Belted in the Beltway, Packers Take One on the Chin
The Green Bay Packers are now 1-1-1 after an underwhelming performance by both their offense and defense as they fell 31-17 to the Washington Redskins on the road.
The first 2 series of the game pretty much told the story of how this game was going to play out. The Redskins got the ball first and drove down the field for a touchdown. On the TD pass, Kentrell Brice took a bad angle near the goal line as he didn’t look for the ball. Paul Richardson caught the deep ball and then got up and ran it in. What should have been an interception, or at the very least, a knockdown, ended up a touchdown instead and a 7-0 deficit for the Packers. When the Packers got the ball, Randall Cobb dropped a third-down pass from Aaron Rodgers, so instead of extending the drive, it ended in a punt.
Dropped passes, poor defense, and penalties led to the Packers’ undoing. The drops mostly came on third or fourth downs, killing drives. The one by Lance Kendricks might have gone for a touchdown, but they instead had to punt from deep inside their own territory.
The defense played their hearts out last week vs the Minnesota Vikings, at least until that bad call was made on Clay Matthews. I didn’t like how they fell apart when they faced adversity. I was hoping they would come out this week with a purpose. They took a huge step back instead.
Once again, penalties nullified some huge first-down conversions on offense and were killers on defense. The Packers were called for pass interference three times on one drive alone.
Finally, we get to the penalty that will once again dominate NFL headlines around the airwaves and the World Wide Web. Clay Matthews was once again called for roughing the passer, and this was an even worse call than the one last week because he would have had a sack had this penalty not been called. Players have been making that tackle since the NFL came into existence, and the fact that the league office came to the referees’ defense almost immediately after the game ended was more insulting than the actual penalty.
We might be seeing the end of the NFL as we know it. These terrible calls are being made throughout the league, but the focus is on Green Bay because the same player has been flagged 3 games in a row. While I believe that Matthews made a bad play in Week 1, the penalties the last 2 weeks were terrible calls, and I point the finger at the league office. There are several reasons why the league has declining attendance numbers (and I won’t get into all of that here), but this might send fans turning away from the league in droves. Like I said last week, the games should be won or lost (or tied) by the players on the field and the coaches on the sidelines, not by the guys in striped shirts and definitely not by anyone in the league office.
That was an absolute travesty of a call, but when you get right down to it, the Packers didn’t play well enough to win this game. Rodgers is really toughing it out by going out there and playing on that injured knee, but the rest of the team needs to back him up, and they aren’t fulfilling their end of the bargain, at least not since Matthews was called for that bogus penalty last week. The good thing is that we haven’t even played a quarter of the season yet. Except for the Los Angeles Rams, what team in the NFC really stands out right now? There is plenty of time to turn things around.
So the Packers have the rare distinction of being a .500 team after 3 games due to that tie last week. Their next game is at Noon Central Time on Sunday at home vs the Buffalo Bills, who delivered a performance not seen in quite a while as they upset the Minnesota Vikings on the road 27-6 as a 17-point underdog. That certainly ought to capture the Packers’ attention. We can’t take anything for granted right now.
Go Pack Go!
@DieHardPackrFan #DHPF #GregGoshaw @gg901
