Why they lost: Green Bay Packers fall to Arizona in OT
By Kenn Korb
Defensive OT failure
We can say all the good we want about the way the first 60 minutes transpired — or in turn, lament the breaks that didn’t go in Green Bay’s favor — but the final difference came in overtime.
Despite all the strong play of the defense throughout the game, it didn’t matter once regulation ended.
The defense had what appeared to be a great play-call, sending pressure at Palmer while using a partial zone look to cover up what would be his likely receiving options on the play design (and what the defense was forcing).
Somehow though, Arizona made this play work regardless of the defense’s efforts.
Palmer looked likely to be taken down in a mass of bodies, but enough space was left for him to slip out to his right and observe down the field. Once he got free of the pile, he looked to his left, spotted a target, and threw the ball.
That target? None other than Larry Fitzgerald.
Somehow, despite the best intentions of the defensive playcall, Fitzgerald managed to get wide open and completely uncovered to the left side (it appears that Randall was supposed to stay with him but passed him off as if he was in zone defense like the other players). After the catch, he could have gone out of bounds, but instead started running up the sideline before cutting back into the field.
Fitz made it all the way to the Packers’ 5 yard line before finally getting taken down, breaking at least three tackles along the way.
This basically sealed it, but the touchdown still needed to be scored officially or Green Bay would have a chance. On second down, Fitz got the call again, this time on a shovel pass; he ran it in easily for the touchdown that officially won the game.
An unfortunate end for a feisty team, in a game they definitely could have won had one more break gone their way.
It is even more unfortunate that it had to be a defensive mistake that cost the team, especially after how the defense was truly the team’s strength this season and had been putting up one of the most impressive defensive performances of the entire year (consider that Arizona was such a great offense all season, but were a lucky tipped ball away from possibly being down 13-10 with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter and not having the ball).
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Now, despite all that excellent progress, people are undoubtedly questioning Capers and his unit yet again, due to a single bad play.
Though the loss hurts — ending what had been an uncomfortable season but had miraculously supplied some late hope these past couple weeks — we shouldn’t resort to that simplistic (and to a point, baseless) blame-spewing at Dom’s group that tends to hit whenever the season comes to an end.
Instead, we should see this for what it truly was: a blown assignment at a bad time against a transcendent wide receiver who made them pay dearly for their mistake.