Paul Bretl | 12/10/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — With four games left in the season, the Packers are positioned well, sitting at 9-4 on the season, even if their hopes for an NFC North title have been all but dashed. But one of the things that they are chasing in these final weeks of the regular season is consistency, particularly against some of the game’s best teams.
If you felt good about the Packers going into their Week 14 matchup with Detroit–which I’ll assume you did, considering they had won 7-of-8 games–you should still feel that way after despite the loss. This is a good Packers team, but right now, the Lions are better.
“We’ve found a way to win a lot of games,” said Matt LaFleur on Monday. “So I don’t want to like discredit that, but I think when you’re playing against one of the premier teams in the league, you better be your best. So we just got to be better in those situations.”
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Another slow start against a very good team put the Packers in an early deficit, something that not many of Detroit’s opponents have been able to overcome. On the first three possessions, the Green Bay offense ran a combined 10 plays, with two of the drives ending in punts and the third a fumble.
The Lions would also come through in those must-have-it third and fourth-down situations while the Packers struggled to stay on the field. Green Bay would finish just 1-for-5 on third downs, while the Lions were 7-for-15 and 4-of-5 on fourth downs.
“We kind of went through the game recap today and just playing consistent football,” LaFleur said “I think there was a lot of opportunities in that game where we had advantages that we didn’t capitalize on.
“And I think it all always comes back to just doing the little things the right way, playing with great leverage, playing with great eyes, using your hands, all the all the core fundamentals that are essential to allowing you to go out and do your job at a high level. We’ve got to be more consistent. You got to be dialed in.”
The obvious trickle-down effect of this is that Green Bay was forced to punt while the Detroit offense extended drives, allowing them to put up points, control the time of possession by almost 13 minutes, and run 31 more plays on offense. Against the NFL’s highest-scoring offense, that is never going to be a recipe for success, and what it forces the Packers’ offense to be is extremely efficient. With limited opportunities, there is little margin for error, which to Green Bay’s credit, specifically in the second-half, they were extremely efficient on Thursday.
Against other top-flight opponents, we’ve seen similar issues from the Packers. The first time they played the Lions, Detroit jumped out to a 24-3 lead, with Green Bay converting just 3-of-12 third downs and going 1-for-4 in the red zone. Minnesota would take a 28-7 lead into halftime with the Packers finishing the game 4-of-12 on third downs, although they did capitalize in the red zone.
As we heard LaFleur say when meeting with the Green Bay media on Monday, most games are decided by just a few plays. However, you never know when those pivotal plays are going to emerge during the course of a game. Although the Lions won on a last-second field goal, earlier in the game, they converted two fourth-downs into touchdowns, and again, the offense found itself in an early 10-0 hole, sparked by offensive line struggles and a fumble.
Those are just a few examples of plays throughout the game that ended up carrying some weight in the outcome. Ultimately, it’s consistency, down in and down out and from series to series that will help tilt those pivotal moments in the Packers’ favor.
“I’d say last game was a check for us because we had guys playing with – myself included – playing with aggression but not necessarily the best technique,” said Tucker Kraft on Monday. “There’s a few times where I went in full head of steam, trying to hit a guy but my angles were off and I wasn’t staying connected on my block. That’s the difference between tackle on the line of scrimmage vs. a 6, 8, explosive play.”
Aggression can be great if harnessed correctly, but how is that accomplished?
“Just intent and focus before each play,” Kraft added. “Taking a breath from the last one. Before I leave this locker room, every play I give myself a talk. I’m going to listen to Jordan in the huddle, I’m going to watch his lips, I’m going to know the cadence. I’m going to run every route like the ball’s coming to me. I’m going to block every block like I’m the point of attack. It’s just important to have intent before each play.”
GM Brian Gutekunst would mention during the bye week that it’s important to be peaking at the right time, particularly when the playoffs roll around. We saw the benefit of this last season when, on paper, the Packers were 9-8 and the seventh seed in the NFC but were operating as one of the better teams in football.
The Packers are still striving to find that stride, and a big part of that equation will be their consistency in all three phases over a 60-minute game. A positive step in that direction on the offensive side of the ball was the emergence of the passing game against Detroit.
In previous weeks it had been the run game that provided the offense with a spark, but when that element was limited, the aerial attack provided the juice, which is when this Green Bay offense becomes truly difficult to defend, when an efficient yet still explosive passing game is paired with Josh Jacobs and the run game.
“Going forward, I think we’re going to take each game one game at a time, one play at a time,” said Kraft. “This next storm of games, we’re going to be locked in. We’re going to be energized, we’re going to bring that juice, we’re going to be locked into our technique, our assignment, our alignment. If we win the line of scrimmage, we win each game.”
As I mentioned at the start of all this–this is a good, maybe even really good, Packers team. But what they have to showcase still is that they should be considered among the few Super Bowl contenders. However, as we saw in 2023, what you are in Week 14 doesn’t mean that’s what kind of team you will be come the playoffs, and in order for Green Bay to get to where they want to go, it starts with consistency, particularly against the NFL’s best.
And while that may be the ultimate goal, you also aren’t going to catch the Packers looking ahead either. It’s the focus on the day-to-day details that is going to put them in a position to accomplish much grander goals.
“We still got to take care of business,” LaFleur said. A”nd I think every one of these games, like I told our team, is, it’s not going to be easy. Every one of these games is, I mean, it’s towards the end of the season, so people are going to be clawing and fighting for every game, and it starts this week in Seattle, against a team that is fighting to control their own destiny within their division.
“So there’s a lot of ball in front of us, and we’ve got to continue to make sure that we look no further than what is right in front of us, and take that day by day approach, because that gives you your best opportunity to go out there and Sunday night and play your best ball. So if we look any further than that, then you get your ass kicked in this league.”