Report Card: Grades for Packers’ Season-Ending Loss to 49ers

The Packers had the lead late in the fourth quarter, but could not hold onto it and lost 24-21 to the San Francisco 49ers in a divisional-round playoff game on Saturday.

Throwing late across the middle is a mortal sin.

Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love have talked about that line from quarterbacks coach Tom Clements for the last 15 years. 

Unfortunately, in the divisional round's biggest moment, Jordan Love committed a mortal sin.

His late throw across the middle was intercepted by Dre Greenlaw, which gave the San Francisco 49ers a 24-21 victory to advance to the NFC Championship Game.

The Packers had every opportunity to take Saturday's game by the throat but instead will be left wondering what could have been.

Here are our grades from the Packers' season-ending loss in Santa Clara. 

Pass Offense

Jordan Love was one of the hottest quarterbacks in all of football when he took the field on Saturday night.

The 49ers' defense was a different challenge than the ones he had faced during a four-game winning streak. That's a defense with a championship pedigree.

Love had his bright moments. He had one throw rolling to his left where he fired a strike to Romeo Doubs along the sideline. He showed off his arm talent on that throw.

He threw two touchdown passes to two different receivers, but really struggled as the game wore on.

Once right tackle Zach Tom left the game with a concussion, Love began to struggle.

He threw two interceptions in the second half, and it's hard to place blame anywhere other than his feet for both of them.

Saturday Six-Pack: Packers Lose Heartbreaker to 49ers

His first interception was in the middle of the field, where he threw behind Tucker Kraft on a play designed for him to leak out after making a block.

Love's second interception was what his quarterback coach calls a “mortal sin.”

There was plenty of time on the clock, especially with the Packers having two timeouts.

It's a situation Love will learn from, but there is no grading on a curve in the playoffs. It's win or go home. Love's mistakes are part of the reason the Packers are going home.

Grade: C - 

Rush Offense

Aaron Jones finished the season playing the best football of his career.

The Packers did not have a running back top 100 yards rushing until Jones did that on Christmas Eve against the Carolina Panthers. That would be the first of five consecutive 100-yard games.

The 49ers’ defense is more vulnerable than it used to be against the run, but it was keyed in on stopping Jones, and he still played well.

Had the Packers won, his 53-yard run in the fourth quarter would be on a highlight tape for years to come.

The 49ers had not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 51 games until they saw Jones on Saturday night. Jones' final numbers had him averaging 6 yards per carry.

The Packers got a couple of nice runs from Emanuel Wilson, but Saturday's game was the Aaron Jones Show.

At his advanced age, he's still their best player, and someone they need to make sure is back for the 2024 regular season.

Grade: A

Pass Defense

The pass defense is going to be at the forefront of the conversation when anyone talks about the missed opportunities from this game.

Darnell Savage had an easy interception in his hands in the first quarter that he dropped.

Who knows where Savage would have returned the interception to, but it would have been a massive play early in the game with the Packers leading 3-0.

The 49ers led the league in explosive plays, but only had two pass plays go for more than 20 yards.

Swarmed for the SACK! 😤#GBvsSF | #GoPackGo

📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/PnHQBK4vqY

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) January 21, 2024

Coach Matt LaFleur said after the game he felt the work of the defense was “fantastic.”

In this part of the game, he was right.

The defense was aided by Deebo Samuel missing most of the game with a shoulder injury. Still, the defense had a chance to render Anders Carlson's missed field goal late in the fourth quarter meaningless.

They did not. Brock Purdy helped lead the 49ers down the field and punched in a game-winning touchdown with 1:07 left to play.

The pass defense is a bit of a microcosm of the Packers in the playoffs since they won Super Bowl XLV in February 2021.

Close, but just missing that one big play.

Grade: B 

Rush Defense

There may not have been a bigger mismatch on paper than the one between 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey and the Packers' run defense.

McCaffery led the league in rushing yards and yards from scrimmage, and the Packers were in the bottom third of the league in defending opposing run games.

McCaffery finished the game with 98 yards on 17 carries, but both touchdowns were backbreakers.

His first touchdown was from 39 yards out and gave the 49ers a 14-13 lead early in the second half. His second touchdown would turn out to be the one that ended the Packers' season.

McCaffery did not wreck the game, like many picking the 49ers thought he might have.

Overall, it was a solid performance from a group that deserved to be scrutinized coming into the game.

Grade: C

Special Teams

Talk about a mixed bag.

Colby Wooden blocked a field goal to end the first half after a bizarre sequence of offense from the 49ers. 

Keisean Nixon had a 73-yard kick return that was saved by a heroic fumble recovery from Eric Wilson. The Packers turned that into a touchdown pass from Jordan Love to Tucker Kraft. 

The big plays, unfortunately, are going to be overshadowed by the one big blunder.

Swarmed for the SACK! 😤#GBvsSF | #GoPackGo

📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/PnHQBK4vqY

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) January 21, 2024

Earlier in the week Matt LaFleur and Rich Bisaccia stood behind embattled kicker Anders Carlson.

Carlson entered Saturday's game having missed a kick in nine of his last 11 games. 

Carlson's last kick of the season was a 41-yarder that he hooked wide to the left.

When a team is a 10-point underdog the way the Packers were, they cannot afford to leave points on the field.

Those three points loomed large, and the Packers' season is over as a result. 

Grade: C

Coaching

Ultimately, there were not any egregious coaching errors from Matt LaFleur in tonight's game.

His aggressive mindset to start the game has become this team's identity. His decision to go for it on fourth down in the red zone was a positive one, as well, as a team trying to pull off a big upset.

The decision, however, that is head-scratching is one made between LaFleur and Bisaccia long before this game started.

LaFleur and Bisaccia have been adamant they were not making a change at kicker.

Carlson's miss would be more forgivable if it were not so predictable.

It's not as if all his misses came in one game. Carlson nearly had one miss per week for the last three months of the season.

Robbie Gould is the most accurate kicker in NFL history. He is sitting on the street. Perhaps he's not interested in playing, but the Packers were adamant they were not changing kickers.

Maybe any kicker they brought in would not have made things any better, but ignoring a problem that has existed since October clearly did not work.

The decision to stick by Carlson, and remain adamant despite a mountain of evidence staring at them, gives them the low mark for the week.

Grade: D 

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