Comedians know when a joke goes bad. It’s about the timing.
The 2018 Green Bay Packers season is becoming a bad joke because their timing is way off. They seem to pick the absolute worst time to commit the most lethal mistakes.
A week ago in Los Angeles, it came with 2:05 left in the 4 th quarter when Ty Montgomery fumbled his way to Baltimore and Sunday night at Gillette Stadium, it happened on the opening snap of the 4 th quarter when Aaron Jones coughed up the first fumble of his career. It ended a Packers drive from their own 7 to the New England 34 with the game tied at 17.
When the teams flipped directions for the final period, the momentum flipped for good. Lawrence Guy punched the ball out after Jones gained six yards and Stephon Gilmore covered it up four more yards downfield.
Tom Brady and the Patriots then drove 76 yards for the go ahead touchdown and the reigning GOAT capped the night with a 55 yard scoring strike to Josh Gordon less than three minutes later.
New England dispatched Green Bay 31-17 for their sixth consecutive victory after their season started 1-2 while the Packers have found ways to lose all four of their road games so far to find themselves at 3-4-1 and on the brink of Mike McCarthy’s potential farewell tour by New Year’s Eve.
As they did against the Rams, the Packers made several impressive plays to offer hope. After getting put on their heels by a super speedy hurry up series by Brady to open the game with a James White 8 yard scoring run, Rodgers drove the Packers into position to get even but familiar red zone issues resurfaced. From first and goal at the nine, Rodgers was forced to throw away a pass, then he let the play clock expire for a five yard delay, another miss to Davante Adams and on third down, an extremely low percentage two man screen out wide to Randall Cobb was easily defended forcing Mason Crosby to settle for a 29 yard field goal.
The defensive backfield was compromised last Tuesday when starting safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix was traded to Washington. Tramon Williams opened at safety but injuries and nonsensical penalties thinned the group even more. Kevin King couldn’t finish the game with a hamstring pull. Kentrell Brice twice had to come off with a knee problem and Jermaine Whitehead lost his head on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and got ejected. Whitehead tangled with David Andrews after a 10 yard run and slapped him across his helmet in plain view of all seven officials and all 65,878 in the stands.
Bashaud Breeland was active for the first time but struggled, giving up a 20 yard catch to Gordon to start the second quarter. Sensing some confusion with so many combinations of defensive backs, New England Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniel dialed up some tricks. The first one was a flea flicker where Brady got his handoff to White lateraled back to him and he found Julian Edelman all alone for 33 yards.
That set up Stephen Gostkowski’s 28 yard field goal for 10-3 New England lead.
Rodgers capped a 13 play, 79 yard drive with an extended play two yard touchdown pass to Adams that got the game back even.
Whitehead’s ejection came on the next series and pushed the ball into Packer territory. Patterson, the former Viking receiver and kick returner, became the primary ballcarrier when White twisted his ankle. He ripped off runs of 10, 17 and 8 yards before slicing through left guard for a 5 yard TD just inside the two minute warning.
In the third quarter, Marquez Valdes-Scantling was the playmaker. His 51 yard catch on the opening series led to Jimmy Graham’s 15 yard contested touchdown catch in the corner of the end zone that brought Green Bay back even.
After a gritty goal line stand that had a Patterson touchdown reversed on replay, among four straight stops from the one, Valdes-Scantling made back to back receptions of 24 acrobatic yards on the sideline and 26 yards with a fingertip catch to bring the third quarter to a close.
That’s when the little things turned into big things.
The Jones turnover sucked the life out of the team.
The defense gave up another trick play, looking foolish in the process. Brady threw a step back lateral to the right side to Edelman who then passed the ball all the way across the field to White behind a bevy of offensive lineman who cleared the path for 37 yards down to the Green Bay 2. You knew it was trouble when Montravious Adams and Kenny Clark were hopelessly giving chase. Two plays later White was in the end zone again.
The calamities that are following the Packers across the country aren’t limited to game deciding turnovers. There are silly penalties each week. How can Josh Jones go offsides on the game’s opening kickoff? How can Robert Tonyon go all out on a punt block rush at 4 th and 21, late in the third quarter with the game still tied? Thankfully, his roughing the kicker flag was spared by a defensive stop.
It was another week that veteran Bryan Bulaga couldn’t finish. He barely made it into the second quarter before his night was over with an ankle injujry.
Statistically, the Patriots outgained the Packers 433-368. Rodgers bettered Brady in the TD department 2-1 but Brady smashed another NFL record. He passed Peyton Manning for the most total yards accumulated in regular and post-season games and then went over the 80,000 yard threshold with his late TD pass to Gordon, an amazing number.
Jones finished with 76 yards on just 14 carries but Patterson was the big play back for the Pats, picking up 61 yards on 11 carries.
Adams led the team with 6 catches but for only 49 yards while Randall Cobb managed just 24 yards on five receptions, many of them quick screens that were easily covered up. While and Edelman each had a half dozen receptions while Gordon gained 130 yards on his 5 catches.
The inactives for Green Bay were Tim Boyle, Tony Brown, Korey Toomer, Justin McCray, Alex Light, Geronimo Allison and newly signed punter Drew Kaser. He was signed Saturday because rookie J.K. Scott’s wife was expecting any day and the team even had a plane on stand-by just in case he needed fly home for the delivery. That wasn’t needed so Kaser will likely get released without ever putting on a Packer uniform.
There are always enough plays or series on both sides of the ball that tries to convince the team and fans they can play with anyone like the powerhouse Rams or Patriots. But the inconsistencies and downright discipline gaffs are making it really hard to convince anyone that the 2018 Packers are going to be nothing more than a team that will fall by the playoff wayside. That could lead to an even more alarming falling out than a pair of trades for grumpy veterans last week.
No joke.