Paul Bretl | 11/3/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — To varying degrees, the play we saw on the field from the Packers in Sunday’s loss to Detroit is one that we’ve seen on a few occasions this season.
It was another game where self-inflicted mistakes played a major factor in how this game unfolded. However, unlike in previous games in recent weeks against Los Angeles, Houston, and Jacksonville, the miscues were far too much to overcome against a team of the Lions’ caliber.
“It’s disappointing when you have a big game like this against one of the best teams in the league and you don’t feel like there was just too many mistakes,” said Matt LaFleur after the game. “You can’t overcome those against a good football team. That’s exactly what Detroit is.”
It’s hard enough to win in the NFL as it is. In part, the Packers were able to overcome their mistakes in those previous performances because of splash plays, whether it be quick scores or turnovers, that helped mitigate the impact of their own blunders–although in two of those games, it still required a last-second field goal to secure the victory.
However, over the course of an NFL season, operating that way regularly–which the Packers have–is a tough way to live, especially against a well-oiled machine like Detroit.
“We’ve just got to be able to grow form it, learn from it and not make those mistakes again, because it’s definitely been a trend up until now,” said Christian Watson. “Pre-snap penalties and penalties in general, we’ve just got to find a way to eliminate those.”
Penalties have been an issue for Green Bay for much of the season. On the opening kickoff, which would have set the Packers up with good field position, Keisean Nixon was flagged for an unsportsmanlike penalty, and from there, the penalties would snowball and continue throughout the game.
In total, Green Bay was penalized 10 times for 67 yards. In comparison, the Lions were penalized just five times. Several of these penalties occurred pre-snap on the offensive side of the football, which put Green Bay behind the sticks and at a disadvantage against an already stout Lions defense.
“I think you can definitely lump those in the focus category, where we’ve got to be better,” said LaFleur of the false starts. “Some of those are totally unnecessary. We’re going on a double cadence, and that’s an advantage for an offense. I never want us not to do that. I think that’s an important part of it. That is your one advantage on offense is that you control when the ball’s snapped. That’s a great advantage when you’re at home, when there’s not as much crowd noise. We’ve just got to dial in and be better focused.”
While the pre-snap penalties are an annoyance and hinderance, on the other side of the ball were two particularly hurtful penalties. With the Lions facing fourth-and-goal from the five-yard line to begin the second quarter, everyone in the press box seemed to know that they were trying to draw the Packers’ offsides–and it worked. TJ Slaton was flagged for a neutral zone infraction, putting the Lions at the 2.5 yard line. They then scored on the next play.
Then on the Lions’ opening possession of the third quarter, and already with a 17-3 lead, a third-down holding penalty on Keisean Nixon extended what ended up becoming a touchdown drive.
To make matters worse, in addition to the penalties, on a rainy and windy evening in Green Bay, the Packers receivers dropped what I counted as six passes, including a few that came on third downs, along with two botched snaps.
“Obviously, catching footballs in the rain is not ideal for a receiver, but it’s not an excuse for us all,” said Romeo Doubs at his locker. “But again, we will let this be a learning experience and get right watching the film, adjusting to whatever weather we have coming up through the rest of this month and the course of this year. Yeah, man, we’ll just learn from it.”
The back-breaker was a Jordan Love interception at the end of the second quarter on an ill-advised throw. Under pressure and rolling to his right, Love tried to dump the ball off to Josh Jacobs back across his body, but the pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. Love entered the game tied for the league lead in interceptions.
“It’s definitely disappointing,” said Love of the turnovers. “Putting the ball in jeopardy way too many times and definitely something I have to clean up. I’ve talked about it week after week, so something I’ve just gotta learn from these mistakes and clean it up, but definitely something that I’m gonna make a big focus on going forward, of just finding ways to take care of the ball better.”
The Green Bay offense has struggled to find consistency for much of the season, resembling a very boom-or-bust unit. They can score as quick as any team in the league and entered Week 9 as the best at generating explosive plays. But they also have a lot of short possessions or have routinely shown the inability to overcome setbacks, which then results in a stalled drive.
As high as the potential is for this offense, the lack of series-to-series, or even down-to-down consistency makes moving the ball with regularity a tall task. Oftentimes, and to varying degrees, the culprit for these issues are the aforementioned self-inflicted errors, whether it be penalties, dropped passes, turnovers, or off-target throws.
The trickle-down effect is the offense facing long down-and-distance situations, which puts them in obvious passing downs. From a coverage standpoint, the secondary has the advantage. In short, there are only so many routes that can be ran on 3rd-and-10, and the pass rush is then able to pin its ears back. Play-calling-wise, it becomes a real challenge to get into a flow, and the gameplan can become pass-heavy very quickly.
Even for the best offenses, having to overcome those situations often is a massive undertaking that has resulted in the up-and-down play we see on Sundays.
“I think it’s just trying to do too much,” said Sean Rhyan of the penalties. “We were talking about you can’t make big plays, you just gotta do your job. I think it kind of happened today, just trying to do too much. I think we just gotta, when we are out there, relax a little bit, know that we’re good enough to take on whoever and execute.”
The Green Bay defense would run into an incredibly efficient offense. Although it’s not as if the league’s highest-scoring offense dominated the game, they were effective going about their business. Behind arguably the top offensive line unit in the NFL, the Lions have a strong run game that routinely puts them in second-and-short distances. At that point, they have the entire playbook open to them, able to run the ball or pass, which forces the defense to spread out and defend the entire field.
From there, the Lions can run the ball behind that stout offensive line or run a series of slants and crossers into a spread-out defense, where Jared Goff can pick opponents apart. Penalties, or a lack of complementary football as we saw on Sunday, where the Lions can play with a lead, only magnify their ability to operate in this capacity and further stress defenses.
This wasn’t a one-off performance for the Packers. Nine weeks into the season and now heading into their bye week, a mistake-prone team is who they are. The good news is that there is still half a season left to change that narrative–I mean, look at what this group did in 2023. But as of now, this is who they are.
“I think we got things we gotta correct,” Xavier McKinney said. “I think as players we just keep making the same mistakes and we gotta figure it out. I can’t keep saying it, we just gotta figure it out. We gotta do it and we gotta stop having all these mistakes because we play other good teams we can’t afford those type of mistakes. We can’t afford penalties. We can’t afford having turnovers and not getting turnovers. It’s just a lot of things that’s built up and we just gotta make corrections.”