Why They Lost: Green Bay Falls Short On “Favre Night”
By Kenn Korb
Nov 26, 2015; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers wide receiver James Jones (89) attempts to catch a pass against the Chicago Bears during the second half for a NFL game on Thanksgiving at Lambeau Field. The Bears defeat the Packers 17-13. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
The Last Four Plays
After all the drops, lackadaisical routes, turnovers, and overall poor play from many if not all areas of the team, Green Bay yet again (as with the contests against Carolina and Detroit) still managed to be right there at the end of the game, with a chance to grab victory even though they may not have deserved it.
4 plays. 8 yards. 51 seconds.
Here’s how that went:
- Throwaway/Incompletion
- Throwaway/Incompletion
- Contested drop by James Jones
- Drop by Davante Adams (pass actually intended for Cobb, running towards back of endzone)
I tend to trust the playcalling aspect more than others (though he isn’t directly calling the plays, McCarthy made the plays and is in on the game-planning discussion) so I don’t really feel the need to question what they chose to call. The only change any of us not directly involved in the plays can respectably suggest would be a run mixed in there somewhere, but with so little time and no timeouts that would have likely limited the team to only three true plays (with a spike to stop the clock).
The bigger thing for me is how each play’s result tended to be emblematic of the issues plaguing the offense most of this season.
The first two plays showed off both the inability of the receivers as a whole to gain separation, while also hinting at the inaccuracy issues Rodgers has displayed as the season has progressed.
The third play encapsulated the problems with not only drops but the team’s inability to win on the margins lately.
The final play showed us perfect examples of the miscommunication problems that have been big in Green Bay’s QB/WR issues, showing us yet another example of our favorite quarterback not being on the same wavelength as his pass catchers.
As I said in a previous slide, this team isn’t as far off as we seem to believe; give them a change of luck on just three or four specific plays across their losses to Carolina, Detroit and Chicago and this team is 10-1 despite all those same issues plaguing them still being just as present.
The margins are much tighter than in recent years; the team just hasn’t been on the positive end of the result since the bye week.
All it takes to change things back in Green Bay’s favor will be turning a late play or two into their gain and not the opposition’s.
They are capable of doing so; they just need to actually make it happen.