Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
Two plays proved decisive in Packers’ loss
Green Bay — There are any number of reasons for the Green Bay Packers’ stunning loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round of the playoffs Saturday night.
But as Vince Lombardi said, football games usually come down to two or three key plays, and if you break this game down play by play, two in the final four minutes stand out as the main reasons the Packers are not playing in the NFC championship game Sunday.
If you follow Packers reporters on Twitter, you might have seen a clip of the first one.
Rodgers misses wide-open Lazard
It was the Packers’ final third down of the game, with the score 10-10 and the Packers facing third-and-11 at their 28. It’s the play where Rodgers launched a low-percentage deep shot to Davante Adams, who was double covered. It fell incomplete.
As Rodgers alluded to in his postgame news conference, he missed seeing a wide-open Allen Lazard running through the middle of the 49ers’ defense. If Rodgers had thrown to Lazard, it would have been an easy pitch and catch for a big gain, at least 25 yards, and the Packers would have had the ball at or past midfield with all the time in the world to set up the game-winning field goal.
Instead, after the incompletion they punted on fourth-and-11, and it was the 49ers who drove for the game-winning kick. Rodgers did criticize himself after the game for not going to Lazard. He presumably saw how open Lazard was when watching the replay on video tablet after he went to the bench.
“Obviously if I hit Allen on the deep in on that last drive that probably gets out to probably midfield,” Rodgers said, “and we’re a couple first downs away from being in field-goal range.”
Why did Rodgers throw to Adams? Only he knows for sure. But the best guess is he decided before the snap he was going to Adams regardless of what
happened after the snap. Trust with receivers is important to all NFL quarterbacks, but that’s relying on trust to a fault.
Rodgers had all day to throw on the play. The protection was great, and there were no rushers in his face or at his feet. Lazard was wide, wide open and in Rodgers’ general field of vision. But the quarterback appeared hell-bent on throwing to Adams despite the double team with the season on the line.
Samuel’s big run on third down effectively seals the game
The other play was a wily call by 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan on a crucial third down in the game’s final minute. Shanahan is maybe the game’s premier play-caller, and he has one of the NFL’s best all-around weapons in Deebo Samuel, a receiver by trade who has doubled as an excellent running back during the second half of the season. The coach deployed
Samuel to perfection on this play.
It was a third-and-7, and the 49ers were on the Packers’ 38. A field goal from there would have been 56 yards. Any kick of more than 50 yards would have been tough for 39-year-old Robbie Gould in a wind chill that had dipped below zero.
Shanahan sent out 11 personnel — that is, one running back (fullback Kyle Juszczyk), a tight end (George Kittle) and three receivers, including Samuel. What makes that grouping especially hard to defend is you don’t know whether it’s receiving or running oriented. Three receivers normally is receiving oriented. But because Samuel is an excellent running back, the 49ers can line him up in the backfield, and suddenly you’ve got run-oriented personnel with Samuel at halfback and accomplished blockers at fullback and tight end.
The Packers were out of timeouts and absolutely could not give up the first down. So defensive coordinator Joe Barry sent out dime personnel (six defensive backs) to stop the pass. It was a very defensible decision.
But Samuel lined up at running back, with Juszczyk in front of him. Shanahan sent Juszczyk in motion to the left and ran Samuel to the right with pulling guard Laken Tomlinson leading the way.
The Packers’ edge defender on that side, Rashan Gary, shot too far up field as a pass rusher, which helped open a lane for Samuel. Because the Packers were in dime, they had six defensive backs on the field, and one of them, Jaire Alexander, was in effect the linebacker on that side of the field. Alexander hadn’t played in three months because of a serious shoulder injury and was no match for the 220-pound Samuel, who ran through the tackle attempt and picked up 9 huge yards.
That gave Gould a much more manageable field goal, and after a couple of 1-yard runs he made a 45-yarder as time
expired. The Packers’ season was over.
Extra points
General manager Brian Gutekunst added a promising 2021 draft class and made a couple of great roster additions signing De’Vondre Campbell late in free agency, and plucking Rasul Douglas off Arizona’s practice squad. But the GM made one in-season move he probably regrets when he cut long snapper Hunter Bradley in early November and replaced him with Steven Wirtel from the practice squad.
The move disrupted the Packers’ kicking operation for a month — Mason Crosby missed five of his next 10 fieldgoal attempts over four games. And on the 49ers’ game-turning blocked punt for a touchdown with 4:41 to play Saturday, defensive end Jordan Willis blew right through Wirtel to block the punt.
AJ Dillon’s rib injury that knocked him from the game in the second half — NFL Network reported Sunday that Dillon suffered a broken rib — was a big blow for the Packers. The Packers drafted the 247-pound Dillon in part to provide a power element to their run game in January at Lambeau Field.