Losing the handle
Coaching staff deserves all of blame for game that slipped away
INDIANAPOLIS – Say all you want about the four turnovers that the Green Bay Packers allowed Sunday in a 34-31 overtime loss to the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium, but they were not the main culprit in defeat.
Put all the blame on the Packers’ coaching staff.
From the abysmal special teams play to the miscalculations and lack of discipline on defense to the highly questionable short-yardage calls and inability to feed their play-makers on offense, this game reeked of a coaching failure.
Put the loss at the feet of coach Matt LaFleur, who is the one who approves the game plans in all three phases and is in charge of finding a way to turn the momentum around in a game that is getting away.
But standing right behind are defensive coordinator Mike Pettine and special teams coach Shawn Mennenga.
The Packers were ahead, 28-14, at halftime because the offensive line was handling the Colts’ impressive front four and quarterback Aaron Rodgers was completing 81% of his passes and had connected with three different players for touchdowns.
His lone mistakes were a fumbled exchange with center Corey Linsley and a classic mistake against Cover-2 coverage that resulted in an interception, but neither of those turnovers resulted in the Colts scoring points and so they weren’t as big as LaFleur made them to be after the game.
The first half wasn’t perfect but aside from special teams the performances were pretty good and the game plans seemed solid.
Then the Colts went into the locker room at halftime and everything changed.j
On their first series, they flipped the game’s tenor on it’s rear.
Pettine expected them to come out throwing and he played his defensiveback heavy dime package that features safety Raven Greene at inside linebacker. No way were the Colts going to waste time with a running game that had gained them 43 yards on 13 carries (3.3 average) in the first half.
Think again.
Coach Frank Reich had the Colts run the ball eight straight times to open the half, taking advantage of the small lineup Pettine had on the field. Even with two tight ends in the game, Pettine countered with his dime package and quarterback Philip Rivers stuck with running plays.
Pettine eventually realized what the Colts were doing, but it was too late.
A dormant Colts running game awoke and on those eight plays, the Colts moved from their own 25 to the Packers’ 20, chewing up four minutes. Eventually, Rivers had to throw and thanks to a Kenny Clark sack the drive ended up in a field goal.
But the Colts had chewed up 7 minutes 47 seconds, all of which was time that forced Rodgers and the offense to cool its heels on the sideline.
“It was a tale of two halves,” LaFleur said. “I thought the first half, there was a lot of great complementary football. The second half was the exact opposite and we got beat in every phase.”
The Colts had wiped out all the momentum the Packers had built from a late first-half touchdown drive and when Rodgers didn’t think receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, could win his route deep and Valdes-Scantling did, the back-shoulder throw on third and 4 of the next drive flew incomplete.
Just like that, the defense was back on the field.
And now the Colts had the Packers on their heels. Rivers drove them 55 yards in 10 plays for a touchdown, eating another 3:57 in the process. At that point, the Colts were winning the third-quarter time of possession, 11:44 to 1:47.
On the offense’s next series, LaFleur had Rodgers line up in the shotgun on third and 1 and passed it. Running back Aaron Jones had just run for 6 yards, but the choice was not to put it in his hands again.
Incomplete. Punt. The Colts drove 50 yards in eight plays for a field goal, using up another 3:56.
“Again, it comes back to being complementary when we’re struggling on offense or vice versa,” LaFleur said. “We needed to bail our defense out in terms of they had two long drives. You have to convert third down and they were thirdand-short situations or at least the second one was, and we had a batted ball.
“Sometimes things like that happen and you need one of the units to step up and stop the bleeding so to speak.”
Yes, or you need a coach to do something to shake things up. Like bringing in Rashan Gary to lead block on a shortyardage play or having Rodgers run a quarterback sneak or running a quick snap to catch the Colts off guard. Something to flip the switch. Maybe a fake punt would have been in order, but it would be dumb given the blandness of Mennenga’s special teams, which have yet to do much except give up a blocked punt, an onside kick, a 91-yard punt return and now a critical kickoff return fumble.
Colts special teams coach Bubba Ventrone recognized that the Packers have no kickoff return threat at all with Tyler Ervin (ribs) inactive and so he short kicked to receiver Darrius Shepherd, who doesn’t have the speed to break a long return.
Rather than kick it out of the end zone, the Colts placed it short so Shepherd would have to return it. Shepherd got it past the 25-yard line just once on seven returns and when he fumbled after the Colts tied the game at 28-28, it set up the go-ahead field goal.
Rodgers did a great job getting the team into scoring position in the final minute, but LaFleur had Rodgers spike the ball twice, taking two shots to get into the end zone out of his hands. The final play was set up for Davante Adams, but he was double-teamed – which one would expect – and the Packers settled for a field goal.
Valdes-Scantling’s fumble in overtime sealed the Packers’ fate, but so much could have been different if Pettine had found some way to stop the run and kept Rivers on his toes more than he did. The defense played well in keeping the Colts out of the end zone, but it let a mediocre team run it down its throat.
“That’s an area that we’re going to have to clean up and continue to get better at, because the other thing is this, we had a lot of offside penalties, and you can’t have undisciplined football.”
How much longer can the defense go on being so bad against the run and how much longer can LaFleur put up with it?
That’s a coaching decision and Sunday that was not a Packers strength