#339 Packers Unscripted: Downed in Detroit

Twenty four to nothing at halftime, UM mistakes just across the board and a hole that was simply too deep for the Packers to dig out of. This is probably gonna go down, Michael. It's probably one of the more bizarre games I've covered in terms of the Packers did not punt in this game. Uh strangely enough, it actually I was I was almost leaving the office last on Sunday night, and I was like, you know what, I don't think I saw J K. Scott out there at all.

But how it ends up working out is Mason Crosby obviously had the foremass field goals two fumbles from Aaron Rodgers in the first half that end up turning into takeaways for Detroit. And then that first play where kind of a controversial situation where Sam Martin's punt bounces and there's a little bit of a discrepancy whether or not it hit Kevin King or whether or not it hit Um one of the Detroit defenders, and Miles Kilber. It was and it was interesting. Afterwards. I asked Hermont Williams

about it. He said, the referees originally told the Packers that it had hit Detroit first, but whatever conversation they then had, they then decided that it was hitting the Packers first. So then that goes to replay review in New York and then there wasn't into disputable. Evin and Troy gets the ball at the one yard line, a one yard look Garrett Blunt carry later, the Packers are

already down seven to nothing. As william said, that isn't ultimately what changed the outcome of this thing, but I think it did kind of illustrate the situation the Packers found themselves in three turnovers in the first half to turn into Lions seventeen points and in another hole that it was really too big to dig out of. Yeah. Well, and this is my thing, and I don't want to perseverate, as we like to say, too long about this opening punt play. But to me, it didn't look like the

initial ruling was that it was Lion's ball. The officials got together and talked about it and then said the ruling was Lions ball. So then it went to replay and that was the call in the field that then would have to be overturned. Well, if the initial ruling was Lion's ball, where was the official to throw the little blue bean bag to say that I saw the

ball hit the packer guy? Because if the bean bag comes out, then the packers know, oh well we better fall on it because they're saying it's a live ball. The packers were never given that indication. They were never given at signal. So I think the whole thing was botched by the officiating crew and the fact that then the call on the field you needed the indisputable evidence to overturn it. It just put the back packers in

a bad spot. But that being said, it was no different than if the Lions had just driven down and scored a touchdown on the opening drive. Of the game. It's seven nothing, You're just five minutes into the game, whatever it is at that point, and the Packers right from the get go, West were moving the ball, and the Lions consistently they moved the ball up and down

the field. In the first half, they couldn't finish drives and couldn't make kicks, so you got no points when you should have had six or nine or whatever the case might have been. The second half, the Packers were certainly finishing drives and getting in the end zone affair amount of time, but you're just behind by so much. Yeah, it was just it was it was insurmountable at that point.

And they've done some pretty remarkable things in terms of these second half rallies and then trying to put themselves back in a position to win the game. They did it against Chicago in Week one, and as it turns out, the Bears are the team actually leading the Vision now at this point. But you look at your on the road now you're in Ford Field. You and I heard that crowd, and I said it last week. My whole thought that has been at least during the Matthew staff

which I've been covering the team. If you allow the if you allow the Lions to get off to a fast start, that crowd is going to get into it and it's gonna be tough to battle back from that. Now they they've done it. The hail mary, say you're down twenty to nothing in and it took a fumble recovery in the end zone and a hail mary to get two of your touchdowns to come back and win. And that's ultimately what some of the Packers defenders said

to after this game. Yeah, they only gave up two and fifty three yards less than two h yards passing in this one. If you take away the explosive to Kenny Holiday Gala day, then it ends up being, you know, almost closer to one thirty. But we don't live in that world. The biggest thing that a lot of those guys said is Detroit found ways to take away the football. Whatever you're you know, form or thought is on that, and the Packers just didn't do enough of that against

Matthew Stafford. So it just seemed like at times and the offense got rolling and they started to pick things up, then maybe the defense just wasn't able to get the stop, or when the defense got to stop the offense, wasn't able to turn it into points and ultimately ends up being a road loss in Detroit. Yeah, it was. It was maybe one of the rougher days for special teams

for the Packers in a long time. And not just the controversial play with Kevin King and the punt early in the game, but penalty after penalty on special teams that really affected field position. The only time the entire game the Packers had any field position in their favor was when the Lions missed the long field goal in the second half and the Packers got the ball near

midfield there after Prators missed. Otherwise, because of the penalties and special teams mistakes, the Packers were starting on their own twelve fifteen yard line. It seemed like every single drive and that's again where you get to. Okay, so Mason Crosby has a forty some yard field goal, Well, if that drive had started fifteen ten or fifteen yards further out, maybe that's a chip shot field goal, or maybe you are in the red zone with a chance

to finish the drive for a touchdown. So the field position, I thought played into this game considerably. And obviously you mentioned the turnovers. Both of the Packers turnovers in their own territory set up short fields for the Lions to get ten fairly easy points, and then the one on the one yard line after the controversial punt play seventeen points. The Lions scored with thirty one yards of offense. You can't you can't gift wrap a game any better than that, No,

you really can. And I also thought it was interesting. Davante Adams touched on this after the game as well. Looking back, you mentioned some of the chip shot, not chip shot, but some of the field goals that Crosby missed from thirty Yeah, at Adams put it perfectly, I thought in saying that, you know, in the world, you know, we want to make sure that Mason Crosby doesn't have to kick field goals. We want to make sure that we're able to punch these things in. The Packers just

consistently have been able to do that enough. They've they've been able to make drives, have been able to get within field goal range, but they haven't been able to finish them. And then you even look back to the thirty eight yard one miss, Well, then that comes after an intentional grounding a call that gave up sixteen yards. So it's little things like that that can ultimately compounded

a bigger issues. And and yeah, and then you know, time Montgomery has a big kickoff return, a holding call brings that back that looked like it was away from the ball. So it's just it's things like that where it's just you know, I don't want to say it's it's shooting yourself in the foot, but but it is. It is. You know, it's it's self inflicted wounds. It's things that are completely avoidable that are impacting the game. And uh, and the Packers just have to start cleaning

it up. Yeah. And the devastating thing about it is, I mean, you and I talked about this before we started the show today. It's covering up a lot of really good performances too. And I mentioned, you know, Davonte Adams off to the best start of his career right now,

thirty seven catches through five games. I think so much for that bad calf he played he played yesterday, I mean, he was It's too bad he wasn't able to haul in that one by the goal line that might have been able to flip the game in the fourth quarter. But but other than that, boy he was he was specially yes, yeah, hundred forty receiving yards had a touchdown his end consecutive touchdown in a road game, which is just crazy that that it's worked out that way for him.

I think Blake Martinez is off to a really good start to this season. He got his first two sack game in this Kenny Clark continues to do work these defensive snaps. But when you have individual performances standing out, there's always the other side of that too, in terms of just not being able to lift up at the right times, and I think for the Packers, they're still trying to figure that out. Trumant Williams said it afterwards too, to two in one right now, he doesn't really know

what kind of team they have at this point. There's still a lot that the Packers have to discover about themselves. And I think ultimately it comes back to consistency and all three phases. It wasn't like it was one particular phase of this game that let the Packers down. It was just inconsistency in all three phases that gave Detroit enough wiggle wiggle room to be able to hold onto that lead in the second half. Yeah, there's certainly plenty

of blame to go around in this one. In terms of the Packers taking this loss, I will say this about the defense, and I don't mean to oversimplify things too much, but I did mention seventeen points on thirty one yard. But that being said, I really thought the defense had three bad plays in my opinion. Now this is not including the penalties. There were a couple of personal foul penalties on the defense that were inexcusable in my mind, and the Packers definitely have to avoid those

and clean those up. But in terms of the action on the field, I thought the defense had three bad plays. The sixty yard one over the top to Golladay. Josh Jackson's in the right position, and we've seen it too many times this year West where the defensive backs are in position, but they're not making the right play on the ball and it's leading to a big play for

the other team. Then at the end of the first half, Marvin Jones Jr. Ends up being wide open across the middle in the back of the end zone when the defense had a chance to hold them to a field goal. And then it's only twenty to nothing at halftime instead

of twenty four. That was a coverage bust. And then late in the game in the fourth quarter, again the Lions are driving, but the Packers have a chance to hold him to a field goal and still have a chance and carry on John's and takes a handoff around left end, is completely untouched. Nobody sets the edge. I don't know whose responsibility it was. There were some different things going on in terms of who was crashing inside

and this and that. But he goes around the left side completely untouched and ends up going twenty four yards down the field out of bounds and uh and it sets up another Lion's touchdown. Those were the three plays that I thought were the real black marks for the defense. Other than that, you know, quite frankly, with Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams playing the way they were, the defense played well enough to win this game, but the offense was only there for really one half of football, and

the special teams just didn't help all day long. Yeah, and and ultimately you're the result is going to be a game in which the Packers almost doubled up Detroit in total yards to five to two. D sixty four. Packer's own time of possession this game and in really every category beat the Lions. Unfortunately for them, it comes back to the takeaways. It comes back to giving them the field position that they did. Detroit's average studying field position this game was their their own forty it's own

forty six yard line. Yeah, you just can't do that and expect to win. And in for the Packers, there's a lot to learn from, there's a lot to clean up, and you know, it's gonna be interesting to see now they go up against the San Francisco team that's kind of really in on its heels, reeling since the loss of Jimmy Garoppolo next Monday night. Packers have to I don't want to say flush, but they gotta learn from this quickly, turn it around, get a big win here

at lambeau Field, and then head into that bye week. Yeah, and here's the thing, West, I know the fans are frustrated and five games into the season, you know, everybody's wondering about the big picture and just what's going on here. First of all, as you said, it's all about the San Francisco forty niners. You have your bye week, after that, you have to win that game, get to three two and one at the bye, use the rest to get healthy and get ready to go. Here's the thing I'll

say about the big picture. I remember you and I sitting here in doing this show during the four game losing streak in November, when the Packers dropped to four and six, and I said a couple of different times, I felt the Packers they were going they were going to figure it out, they were going to start to play better. I just didn't know if they would do it in time. Well, it turned out they did it just in time to be able to run the table, get in the playoffs, and ultimately get all the way

to the NFC Championship game. What I'm gonna say this time, I believe this Packers team is going to play better. They have more talent on the field than what the results are showing right now. Here's the thing, though, You look at these first two road games Washington in Detroit, the the six road games the Packers have left. In my opinion, Rams, Patriots, Vikings, Bears, Jets, and Seahawks. I think all six of those teams are better than the two road teams the Packers have played so far just

my opinion. So I think this Packers team is going to play better. The thing is, the jump they have to make now heading into the rest of the season is larger than we thought it would be because we didn't think they'd be to two in one right now, and it needs to be larger than we thought because the opponents, especially on the road, are going to get tougher. Yeah,

and they're gonna be playing some tough venues. When you look at Seattle, regardless of where they stand this year and the issues that they're having, they're difficult to play in Central Link. Just as Jared goff with with how close that game was down to the wire. A lot of things for the Packers to figure out from that regard.

But going back to somebody again that Davante Adams said after the game, looking speaking just specifically on the offense, he said, you know, we've shown we can score points, We've shown we can move the ball. That production has

been there. But I just think the interesting thing the Packers this year, the hundred season, this particular team is having a hard time sort of solving, is that can they get the defense and offense to play a complete game at the same time and not to have a let up where the offense starts slow and the defense

starts faster or vice versa. To be able to get out and you really set the tone right from the beginning, and you know, you look at where the Packers are are in in you know, we're a weak removed from talking about a twenty two to nothing shut out, and it's just it, it's so it's so weak to week you have to be able to move on beyond it.

You also have to learn from it. And I just think with being able to see from the very least Marcoisvelde, Scantling and Economius st Brown stepping up the way they did, I think it end up being what it was a hundred some yards that they ended up being able to contribute together Hu a touchdown mvs getting his first NFL TV and almost two for him in that game, despite not having Geronimo Allison and Randall Cobb. You're seeing the

spark that Aaron Jones can give you. With the offense, I think the offensive line has had done a pretty fairly nice job of being able to really roll with the punches here earlier in the season. So all the components are there. Jimmy Graham had five catches for seventy one yards. All the components are there, but it's getting all of them to fire at the same time on all cylinders. And defensively, I think the biggest thing for this defense right now is just being able to generate

consistent pressure. They didn't have a sack from the four outside linebackers in this game. They need to be able to find a way to get going. Because I'll be honest with you, Mike, the fact that the Packers were able to hold Matthew Stafford under two yards of passing in this game, regardless of what the field position was, despite the fact that Tony Brown, who was just promoted from the practice squad, had to basically play on the boundary at the end of the game after Kevin King

got his his chin cut. Yeah, the Packers were really reeling in that secondary. And and this is where depending on how things shuffle out here, and you assume that King hopefully will be fine here after some stitches, but you know, maybe getting Jaire Alexander back that the pieces are there on both sides of the ball, it's just a matter now the execution and we hear that e word every single week, but it's so true. You have

to execute. Yeah. Well, the phrase that Mike McCarthy is used in the past, we haven't heard him say it yet, maybe he'll say it today or at some point here, but he likes to use the phrase complimentary football. And what he means by that is exactly what you're talking about. It's where the offense does something good and then the defense builds on it. The defense does something good and the offense takes advantage of it, and that's how you

build momentum, you take control of a game. And that's not saying you're jumping out to nothing on somebody like the Lions did, but it's not putting yourself in a position where basically, I mean, what is this West maybe the maybe the third time, this is probably the third time this year. You look at the Bears game, the Washington game, and this game where the deficit is such that that Mike McCarthy said to just toss the game plan and the garbage at halftime. Game plans are built.

You're trying to do certain things in the first half to then set up some things in the second half. You know, all there's a lot of thought that goes into these but you get into these three and four score deficits, and it it doesn't matter what you plan during the week. It's just like, all right, well, you know, we gotta we gotta go here, and we've we've got to score, We've got to score quickly. We got to

get the ball back. It all becomes focused on that, not about using this play to set up that one and and all those things, all that work that goes into the into the week. So the Packers need to The Packers need to find a way for when one phase of their team does something good that then the next one that takes the field capitalizes on it and does something to keep to keep control of the game, to keep the momentum of the game on the right side.

The three best Packers teams that I recall from the recent memory here the ones i've covered two thousand and ten. You're talking about commentary football. Those two sides of the

ball picked themselves up remarkably down on the stretch. Two thousand twelve, it ended on a really sour note with San Francisco, but that team played incredibly well throughout the course of the season, especially late when the offense started to figure out the two shells stuff, and when the defense, people don't really remember much of it, but did really you know, play well that season. And then the best example in my lifetime here is two thousand fourteen because

once the defense turned a corner. After that, by the offense was was we knew what the Packers had offensively that season. When the defense turned the corner and started playing up to that level, they were a team that was a super Bowl caliber team that season. That's what the that's the magic formula the Packers are looking to get. It's not easy to solve it. There are so many moving parts on any given weeks, so many variables. But when you do hit that sweet spot, that's when you

achieve great. Yeah, And that's where my question is. I think the Packers are going to improve. I think they're going to find their sweet spot. The question is when you go on the road to the Rams, when you go on the road to the Patriots, when you go on the road to the Seahawks, is what they can find. Is it going to be good enough? Because you can go into venues like that against teams like that and

play really, really well and still come up short. And that's what makes being two two and one against the schedule the Packers have had thus far very frustrating, because if the Packers beat San Francisco next Monday and get to three two and one at the buy, I think I think everybody looked at the first six games and the opponents you're playing, and certainly with the forty Niners losing Garoppolo along the way, I think you were looking and hoping to be better than three two and one

at the bye week. But right now, that's the reality you live in. You have to get there. You have to use the bye week to get healthy and then ramp up your game because your schedule is that you're hitting the meat of the schedule absolutely, and it's gonna be a tough stretch with those road matchups too. But the one thing just to close on, the Packers are not the only team going through this right now. You

look at Atlanta is now one in four. The Eagles in that game that we talked about, either the Eagles or Vikings, we have to look themselves in the mirror and ends up being the Eagles losing a close swamp. They've got three losses thereofending champs two and three. Dallas had so many high hopes for this year. They're two in three, you know, And it's just that's the way

this game works. It humbles you. And and as as Trumont Williams said in regards to the Mason Crosby misses, it humbles you even when you maybe don't have to be humble. It's just the nature of the game, by the way, phenomenal and just trying to see now where it is. It's four quarters of football, and you can pick yourself up and you can make a run in any of those quarters. But the teams that do it consistently throughout the course of this season, that's how you

get home field advantage. That's how you build momentum, that's how you win a Super Bowl. Well, the first jump the Packers have to make is against the San Francisco forty niners seven days from now. Then you have to make another jump after the bye week. We'll see if they can do it. You know, they're going to put in the wor work to get the job done. So here we go with that. We'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Scripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on packers

dot com. On Twitter, He's at west Hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.