Missed opportunities doom Packers in season-ending loss

If I had to pick one word — or two words, I guess — to define the Green Bay Packers’ performance against the Detroit Lions, it would be missed opportunities.

In two games against Detroit this season, the Packers scored just 25 points. But in each contest, they had their share of opportunities to put more points on the board; they just failed to do so. In Week 9, that included going 0-4 in the red zone. In Week 18, it included moving the ball into Lions’ territory but doing little with it after that.

"“In the first half, we had a lot of opportunities that we let go,” said Aaron Rodgers after the game. “The first drive was a good drive, we had four drives inside their territory, just didn’t come up with enough points. Didn’t convert on third down. Obviously, (Aaron) Jones is such a dynamic, awesome player, but that fumble, we probably go up two scores heading into half. The first half definitely hurt us. We needed more points to give us more cushion.”"

In total, there were six drives that Green Bay crossed midfield against the Lions, but they came away with only 16 points. As was the case for much of the season, the Packers struggled on third downs and in the red zone. Green Bay finished the game 4-12 on third downs and 1-2 in the red zone, although there should have been more opportunities given the number of plays they ran in Lions’ territory.

On top of that, there were several dropped passes, Aaron Rodgers was off, and there was that questionable fourth-down call by Matt LaFleur. The decision to go for it was fine, but the play call, which was an end around to Allen Lazard, was the questionable part.

During the Packers’ four-game win streak, they had been playing complementary football; however, that wasn’t the case on Sunday night. The Lions, who have a very good special teams unit, were able to contain Keisean Nixon and Mason Crosby missed a field goal attempt. The defense played well for the most part, but two personal foul penalties played key roles in Detroit scoring 10 points, and they were also unable to generate any turnovers.

The Green Bay offense, meanwhile, had been averaging nearly 27 points per game since Week 10 but was littered with missed chances, turnovers, and poor play. To make matters worse, the offensive line had their worst performance in nearly two months as well, with the Lions’ front seven giving them fits — especially the right side — for much of the game.

Out of everything just mentioned, none of it was new for the Green Bay Packers. These problems had just been suppressed for a few weeks. Ultimately, it was the same issues that had plagued them all season that led to their demise against the Lions.

"“Again, we kinda played like we did before the last few games,” said Rodgers. “Non-complimentary football, turning the ball over on offense, teams didn’t really make a splash play. And then we squandered opportunities in the red zone, terrible on third downs. The same things that hurt us all year.”"

Just as they did in the first meeting, the Lions’ main priority was to take away the Green Bay run game, which they did, holding the Packers to 3.7 yards per carry as a team. We saw Detroit play a lot of cover-1 along with heavier boxes, essentially daring the Packers to throw the ball. But when the run game isn’t working, and the passing game was needed to carry this offense, for various reasons, it simply wasn’t good enough—even against a Lions defense that hasn’t been very good this season.

At the end of the day — or season — this was a flawed team that was able to overcome a number of those issues for a stretch of games. But as is often the case when the intensity and stakes are kicked up a few notches, the big stage shines a bright light on those warts.

Up next for the Green Bay Packers is going to be another offseason filled with question marks, and for a team that was plagued by many of the same issues for much of the season, several of which led to their season-ending early, Matt LaFleur is going to leave no stone unturned when it comes to evaluating where this Packers team currently is.

"“I want to make sure we cover everything with a fine-toothed comb,” said Matt LaFleur. “Look at every facet of our program, and what we’re doing, and what we’re asking guys to do. And not only that but the standards and expectations that we have in each area. I think that a lot of times when you have success, certain things can get covered up by winning games. I think everything has pretty much been exposed right now. So we will take a look at everything in terms of how we operate. It’s evident that whatever we did this year was not good enough.”"