The Green Bay Packers put together a game that statistically should have been a very easy win versus the Detroit Lions, but missed field goals, turnovers, and officiating mistakes led to a very painful loss. Here’s a look at who played well and who did not in Week 5:
Studs:
Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Equanimeous St. Brown – Both MVS and ESB were thrust into important roles they likely weren’t ready for. I thought both played well. There were some mistakes (mostly on scramble drills), but their contributions allowed the Packers to get back into the game in the second half.
Offensive Line – The Lions knew the Packers were passing on almost every play in the second half and they still didn’t allow the pass rush to effect Aaron Rodgers. It was a really strong effort to keep Rodgers upright in challenging circumstances.
Duds:
Officiating – The year of the official in the NFL continues to be disastrous. A blatant missed call and failure to overturn the “fumble” on the punt return resulted in a touchdown for Detroit, and an incredibly weak taunting penalty extended another drive unnecessarily. Most NFL officials are great at what they do, but the controversy about the rules and how they are enforced is giving the league as a whole a black eye.
Mason Crosby – Crosby has been too good for too long to let that game be the deciding factor in his career in Green Bay, but he needs to recover mentally in hurry. The Packers haven’t been good enough at any facet of the game to be missing points on kicks and Crosby needs to get this turned around.
Mike McCarthy – The decision to kick a 56 yard field goal with a struggling kicker was really bad. Not playing Aaron Jones enough was worse. This team has come out incredibly flat in the first quarter all season, and at some point the finger starts to turn to the coaching staff.
Green Bay will look to recover on Monday Night Football against the San Francisco 49ers. They need a win in a big way to generate some momentum leading into their bye week.
Andrew Mertig is a a lifelong Packers fan and draft enthusiast. He has covered the NFL draft for radio and television stations in Green Bay. He is currently a host of the Pack-A-Day podcast and a writer for PackersTalk.com. You can follow him on Twitter @andrewmertig
3 responses to “Green Bay Packers Week 5: Studs & Duds”
DUDS: MM, Crosby, Rodgers, defense. STUDS: O-line for sure.
The O-line did play pretty darn well. Actually, as I watch the film on the game, quite a few people played pretty well. Brice, for example, is playing a LOT better than he did the second week, That’s improvement. Daniels. Clark, despite being hurt. Martinez.
Clearly, the two fumbles by Rodgers and the missed kicks by Crosby were the biggest determining factors in this game. These are your two oldest. longest time-with-the-team vets.
Other than that, we didn’t get very good games from Alexander, Cobb, or Allison.
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I’ll offer a further opinion: Detroit’s total of 31 points is not a particularly accurate reflection of how our defense played. Take away the 7 from the fumbled punt (bad ) call and we’re at 24. They started on three short fields courtesy of our turnovers so count points each for a total of 6. Now we’re at 18, and that’s not terrible.
264 total yards, under 100 rushing yards, only 18 first downs….Stafford only had 180 some yards.,sacked three times, …..that’s not terrible defense. We didn’t make any plays….0 takeaways. And we made some bad mistakes, like the taunting penalty.
I think we’re going to be a much better team in November and December than we are right now.
I’ll be at the Monday Night game against the 49ers and I hope to see Aaron Jones and Aaron Rodgers to have big games. Jones has to touch the football more and McCarthy knows it so what’s his problem and will he be back next year? McCarthy that is!!!