When you’re a heavy favorite, getting off to a fast start is a top priority. Throw the first punch and take away any sort of momentum the underdog is hoping to build up.
The Green Bay Packers did the exact opposite on Sunday, allowing the Carolina Panthers to hang around and dictate the pace and tenor of the game. The Packers did their part in falling for what people labeled as a trap game all week.
Entering Sunday, the Packers were in the top 10 in the NFL in red-zone possessions that resulted in touchdowns. Surely against a Panthers defense that the Buffalo Bills gashed repeatedly the week before, things would go swimmingly for Matt LaFleur and Co., right?
Wrong. Green Bay went one for five in the red zone against the Panthers, constantly succumbing to self-inflicted mistakes. The Packers have had a difficult time getting out of their own way all season, but this turned into a fiasco.
The perfect example is Green Bay’s second drive of the game. After an opening drive that resulted in a red-zone fumble recovered by the Panthers, the Packers’ offense was able to peel itself off the mat and drive right back down the field. Unfortunately, self-inflicted mistakes doomed them again.
The Packers had first-and-10 at the Carolina 18-yard line. A four-yard Josh Jacobs run set them up at second-and-six at the 14-yard line. An Elgton Jenkins false start turned that into a second-and-11 at the 19. The Panthers immediately pressured Love and sacked him for a loss of eight more yards. Christian Watson then got called for a false start before the third-down snap.
What was a first-and-10 at the Carolina 18-yard line and then a second-and-six at the 14 quickly turned into a third-and-23 at the Panthers’ 31.
On that third down, the Packers set up a screen pass to running back Emanuel Wilson. The Packers had their blockers set up, and they had an avenue to create. Would Wilson have gotten the first down on a gain of at least 23 yards? Probably not, but who’s to say?
We never found out because Wilson dropped the pass that Love put right in the breadbasket.
Green Bay got to the red zone and then was called for two false starts, had a blown assignment up front that led to a sack, and then dropped a pass. All of that happened in one sequence.
It was a troubling part of the game that the Packers kept repeating. An obviously frustrated LaFleur didn’t mask his reaction.
”We did enough things that we deservedly got our ass beat,” LaFleur said. “You’ve got to maximize those opportunities. If you don’t, then you’re sitting here with 13 points.”
The ordeal extended beyond the red zone. Green Bay is tied for 27th in penalties per game at 8.7. Carolina tagged the Pack for seven more for a total of 42 yards. The pre-snap infractions have been enough to make someone want to pull their hair out. (That someone is me.)
Per NFLPenalties.com, LaFleur’s club has 23 pre-snap penalties this year, which falls in the top half of the league. What’s more alarming is that many of the teams ahead of the Packers have played nine games while Green Bay has already had its bye and played just eight.
In a contest where the consensus seemed to be that if the Packers didn’t make dumb mistakes and stayed out of their own way, then they’d win, Green Bay couldn’t do either.
In a 6-6 game in the late stages of the third quarter, the Panthers had the ball at Green Bay’s four-yard line on a third down. The pass from quarterback Bryce Young sailed incomplete, but there was laundry on the field. A pass interference call against Keisean Nixon not only brought the drive back to life but also rejuvenated it. One play later, from the one-yard line, running back Rico Dowdle waltzed into the end zone. What could’ve been a 9-6 game turned into a 13-6 affair in a matchup where clearly points were at a premium.
On the very next drive, down a touchdown with 11 minutes left and timeouts in their back pocket, LaFleur made the bizarre decision to go for it on a fourth-and-eight from the Carolina 13-yard line. Love was flushed right, then back to his left, and chucked up a prayer that the Panthers should’ve intercepted, but instead fell harmlessly incomplete.
If you take the points, it’s 13-9 with 11 minutes left. While you still need a touchdown, that puts you in front instead of merely tying the game. Hindsight is 20/20, but this wasn’t a fourth down with minimal yardage to gain, like we saw the Panthers convert on fourth-and-one twice. This was a fourth down with eight yards to go to move the sticks in a condensed part of the field. The odds of converting are stacked against you.
From red-zone disasters to penalties of all varieties, the Packers entered the game as a 13.5-point favorite and exited in a 16-13 defeat. What was billed as a trap game all week lived up to it, with the Packers playing a sloppy brand of football that wouldn’t have beaten many teams on Sunday.
