Tough learning curve for Packers’ returner Davis
GREEN BAY - When opposing punters try to pin the football deep into Green Bay Packers territory, returner Trevor Davis usually plants his feet at the 10-yard line.
That’s how Davis can tell whether to catch a punt or let it roll into the end zone. But Sunday’s opener against the Seattle Seahawks wasn’t like most weeks. Against Jon Ryan, one of the NFL’s best at locating punts, Davis said he was supposed to plant his feet at the 7yard line.
It’s what Davis did on Ryan’s first pin punt of the game. From the Packers’ 42-yard line, Ryan dropped his punt at the 4. Davis wisely didn’t catch the football, hoping it would bounce into the end zone for a touchback.
Instead, Ryan’s punt bounced almost straight up off the field, and the Seahawks downed it at the 2-yard line.
Davis didn’t line up at the 7-yard line on the Seahawks’ next attempt to pin a punt. On the first play of the second quarter, Davis planted both feet at the 10.
He said it threw off his ability to locate where he was on the field, leading him to call for a fair catch at the 5-yard line.
“When I was backing up,” Davis said, “I didn’t really know if I was past the 7 or not.”
The play served as a lesson for a second-year player the Packers hope will become their regular punt returner, replacing departed safety Micah Hyde. Davis didn’t make a difference in the return game Sunday, gaining no yards on two returns.
He was tackled immediately on his first return, deciding to field the punt without a fair catch despite an unblocked gunner barreling down on him.
But Davis has shown big-play potential with his speed in the open field, most clearly on a 65-yard touchdown return against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Packers’ preseason opener. The Packers hope he can bring more big plays to their return game. First, he’ll undergo a learning curve.
“Trevor is going to get better,” special teams coordinator Ron Zook said. “There’s some decisions there that we need to work on.”
‘Weird’ interception: It was Jahri Evans’ first drive with the Packers. And it was going well.
Aaron Rodgers found Randall Cobb open in the middle of the field, turning a third-and-2 into a 29yard gain. Now they were in field-goal range. A game-opening touchdown seemed inevitable. Evans set to pass protect, but the defensive tackle in front of him didn’t rush.
Then something downright funky happened.
“The next thing I know,” Evans said, “I was like, ‘Oh, shoot. The ball is here.’ ”
The Packers right guard had a front-row seat to Rodgers’ first interception of 2017.
Evans was blocking defensive tackle Nazair Jones, but the Seahawks rookie played back. As Packers tight end Lance Kendricks curled open in the middle of the field, Evans’ block slightly disengaged.
That’s when Jones interrupted Rodgers’ pass to Kendricks and took off.
“I wish I could’ve just stayed on him,” Evans said. “Stay connected to him a little bit more, so we didn’t have a lot of spacing between us.”
Rodgers’ interception unfolded almost like a freak accident. The quarterback who sees everything on the field said he did not notice Jones before releasing the football.
The guard who played the first 169 games of his 12-year career with the New Orleans Saints could do little to prevent it.
The turnover ended a stretch of 251 regular-season passes without an interception, the longest streak in Rodgers’ career.
As soon as Jones intercepted the pass, Rodgers took off after him.
“I had visions of Don Beebe and Leon Lett in my mind,” said Rodgers, referring to the infamous Super Bowl XXVII play in which the Bills receiver stripped the Cowboys defensive lineman of the ball just as Lett was about to score a touchdown after a fumble recovery. “I was gaining on him a little bit, I feel like. The film might not show that, but he’s pretty fast.”
If Rodgers could laugh off the interception, it’s because the play could’ve been much worse. As he chased Jones, Rodgers was shoved in the back by Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril. It was light contact, but enough to draw a penalty.
It would have been only the second pick-six of Rodgers’ career. He has not had an interception returned for a touchdown since a Nov. 8, 2009, game at Tampa Bay.
Ticket watch: Prices on the secondary market for the Packers’ next home game, against Cincinnati on Sept. 24, continue to defy gravity.
The Bengals were 6-9-1 last year and were defeated, 20-0, by the Baltimore Ravens in this season’s opener, so they are not exactly a marquee matchup. But ticket prices for that game are holding up.
“I think we are finding if you are a Gold Package season-ticket holder, that’s the game you want to come to,’’ said Bill Wenzel of Titletown Tickets & Tours in Ashwaubenon.
The average of lowest seat prices for Cincinnati is down since the schedule was announced in April, from $210 to $169 on Monday, but still is above current prices for all but five of the remaining 15 games.