Packer Central

Rodgers Hopes He’ll Get Chance to Deliver Knockouts

For the second consecutive week, the Green Bay Packers were saved by the bell on Saturday against the Cleveland Browns.

Bill Huber

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Two weeks ago, the woefully undermanned Baltimore Ravens practically were begging to be put away by the Green Bay Packers. On Saturday, the Cleveland Browns were on the ropes.

In both cases, the Packers failed to deliver the knockout and almost paid the price.

The Packers won both games by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins, their struggling defense making the game-saving play both times.

“We’ll never apologize for winning in this league, and I know it wasn't the prettiest of victories, but, ultimately, we did enough as a team to win,” coach Matt LaFleur said after a 24-22 victory over the Browns.

The Packers got away with it facing quarterbacks Tyler Huntley and Baker Mayfield the past two weeks. Letting Dak Prescott or Tom Brady or Matthew Stafford hang around in a playoff showdown could ruin the Packers’ championship hopes if they don’t find a solution – and fast.

“To a certain extent, we got lucky,” receiver Davante Adams said. “We definitely played some good ball early on, but took our foot off the gas pedal a little bit. It says that we did enough, basically, early on, but that’s not our standard, finishing games like that. We want to strive to bury teams in those situations, go out and get points.”

The solution, in Aaron Rodgers’ opinion, is to stomp on the gas. Running backs Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon are good players. But Rodgers and Adams are two of the all-time greats. Respectfully, Rodgers said he wants the team’s fate in his hands.

“Davante was in a zone tonight and is a really difficult cover, always,” Rodgers said. “It seemed like almost every single time we had single coverage on him, I hit him for a big play. So, that’s all. And Matt and I had a conversation. Hindsight is 20/20 often, and Matt’s been calling a great season. We’ve got to find out exactly what we want to do in those situations and then go do it. And just trust. Put the ball in my hand, give me an opportunity to deal the ball to Davante or anybody else who’s open, and go close out games in that situation.”

The Packers took a 24-12 lead on Mason Crosby’s field goal at the start of the third quarter, then held on for dear life. On the ensuing drive, Cleveland drove to a first down at the Packers’ 13 but Green Bay got a red-zone stop thanks to a false start and a third-down sack by Rashan Gary.

With the margin cut to 24-15, Green Bay went three-and-out after a first-down end-around to Equanimeous St. Brown lost 10 yards. The Browns drove into scoring range again but a false start and critical back-to-back sacks by Preston Smith and Dean Lowry forced a punt.

Still 24-15 with about 9 minutes left, the Packers had a chance to put the game on ice. Instead, with Ben Braden replacing Yosh Nijman at left tackle, LaFleur dialed up three consecutive runs. A third-and-2 toss to Aaron Jones lost 1 yard, and the Packers punted again.

It was that possession that had LaFleur and Rodgers rethinking the team’s approach.

“We have a lot of confidence in Ben,” LaFleur said. “It had nothing to do with him. It was more or less just the matchup with him on (Myles) Garrett. I just wanted to give him an opportunity to try and get his feet wet a little bit; probably was too conservative there.”

This time, Cleveland cut right through the Packers’ softened defense. Nick Chubb got three consecutive touches for 31 yards and D’Ernest Johnson ran untouched around right end, broke Darnell Savage’s tackle and gained 30 to set Mayfield’s touchdown to Anthony Schwartz. The extra point made it 24-22 with 4:31 to play.

This is where great teams put their foot down and say no more. The Packers got one first down but not a second. On third-and-5, Rodgers had Adams streaking up the left sideline for a big gain and the clinching first down. Instead, the sure-handed receiver dropped the ball.

It was a huge play in the game, and a huge reminder that, no matter the approach, there’s no guarantee of success without execution.

With the ball, momentum, all three timeouts and the 2-minute warning, the Browns started at their 25 with 2:05 remaining. They needed about 40 yards to get into field-goal range. A third-and-6 pass to unstoppable running back Nick Chubb gained 7 yards and pushed the ball to midfield with 1:01 to go.

Finally, the defense rose to the occasion. De’Vondre Campbell swatted away a second-down screen and Rasul Douglas saved the game with his third-down interception.

“It was terrible for me. I’m not going to lie. It was terrible,” Adams said of the final sequence. “Because based off how the previous drive went, that’s not my standard football obviously and 10 times out of nine, I’m making that play. So, I don’t like being the reason we’re in that position.”

It shouldn’t have been so difficult. The Browns were down three-fifths of their starting offensive line and a couple starting defensive backs. The game-wrecking Garrett, in Rodgers’ estimation, was “out there on one leg” due to a groin injury. Mayfield, fresh off the COVID list, threw four interceptions.

But the Packers, perhaps because so many key players are out of the lineup, couldn’t deliver the knockout and were saved by the bell.

It’s been an ongoing problem. Of the 10 teams with nine-plus wins, only the Packers and Colts have been outscored in the fourth quarter. Of the seven teams with 10-plus wins, Green Bay is the only team that’s been outscored in the final period.

Rodgers wants the ball in his hands. He pointed to that fourth-quarter drive in which Braden replaced the injured Nijman. Rodgers had trust in Braden; he hopes LaFleur will trust him in those time-to-win moments.

“In that situation, maybe we need to be a little more aggressive and just trust,” Rodgers said. “That’s what I told Matt. ‘Just trust me. Put the ball in my hands and I’m going to make the right decision and get us in the right play.’ I think that was an opportunity there to turn the tide and get the momentum back on our side.”

Packers Beat Browns

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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