently unable to consistently get a grip on the ball, and that also seemed to be a problem with Aaron Jones after the first quarter.
The Packers moved the ball down to the 49ers 14, but a quarterback sneak failed on fourth down. Again another failure to convert on a golden opportunity to score even a field goal that could have devastating consequences. The 49ers then drove the ball down the field effortlessly. A 32-yard pass to George Kittle made it 7-3 and I knew it was "over" then.
Although Jones was effective on the first drive, he was mostly non-existent for the rest of the half. A long pass to Jayden Reed got the Packers down to the red zone for the third time, but consistent pressure on Love forced another bad pass and the Packers had to settle for a field goal (they could have retaken the lead had they settled for a field goal on the previous possession).
One had to feel the Packers were losing out on the opportunities they needed to take advantage of to keep the 49ers on their heels, because if the Packers fell behind, the 49ers were too good a team not to keep the pressure on Love. On the final possession of the half—meaning the 49ers would have an extra possession as they would open the second half with the ball—the Packer defense had an opportunity to keep the 49ers out of field goal range but failed, but fortunately a 48-yard attempt was missed.
The 49ers went into the half with just a 7-6 lead. The problem of course is that the Packers had three red zone opportunities and should have gone into the half with a 10-point lead at least, and maybe more if Savage had held on to that easy potential pick-6.
Last week, despite dominating the game for the most part, the Cowboys outscored the Packers 25-21 in the second half. So yes, I was concerned, not the least because, well, the 49ers were the top-seeded team in the NFC, though still beatable. The Packers needed a defensive stop on the first possession of the half. They got that stop, but could they take advantage to take control of the game with a touchdown?
After Jones lost 11 on a fumbled snap and with the officials missing a clear facemask penalty to set-up a third-15, another fortunate DPI gave the Packers ball for a fourth red zone opportunity, and Love managed to find Bo Melton in the end zone for a 13-7 lead. Could the Packers much maligned defense hold, and better yet, force a turnover?
Horrible coverage on third-and-long resulted in another 32-yard play by Kittle, and the next play Christian McCaffrey ran right through the defense on a 39-yard run, and the 49ers were back in the lead 14-13. As quickly as that disaster happened, Keisean Nixon responded by taking the kickoff 73 yards; he fumbled the ball, but fortunately it was recovered by the Packers. In the red zone for the fifth time in the game, the Packers retook the lead on a pass to Tucker Kraft.
The Packers made a questionable decision to go for two, but Jones was wide open on the catch and the Packers were up 21-14. This game clearly could have been a blowout like last week at this point, but instead the pressure was on the Packer defense to perform, which it did not do on the 49ers previous possession, giving up two huge back-to-back plays.
Nixon missed an easy interception deep on the 49ers’ end, but the Packer defense held serve this time. Could the Packers offense put the pressure on the 49ers by taking a two-score lead with decent field position after the punt? Jones was not having a good game since the first quarter, slipping on the wet field to lose yardage. Then came the play that Packer fans dreaded: Love threw a bad pass wide of Kraft that even if he didn’t tip the ball had interception written all over it, and the 49ers—instead of operating deep on their own end after a punt, had the ball at midfield.
The defense had a chance for an immediate stop, but allowed a conversion on third-and-long. The defense had a chance as long as they kept the pressure on Purdy who was throwing some of his own misfires. Heading into the fourth quarter the Packers still had a 7-point lead with a 49er field goal attempt around the corner. Up to this point the rain was clearly a factor, but especially for Jones, who had gained just 11 yards since the first quarter. It was up to Love to make the plays. The field goal was made, the Packers were clinging to a 21-17 lead, still “impressive” given the fact that they were 10.5-point underdogs.
The Packers continued to be unable to run the ball after the first quarter, although except for the McCaffrey TD run the 49ers were not running the ball well either. Love didn’t make the play he needed to make, as he narrowly avoided another interception with terrible pass on a makeable third-and-short, and the Packers were forced to punt for the first time.
The Packers were still looking that game-clinching turnover, and they just couldn’t do it. Then came that effing play that made you start pulling your hair in frustration; on third-and-10, Purdy had all day to connect with Jauan Jennings on a 21-yard pass into Packer territory.
But this time it was Purdy who frustrated his fans, misfiring to force a punt. At that point in the game, Purdy completed just 17 of 32 passes, although it was noted that his was repeatedly wiping his hands even in the pocket. Did I say Jones was not having a good game? He just broke open for a 53-yard run. The Packers needed a touchdown; instead more misfires by Love was followed by Anders Carlson missing a 41-yard field goal attempt, and the game remained a one-score game, and the defense still looking for that critical turnover with over 6 minutes to play.
The 49ers methodically took the ball down the field, running out the clock as Purdy found the "touch," completing 6 of 7 passes. At the 2-minute warning the 49ers had a first down at the Packer 15. My heart sunk like a rock into the abyss. Purdy scrambled for 9 yards to the Packer 6, and McCaffrey took it the rest of the way for a 24-21 lead with over a minute left.
The game ended with another poor pass deep somewhere in the general vicinity of Christian Watson that was intercepted, made worse by the fact that the Packers still had two time outs with just under a minute to play and didn't need to throw deep to at least get into tying field goal range.
You know where Carlson’s emotions were at, but there was plenty of blame to go around for the loss. The defense failed when it needed to show-up the most, but the missed easy interceptions were the most damaging. The offense also had much blame to shoulder, particularly the wasted opportunities in the red zone and bad misfires on Love’s part.
Although Jones gained 100+ yards
for the fifth-straight game, he scored no touchdowns and the one play that he
made was wasted on the missed field goal. The earlier failure to convert on fourth down on an otherwise easy field goal opportunity also turned out to be a poor decision in retrospect.
So the Packers did make a game of it despite being heavy underdogs, but this was a frustrating game nonetheless since the Packers should have won this game. If the Packers had held on to win, the only "good" team left was the Lions (after the Eagles loss), with the Super Bowl beckoning. There is next year, and we perhaps we can expect something more from this experience.
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