Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
LaFleur left with plenty to ponder after loss
Detroit — Maybe the 37-30 loss at the hands of the 3-13-1 Detroit Lions will turn out to be the best thing that could have happened to the Green Bay Packers heading into the playoffs.
Coach Matt LaFleur got a lot to ponder out of a game in which the Packers rallied, broke down, rallied again and broke down once more.
There are the obvious things like he got injured starting offensive linemen David Bakhtiari and Josh Myers back on the field after long layoffs without any setbacks. And he got a good, competitive game to finish out the regular season and most importantly came out of it with just one known injury — receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling (back).
Receiver Davante Adams got enough receiving yards to break Jordy Nelson’s franchise single-season mark and the special teams had one of its best days of the year.
But what makes the game particularly helpful is the wildly inconsistent play he got out of the defense the entire day and the offense part of it. If ever there was an opportunity to point out how important it is to be assignment sound and locked into the game plan it was Sunday afternoon at Ford Field.
Every time you looked away, there were players on defense in positions they clearly weren’t supposed to be in. The Lions scored a pair of touchdowns on trick plays because the defensive backs seemed more eager to make a play than to play their coverage.
“Football in general comes down to discipline and people owning their roles,” LaFleur said. “When you aren’t disciplined or you go outside the scheme, bad stuff happens, and we cannot have that. We need all 11, doing their damn job and if they don’t, stuff like that happens.”
When the defense played better in the second half, it was a blown coverage with a little over 4 minutes left that allowed the Lions’ primary offensive threat — Amon-Ra St. Brown — to run free across the middle that was final kick in the tail.
It was a 28-yard gain one play after the Packers had taken a 30-27 lead and it led to the Lions’ go-ahead touchdown.
He was supposed to be doubleteamed.
LaFleur was ticked about it and when his press conference was about to be cut off, he told his PR guy that he wanted to keep going. He obviously had a point to make about really wanting to win this game and feeling let down that it didn’t happen.
“It’s tough to say right now,” he said when asked where his team stands heading into the postseason. “There’s a lot of areas where I think that we can still improve upon. We’ll try to look at everything this week.
“There’s certainly some things that we can improve upon. So, we have to take advantage of that time and not only get better at certain things and clean up some stuff, but also just making sure we stay sharp mentally and physically as well.”
The thing about a team that has already clinched the No. 1 seed playing a game that doesn’t matter is that it’s easy for focus to wander. They aren’t going to take homefield advantage away if you lose.
During the week, quarterback Aaron Rodgers said he could sense things weren’t quite the same. It was no secret that Rodgers and Adams were going to play a half at most and running back Aaron Jones (knee) and linebacker De’Vondre Campbell (elbow) were going to be held out for precautionary reasons.
The return of cornerback Jaire Alexander would have been a huge shot in the arm to the defense, but LaFleur pulled the plug on that when Alexander missed two days of practice because of COVID-19.
“Our energy level was a little bit lower than maybe the standard we’ve played at the last few weeks,” he said. “I’m not sure if that happened because not having a few of our guys, understanding that certain guys weren’t going to play a whole lot.
“Energetically, we maybe weren’t as hyped or focused as we usually are. I felt like we were a little bit lethargic at times on offense kind of getting back to the huddle and getting out to the huddle. So, that’s something we’ve got to be aware of.”
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry has a lot to work with and shouldn’t ignore this game. It’s inexcusable that 17 games into the season, motion causes the coverage to break down as on St. Brown’s 2-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter. Or that the safeties weren’t on high alert for trick plays since they knew the Lions and their supercharged head coach, Dan Campbell, wanted this game badly so they could go into the off-season feeling a little better about themselves.
They never corralled St. Brown, who finished with eight catches for 109 yards and a touchdown and the front seven sacked quarterback Jared Goff just once. Goff completed 21 of 30 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns.
There have been signs of weakness in Barry’s unit over the past month and it needs to get back to playing like it did against Kyler Murray, Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson and Matthew Stafford. Since that Rams game, the Packers are allowing an average of 25.8 points per game against Justin Fields, Tyler Huntley, Baker Mayfield, Sean Mannion and Goff.
On the flip side, there were some things that came out of this game that LaFleur will like when he calms down and looks at things objectively.
Aside from getting the two offensive linemen back, Allen Lazard continued his recent climb toward being Rodgers’ second-favorite target. He caught five passes for 75 yards and two touchdowns, finishing the last five games with 21 catches for 290 yards and five touchdowns.
“I love where Allen’s at,” Rodgers said. “I love how he’s really grown and played well since the L.A. game. He’s done a bunch of smart plays, great plays, contested catches.”
The Packers also found another running back. With Jones out, Patrick Taylor played most of the second half and blew through tackles on his way to 11 rushes for 53 yards and a touchdown, his most impressive play a shoulder to Lions cornerback Ifeatu Melifonwu that sent him flying into the Packers sideline.
Taylor’s not going to play much in the playoffs, but if someone gets hurt or LaFleur decides the 6-2, 217-pound Taylor and the 6-foot, 247-pound AJ Dillon could inflict some pain on a bitterly cold day, he’s an option.
Another highlight was tight end Josiah Degaura’s 62-yard touchdown in which he took backup Jordan Love’s screen pass and followed his blocks into the open field, buzzing past the Lions secondary in full sprint. The sideline erupted for a guy who still hasn’t come back all the way from a torn ACL last year and has been trying fill the very big shoes of Robert Tonyan.
The Packers are going to need Degaura to be a receiving threat in the playoffs. Finally, there was the special teams. The one guy who warned about trick plays during the week had his guys ready. They thwarted a fake punt in the first quarter and gave the offense the ball at the Detroit 35.
Returner Amari Rodgers had a 23-yard punt return and receiver Juwann Winfree deflected a punt that wound up traveling 30 yards and setting the Packers up at their own 43. Kicker Mason Crosby missed an extra point, but he hit a 36yard field goal. The Lions had 25 return yards total.
So, you can take all the good and bad however you want. Fret about it or ignore it. The one thing the Packers won’t do is go into the playoffs thinking they can show up and beat even the worst teams in the league.