Green Bay got handed an ugly loss to the top dog in the NFC, the Detroit Lions, last Sunday. Despite the final score being 24-14, the Packers played one of their most undisciplined games this season thus far.
The Packers, whose stadium is outdoors, looked like the indoor team on Sunday. The elements seemed to have no effect on the Detroit Lions, who play their home games in a dome. The Packers offense had six drops on the day.
The most detrimental drops were committed by Chris Brooks on 3rd down in the red zone, another by Tucker Kraft on yet another 3rd down – this resulted in a missed field goal, two more by Dontayvion Wicks, one in Lions territory and another in the endzone on 3rd down. To say these were drive killing drops is an understatement.
Not only were the drops an issue, but the penalties were arguably worse. The Packers finished the day with 10 penalties for 67 yards. Detroit committed only five penalties for 51 yards. Matt LaFleur stated, “They played a cleaner game, much cleaner than we did.”
The Packers looked to head into halftime down 10-7 until Jordan Love threw a pick six with less than a minute left in the second quarter. This arguably took any remaining momentum from Green Bay. While Love was playing through a groin injury, that decision impacted the game tremendously. “I didn’t see him when I threw it,” said Love.
If there is anything for Packers fans to take from this loss, it’s that the Packers actually outproduced the Lions 411 yards to 261. Also, the defense did hold a very high-powered offense to 24 points. That’s really it.
So, what needs to happen in the bye week?
Health
The Packers entered the game against Detroit missing Josh Myers, Jaire Alexander and Evan Williams. It was evident that Josh Myers was absent, as several snaps ended up at Jordan Love’s ankles during the game. The defense also seemed to struggle finding someone to keep up with wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.
On top of that, it was even more evident that Jordan Love was not playing at 100%. Several plays showed him hobbling around after completing a pass. Love certainly did not look comfortable.
Playing Cleaner
To reiterate, the Packers committed 10 penalties last Sunday. Things never seemed to get into a rhythm due to the many penalties. Unfortunately, the penalty problem has been an issue most of the season. In order to earn a spot in the playoffs the team has to be smarter and play cleaner.
All in all, the Packers have a young but very talented football team. They are more than capable of making the playoffs and going on a run but in order to do that, they need to stop beating themselves and play as they did this time last season.
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