It’s tough to win a football game when you’re not only competing against an opposing team, but also the referees.
Yet again, officiating has become a major talking point for the Green Bay Packers. On Sunday afternoon in Detroit, the Packers were flagged multiple times in the second half, drawing inexplicable penalties that whole seeing similar – or more egregious – conduct by the Detroit Lions go uncalled.
Meanwhile, rookie kicker Trey Smack continued his struggles, missing twice from inside 40 yards
to keep six points that they should have scored off the board.
One of the most meaningful penalties of the game came at the two minute warning, however, as Karl Brooks jumped offsides in a tie game to give Detroit a first down. That gave the Lions just enough of a chance to run clock off for a last second game winning field goal, which Jake Bates hit to give the Lions the win.
The Packers started the game with the football and Matt LaFleur showed an aggressive nature early on the drive. Jordan Love came out slinging to Matthew Golden, who had two receptions for 27 yards on the drive. LaFleur kept his offense on the field on a 4th-and-5 from the Lions’ 33 and Love delivered a strike to Savion Williams for 27 yards of his own. But after that, he went back to the run game behind Josh Jacobs, running twice for three yards to set up a 3rd-and-goal at the 3. Love got flushed from the pocket and threw incomplete to Golden, but Trey Smack missed a chip shot wide right, ending a promising first drive with zero points.
Detroit made the Packers pay for their missed opportunity quickly. Jared Goff led a six-play, 80-yard touchdown drive, finishing it off with consecutive passes to Jameson Williams, first for 24 yards and then for a 16-yard score as the Lions took an early 7-0 lead.
The Packers went for another short 4th down on their next drive, this time a 4th-and-2 from midfield. Love hit a wide-open Tucker Kraft for 22 yards. Kraft finished the job this time, as Love rolled out and found him in the right corner of the end zone for a 14-yard score
The tie game was short-lived, thanks to a 40-yard pass from Goff to Amon-Ra St. Brown, but the Packers got a pair of tackles for loss in their own territory to force a field goal from Jake Bates. That gave the Lions a 10-7 lead, and they had a chance to extend it after a three-and-out by Green Bay on their next series. However, Jonathan Gannon’s defense returned the favor, getting off the field quickly for the first time all game.
Savion Williams delivered another big catch to move the chains on the Packers’ next drive, hauling in a 20-yard gain on 3rd-and-9 on the opening set of downs. Yet another 4th down attempt resulted in a big play, this time with Love hooking up with Christian Watson for a 28-yard gain to reach the red zone. The first failed 4th down attempt of the game came three plays later, however, as the Packers came up empty once again.
The Lions drove down the field late in the first half and looked to be threatening to convert on the first half of a double-up around the halftime break, but a lucky break kept them off the scoreboard. Detroit ran 12 plays and picked up 85 yards on the drive, but Isaiah McDuffie recovered a Jahmyr Gibbs fumble — which appeared to be caused by Lions center Cade Mays — giving the Packers the game’s first takeaway and sending them into the half with just a three-point deficit.
Coming out of the half, the Packers’ defense did it again. Mays had a bad exchange with Goff and McDuffie fell on the football a second time, setting Green Bay up in great field position with a chance to take the lead back. They did just that, as Josh Jacobs made his first truly big play of the game and the season. On 3rd-and-6, Love found Jacobs with a dump-off, and he broke multiple tackles, tight-roping his way up the sideline and into the end zone for a 25-yard touchdown.
Trey Smack’s PAT put the Packers up 14-10, giving Green Bay their first lead of the game, but it would be short-lived. Jameson Williams had a 30-yard reception to get the drive across midfield then got open over the middle for a 10-yard touchdown, his second of the game, to push the Lions back in front once again.
After yet another stalled Packers drive, the defense had to come up with yet another clutch stop despite several flags on the defense – most egregious of them being an awful roughing the passer on Brenton Cox that wiped out a third down stop. But after Brandon Cisse’s interception was erased by a pass interference call on him in the red zone, the rookie came up with a pass breakup in the end zone on 4th-and-5 to turn the ball over on downs.
More bad calls (and no-calls) hurt the Packers’ offense as the fourth quarter began. Love was flagged for intentional grounding despite clearly trying to throw the ball to Tucker Kraft – Jared Goff was not flagged for a nearly identical play earlier in the game – and an eventual deep ball on 3rd and long got picked off by Brian Branch.
Evan Williams got his hands on two passes on the Lions’ next drive. He was unable to haul either one in, but they did help force a 3-and-out once again.
The Packers managed to tie the game on their next drive, getting some big plays from Josh Jacobs and drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty on a Lions defender. Smack eventually hit from 43 yards out, knotting the score at 17.
Dan Campbell’s aggressive nature came back to burn him deep in Detroit’s own territory on the ensuing series. Facing a 4th-and-2 from inside their own 30, the he called a run to Gibbs but Keisean Nixon read the play perfectly and wrapped up the back in the backfield.
The Lions caught a huge break, as the Packers failed to score. Josh Jacobs dropped a would-be touchdown pass and Trey Smack missed again, this time from 35 yards out. Smack’s kick appeared to be tipped ever so slightly by DJ Wonnum, but it still goes down as a miss in crunch time.
Yet another horrendous roughing the passer call went against Green Bay as the Lions quickly moved across midfield, looking for a go ahead score. Even Tom Brady, on the call for FOX, was baffled by the call against Karl Brooks, and officiating analyst Dean Blandino called the hit “teaching tape.” But a flag it remained, setting Detroit up to run off more clock before facing a 3rd-and-5 at the Packers’ 20 after the 2 minute warning.
Brooks made a dreadful and legitimate mistake, however, jumping offside and giving Detroit a first down and a chance to run off most of the remaining clock with Green Bay having just one timeout left. Gibbs picked up one last first down to run the clock out and give Jake Bates an easy game-winning field goal.
