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    • Packer’s mistakes are ultimately too much to overcome in the loss to Lions
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    Packer’s mistakes are ultimately too much to overcome in the loss to Lions

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    GREEN BAY – Life for the Green Bay Packers came to a dangerous halfway point shortly after Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph returned quarterback Jordan Love’s 10th interception 27 yards for a touchdown.

    There they were, 8½ games into a 17-game season.

    At that point, the Packers, trailing the Lions 17–3, had committed eight penalties, bringing their season total to 74, good enough for third in the NFL for most fouls. At the end of the game, they were tied for second place, one behind Baltimore’s career-high 76.

    They also had four drops, bringing their season total to 22, according to PackersNews analysis, which ranked second in the NFL according to several stat-tracking websites. By the end of the game they had two more, putting them at or near the top.

    The Packers were still at 6-2 going into the locker room and weren’t disqualified to improve to 7-2, which, considering all the game-killing mistakes this season, seemed like a miracle.

    The Packers lived on the edge all season, but it took the 6-1 Lions, arguably the best team in the NFL, to push them off the cliff. The Packers buckled under the weight of the Lions’ nearly flawless performance, falling 24-14 in a game that could have turned them from chasers to chased.

    “Against good teams, everyone has to play their best game,” running back Josh Jacobs said after the loss. “That’s exactly what it comes down to, the details, the execution, all those things. To beat a good team you have to be at your best. That is something we have to learn.”

    Playing this way was not enough to prevent the Packers Indianapolis (4-4), Tennessee (2-6), the Los Angeles Rams (4-4), Arizona Cardinals (5-4), Houston Texans (6 – 3) and the Jacksonville Jaguars (2-7).

    But those teams are a combined 23-28 and aside from the Cardinals and Texans, they haven’t exactly destroyed any of the other teams.

    It turns out that despite themselves, the Packers started the season 6-2. They did just enough to gain the upper hand, relegating the interceptions, penalties and drops to the cost of doing business, addressing them with locker room talk every week instead of treating them like the disease they have become.

    “It just comes down to focusing on the things we’re not doing right,” Love said. “As we go through the week of practice, we’re just clearing up those details. When we make mistakes, we don’t just let them pass by. Just staying true to the details and the basic principles and staying focused on the things we need to clean up.”

    ‘Far too many mistakes’ against the Lions

    The punishments were devastating. The Packers made a stupid play on the first play of the game when Keisean Nixon was flagged for unnecessary roughness after returning the opening kickoff 29 yards to the Green Bay 40-yard line.

    It wasn’t clear what he was doing, but it didn’t matter. It is the Packers’ fifth penalty this season that falls under the category of unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct.

    “I don’t know what the penalty count was, but right after the jump we get a personal foul, or whatever they called Keisean, which is completely unacceptable,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “They have their first drive, it’s fourth-and-goal on the 5-yard line (and) we jump offsides and it gives them a chance to go for it, and they get a touchdown there.

    “When we were driving or getting into scoring position, it looked like we had a false start, we had snaps (where) the ball was on the ground. There are just way too many mistakes made, and you can’t do that against a good football team because you’re going to pay for it.”

    The false starts were inexplicable, as the Packers were playing at home and operating under a “double count,” meaning Love will try to draw the Lions offside with the first count and then resort to the second if they don’t jump.

    It’s a common practice and there was no excuse for the Packers committing four false start penalties at home.

    Jacobs, guard Sean Rhyan, receiver Romeo Doubs and tackle Zach Tom each committed one. Each took place on a different series and two of them – Rhyan’s and Doubs’ – took place at the Detroit 32 and played a major role in the Packers’ failure to score points.

    In fact, the Packers made false starts in all four series, failing to score.

    “It’s unacceptable,” Rhyan said of his punishment. “I try to get off the line quickly, but I have to listen better. I have to be (expletive) better.

    As bad as those penalties were, the Packers could have overcome them if Love hadn’t thrown a pick-six and they hadn’t dropped so many passes.

    The interception is a terrible trend that LaFleur needs to eliminate from Love’s game if he wants to take this team anywhere. Love has taken unfathomable risks with the ball all season, throwing it where it should never have been thrown.

    And all that happened is the Packers won six of their first eight games. If the loss to the Lions, where the Packers defense allowed just 17 points on just one 20-yard play, isn’t a wake-up call for Love, then the season is going in the tank.

    “You have to be smart about the football in a one-possession game,” said LaFleur, who didn’t want to say much more.

    The rain played a role in the dropped passes and LaFleur had to take some of the blame for throwing the ball 39 times, compared to just 22 times for Lions quarterback Jared Goff, but the offense was practiced in the rain on Thursday and knew Love might not be as accurate as usual due to a groin injury he was playing through.

    For all their penalties and Love’s pick-six, they would have made a game of it if it weren’t for the drops.

    The drops are piling up for the Packers

    Running back Chris Brooks should have had a catch on third-and-5 on the game’s first drive, even though the throw wasn’t perfect. He’ll probably score or put the Packers inside the 5-yard line if he catches it. Instead, it turns into a Brandon McManus field goal.

    Tight end Tucker Kraft lets a pass bounce out of his hands on third-and-6 at the 28-yard line. It is certainly a first. Instead, McManus misses from 46 yards.

    Receiver Dontayvion Wicks drops a catchable ball on third-and-3 at the Packers’ 37-yard line with the Packers trailing 24–3 with more than 8 minutes left in the third quarter. Instead of a first down, the Packers punt.

    Wicks has to turn to catch a ball in the end zone on fourth-and-1 at the Detroit 9 with the Packers down 24-6 with more than 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, and gets the ball out of his hands.

    At the very least, the Brooks and Kraft drops are still seven points away and the Packers would have trailed 24-21 instead of 24-14 after scoring with 3:52 left in the game at Emanuel Wilson’s 2-yard run.

    “It was just something we had to deal with today,” Doubs said. “It is clear that playing football in the rain is not ideal, but for us it is no excuse. We let this be a learning experience.”

    If this season is going anywhere, it better be this way. With the bye approaching, the Packers might as well take their lesson home with them.

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