DETROIT – The Green Bay Packers’ offense had been operating at high efficiency only sporadically for most of the season. And then tight end Tucker Kraft suffered his torn ACL. A hit-and-miss offense became miss-and-hit. Or miss-miss-and-hit offense.
Until Thursday.
Led by clutch Jordan Love and aggressive Matt LaFleur, the Packers beat the Detroit Lions 31-24 on Thursday.
The previous four games, the Packers lost to the Panthers 16-13 and the Eagles 10-7 and beat the Giants 27-20 and the Vikings 23-6. That’s 17.5 points per game. Love the previous three games was 26th in passing yards.
On Thursday, the Packers scored 31 points in the first three quarters and then clinched their biggest win of the season with their biggest drive of the season.
How did it happen? How did an offense that had been so consistently inconsistent for more than two months crank it up in a critical game?
“It’s all about guys going out there and making plays. That’s what we always say,” Love said. “To be consistent, you got to go out there and make plays, win your matchups, win your one-on-ones, and everybody did that.
“O-line did a great job pass protection all day and guys went out there and made plays. We knew the type of game this was going to be with the type of style of defense they want to play and we’re able to go out there and make plays. But that’s how you become consistent: just going out there, making play after play, drive in, drive out.”
Love was 18-of-30 passing for 234 yards and four touchdowns, coming on the heels of three consecutive games with less than 180 passing yards and a four-game stretch with only two touchdown passes. His 124.2 passer rating was his highest since slicing and dicing the Aaron Rodgers-led Steelers in Week 8.
Packers running back Josh Jacobs (8) and Green Bay Packers receiver Christian Watson celebrate after Watson's touchdown | David Reginek-Imagn Images
It’s almost impossible to pick the best completion, with Love having reason to be thankful for Dontayvion Wicks and Christian Watson.
Early in the second quarter, with the Packers facing fourth-and-3 from the Lions’ 22, Love threw a touchdown pass to Wicks to make it 10-0. The throw was exceptional. The catch was better, with Wicks taking a hit, getting two feet down and hanging onto the ball when his ankle got twisted beneath him.
“10 gave me the chance, and I came down with it,” Wicks said. “That was a fun one to get my first tud of the year.”
Early in the third quarter, with the Packers up 17-14, Love threw a 51-yard touchdown bomb to Watson.
“It was a midgame adjustment that we had seen,” Watson said. “We had seen they were playing really flat-footed. They weren’t really trying to get out and run with us when they saw us breaking out. We dialed it up and it worked out perfectly.”
Midway through the third quarter, with the Packers up 24-21, Love found Wicks for 30 yards up the seam. The pass was great and Wicks held onto the ball after a hit from the safety. That set up Love’s second touchdown to Wicks to make it 31-21.
It all came down to the final 3 minutes, though. After the Lions pulled within 31-24, the Packers needed two first downs to run out the clock. Detroit had all three timeouts. With a stop, and with its explosive offense, it would have had a chance to tie the game with a touchdown or win it with a touchdown and two-point play.
Love didn’t let it come to that. On third-and-5, Watson ran a sharp out for an 8-yard catch. Finally, on fourth-and-3, LaFleur kept the offense on the field and Love, while under considerable pressure by Alim McNeill, connected with Wicks over the middle. Plagued by drops last season, Wicks used strong hands to make the play against Brian Branch for the clinching play.
He was not the No. 1 read on the play.
“I feel like I was the closest to him and it was man and they didn’t have nobody on the other side, and I just had to win,” Wicks said. “Like I told everybody in the huddle before, we’re all going to win. I told 10 to pick his poison – I said that right before he went out there and it happened.”
The Packers gained 359 yards against a desperation-mode Lions defense. They were 6-of-12 on third down and 3-of-3 on fourth down. Discarding the end-of-half drive, the Packers had eight possessions. They scored on five and ran out the clock on another.
How did all come together in a critical game after weeks of inconsistent play?
“I don’t know. I think that’s the magic question we’re always chasing,” LaFleur said. “We want to be perfect every time we go out there. Teams plan against you, they do a good job and there’s a lot of good players in this league, there’s a lot of great coaches, and a lot of it is just how consistent can you be on a daily basis.
“Certainly, we believe that you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse, you’re never staying the same.”
LaFleur likes to say it’s process over results. As long as the process is good, the results will eventually come.
Did he see that process even when the results were nonexistent at times?
Maybe, but there were no victory laps being taken by LaFleur. This was a huge win, to be sure, but none of the big-picture goals have been accomplished.
“I still don’t think we’re where we want to get to,” he said. “I just don’t think you can ever be satisfied. And you’ve just got to keep fighting. You’ve got to put the work in. There’s no substitute for the work. And, thankfully, I’m around a bunch of guys that embrace the challenges, embrace putting in the work. There’s no shortcuts in this league and you’ve just got to keep fighting.”
The fight will continue. It must continue. There’s another big game coming against the Chicago Bears next week for first place in the NFC North. That will be followed by a road trip to face the AFC-leading Denver Broncos and then a return trip to Chicago. A home game against the red-hot Ravens will set up Week 18 at the rival Vikings.
“I’m proud of our guys,” LaFleur said, “but we’ve got to keep building on this and we can’t think that we’ve arrived by any stretch because as soon as you do that, you get beat. So, we’ve got to keep fighting and clawing and trying to get a little bit better.”
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