Behind the Numbers: Green Bay Packers v. Lions
Here is a look at the stats and figures you need to know from the Green Bay Packers' regular-season finale against Detroit.
By Paul_Bretl
The Green Bay Packers were able to come from behind and tie the game late in the fourth quarter, but ultimately fell short as Detroit came away with the win. However, it's not like this game meant anything.
As we do each week here at Cheesehead TV, it's time to go Behind the Numbers, taking a look at the stats and figures you need to know from the Green Bay Packers performance.
1
It's not as if the Detroit Lions have a very stout pass-rush, ranking 28th in pressure rate this season, but even for an All-Pro like David Bakhtiari, you never truly know how someone is going to respond in their first game back in over a year.
However, Bakhtiari looked quite good. According to PFF's game recap, he didn't allow a single pressure, and he would only lose one of his 20 pass-blocking reps.
4.5
Josh Myers is back, and he got the start at center yesterday. According to PFF's game recap, he would allow only one pressure. As promising as Myers has looked, it's important to remember that he has only about 4.5 games of NFL experience under his belt and about 300 total snaps--there still may be some ups and downs that occur.
12th
With Bakhtiari and Myers back, the Green Bay Packers moved Lucas Patrick to right guard, and thus Royce Newman ended up on the sidelines. Last season, Patrick was the Packers' primary right guard, where he ranked 12th among all guards in pressures allowed and sixth in ESPN's pass-block win rate. Patrick also finished 31st in run-blocking grade among the same 86 eligible guards.
111
Of the Lions' 404 total yards, 111 of them came on a pair of trick plays. The first was a 75-yard touchdown pass from receiver Tom Kennedy, and that was followed a short while later by a 36-yard touchdown pass from Goff that included a few pitches beforehand. As LaFleur talked about following the game, the defense's discipline on Sunday was poor. While I don't expect upcoming opponents to throw as many trick plays at Green Bay, they very well may be tested in the playoffs given their inability to defend them against Detroit.
"Defensive football in general comes down to discipline, and people owning their roles, and when you aren't disciplined or you go outside the scheme, bad stuff happens," LaFleur said via Packers.com. "We cannot have that. We need all 11 doing their damn job. And if they don't, stuff like that happens."
75
Allen Lazard remains red-hot heading into the playoffs. He entered Sunday's game with 16 receptions for 215 yards and three touchdowns over his previous four games. Against Detroit, Lazard would add another 75 yards and two touchdowns, including a few third-down receptions that allowed the Green Bay offense to stay on the field.
10/17
Of course, there is still plenty of areas for Jordan Love to improve upon--did you expect something different? But I do want to point out that he did look much more comfortable this week compared to what he did in Kansas City.
It all started with the play up front and Love having time in the pocket, but he was also decisive with his decision-making for the most part and relied on the quick passing game. LaFleur also had a good run/pass mix dialed up with his play-calling. The game didn't end how we were hoping, but Love made strides as the offense was able to tie the game late, despite trailing for much of the second half.
“To see the way that he’s able to play and to see him be able to kind of control the game the last quarter or so ... obviously didn’t end the way we wanted it to but mistakes happen all the time and just because it happened at the end it’s gonna be pointed out a little bit more, but I thought he did a great job,” Lazard said via Packers.com. “He’s been steadily growing this entire year and obviously his snaps with Aaron being up and everything but he’s grown tremendously throughout practice week in and week so I’m very proud of him."
53
I've been a big fan of Patrick Taylor's since he joined the team. You can click here to read more, but in short, he's just such a good fit for LaFleur's offense with his added abilities as a pass-catcher, a blocker, and that he doesn't just have to line up in the backfield.
We saw some of his potential on display in Detroit as he averaged almost 5.0 yards per rush on 11 carries with a touchdown, and he caught a key third-down reception that eventually led to a touchdown.
5
Dean Lowry capped off the best season of his career with another strong performance. Early on, Lowry was able to log his fifth sack of the season as well as his 40th pressure--both of which are career highs. He also tallied two tackles for loss in the run game.
When Lowry is having this kind of impact and bullying his way into the backfield, Kenny Clark, the edge rushers, and the linebackers all benefit.
109
Over the last six weeks or so, Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown has been on a tear, and like most teams prior to the Packers, Green Bay had few answers for him. Detroit did an excellent job of getting St. Brown the ball in space and letting him create from there. He also found a lot of success over the middle of the field and totaled 109 receiving yards on eight receptions.
1,553
With his 55 receiving yards on Sunday, Davante Adams broke Jordy Nelson's single-season receiving record. Adams also holds the record for most receptions in a season with 123.
"He's a special, special player," Rodgers said via Packers.com. "He deserves it and that's what I told him at halftime is he really deserves this because of the way he conducts himself, the way he plays. Incredible talent and drive and I'm just so fortunate to be a part of it."
1
The Green Bay Packers are still the one seed, and they remained relatively healthy--although we will have to wait and see how Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Chandon Sullivan are feeling. So don't read too much into this performance.
Green Bay was running some very vanilla looks and had nothing to play for while Detroit emptied the playbook.
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__________________________
Born and raised in Green Bay, WI and I still call it home. After my family, watching the Packers, sharing my opinions on the team through my writing and interacting with other fans is my greatest passion. You can find me on Twitter at @Paul_Bretl.
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Comments (25)
croatpackfan
January 10, 2022 at 11:40 am
Well Vikings and Bears fired their respective GMs and HCs. Nagy and Zimmer is past in this division.
ImaPayne
January 10, 2022 at 12:09 pm
A good fine day to announce the firing of Bary. This guy is a disaster, but someone in the head office likes him and gave him this job. He the three see no evil monkeys put together.
Lphill
January 10, 2022 at 12:25 pm
Fire Barry right before the playoffs?
Ya_tittle
January 11, 2022 at 01:25 pm
Yes, you are a pain.
BAMABADGER
January 10, 2022 at 12:17 pm
"Green Bay was running some very vanilla looks"?????? It was Week 18... Opponents have seen all the Pack has to offer throughout the season. GB has nothing left to hid. We have a strong offense and a very inconsistent defense, "Vanilla look" is too easy a cop out as to why they lost to the Lions. We should be very worried when Dallas or TB comes to Lambeau.
PackerAaron
January 10, 2022 at 02:04 pm
But...they were vanilla looks lol.
PackfanNY
January 10, 2022 at 03:57 pm
It is amazing to hear people all week saying the “game is not important, the result doesn’t matter”, “let’s keep everyone healthy especially Rodgers”. Then when the team loses a truly meaningless game the same people wail that the sky is falling. Yet our MVP QB came out feeling good, our All Pro LT played for the 1st time this season. Oh, and our Pro Bowl CB and Pro Bowl missing LB since the 1st game of the season just might play in the playoffs. That is some first world problems if you ask me.
Meanwhile, our primary rivals in Minnesota and Chicago just fired their respective GMs and Head Coaches because they can’t beat the Green Bay Packers. SMH.🤷♂️
Leatherhead
January 10, 2022 at 02:38 pm
No, we shouldn't be worried; we're much better than those teams. Tampa is a shell of the offense that led the league. No Antonio Brown. or their leading receiver. Fournette might come back but he's not 100%. And their defense isn't as good as it was last year, when they got lucky, IMO.
Dallas? They're explosive. So is Achmed, the Dead Terrorist. They shoot themselves in the foot a lot, too.
You continue to sing this song about Offense Good, Defense Not. It's an old song and I've heard it every year for over 20 years. I could cite a multitude of facts and it's not going to change your mind. But I will just say that the league average is 24 points. That means that during the season, the average team scores 24. Some teams more, some games more, some teams less, some games less.
So when I see that we've held our opponent under 24 so many times, it makes me believe that we're not a bad defense. When I see how many takeaways we get, what the opponents QB ratings are, etc., it makes me think that we're actually a better than average defense.
You should rethink. We have an above average defense, and have for the last couple of years. And we're designed to win with our offense controlling the clock and protecting the ball. We do that very well.
As far as the loss to the Lions.....IT DOESN"T MATTER!! Two trick plays. But a good team doesn't fall for trick plays, right? Like in the Ice Bowl, there's no way we'd give up a halfback pass for a long TD, right? It happens. But don't ignore what happened on the other 60 snaps.
My only worry is that the offense will have have costly turnovers and failures in the redzone during a playoff game. If that doesn't happen, we'll be in the Super Bowl.
croatpackfan
January 10, 2022 at 12:19 pm
Paul, thank you for the review through numbers. As you said, I also think that Jordan Love moving in the right direction. Only I would like from him not to try to be another Aaron Rodgers, but to achieve high level of NFL QB playing by being him, not bad copy of anyone other.
Dean Lowry got his highlights when he was the oldest player through some number of snaps. By my opinion, in this last game of the season he was doing nothing else but what he is doing constantly. The diference was he played as the best one on the DL so his efforts and work finaly got recognition.
Congratulation to Davante for his 2 Packers records. He deserves both. While I would like him to stay Packers, I'm affraid we will not be able to pay him.
It is always good to have good problems. Who will play OL is not dramatic now. We know that we have quite a lot capable OL players.
Now, this team need to fulfill only one more wish. To complete task given by Brett Favre.
jont
January 10, 2022 at 01:44 pm
750,000
That is how many dollars Preston didn't get because he fell one sack short of this performance bonus. After a bad year last year , heplayed on an incentive based contract this year, and although he did well he came up agonizingly short of one important stat. I was watching him on each of this 26 snaps hoping he'd get it.
zoellner25
January 10, 2022 at 01:45 pm
The 2-13-1 Lions running multiple trick plays to beat us and celebrating wildly against our 2nd string was hilarious. I guess they won the game. Still 3-13-1, congrats!
jhtobias
January 10, 2022 at 03:58 pm
Two things I'm tires of hearing from spoiled packer fans .
1. Jordan Love : yes it was a bad pick move on he is not the starting qb he is the back up. If he becomes the starting qb then start crying until then don't care .
2. Guess what when oren burks , yiadom, tj slaton, Henry black are playing starter snaps you will suck . This will change in two weeks so calm down.
Swisch
January 10, 2022 at 05:02 pm
Matt LaFleur is apparently angry with the defense about not being disciplined and staying within the scheme and adhering to their roles.
I wonder if he ever gets mad at Aaron Rodgers for similar reasons.
I also wonder if it was Rodgers who actually decided that the starters would play against the Lions.
Finally, I wonder if Rodgers has the effect of undermining the concept of team among the Packers.
WestCoastPackerBacker
January 10, 2022 at 08:38 pm
Hahahahahahahahahaha. Ridiculousness. By all accounts, Rodgers is a great leader and very well liked by teammates past and present. He is the glue for this team, the opposite of undermining it.
chaka
January 10, 2022 at 05:29 pm
Packers really should find a good back up QB before the playoffs. Love is terrible. Was a projected 3rd to 5th round draft choice they traded up for when they needed one of the great receivers that were available at that pick.
jhtobias
January 10, 2022 at 06:11 pm
Not saying love is any good but he was projected mid first to late first. Get your facts straight
LambeauPlain
January 10, 2022 at 06:29 pm
How was Rodgers as the Packers sophomore backup QB being constantly compared to a HOF starter?
That's right...as good as Love has been in year 2. Many fans labeled him a bust too...after year 2...playing behind a legend.
LambeauPlain
January 10, 2022 at 06:24 pm
I was not enthused with Barry's hire as DC. Midway through the season I felt he was exceeding my expectations. Now I believe he is again underperforming, as he has in every other DC stint.
The Packers have two proven DC studs on the market that would rival what Jim Leonard would have brought to the Pack....aggressive attacking defense with a huge dose of creativity and playing a scheme to the strengths of the players on the field. Fangio and Zimmer are not HC's...but are outstanding DC's. I have a bad feeling the D will again keep the Packers out of the SB. If so, need to make a change and Fangio, Zimmer and Leonard should all be priority interviews.
Buckywunder
January 10, 2022 at 11:14 pm
Jimmy isn’t coming to 1265 until Wisconsin makes it to the expanded CFP…
LambeauPlain
January 11, 2022 at 11:20 am
Jim said he was within a whisker of joining the Packers. He and Matt really hit it off.
But according to Jim, his wife nudged him to stay in Madison. It may not change…but you never know.
albert999
January 10, 2022 at 06:49 pm
Same ole press conference from MLF why doesn’t SOMONE ask him why these mistakes keep happening with NFL players after 17 weeks and some many years of experience ??? In the real world of working if you make mistakes again and again after being told for 17 weeks your out on the street
WestCoastPackerBacker
January 10, 2022 at 08:41 pm
I will answer it for you.
1. meaningless game
2. a multitude of backups playing
3. rookies and non-starters often make mistakes
4. meaningless game.
If you had GB's starters play against another top team playing mainly backups, it would be a blowout. (see last GB-MIN game). Instead GB's second stringers kept it competitive.
Starrbrite
January 11, 2022 at 09:28 am
Like you, I’m high on Patrick Taylor. And as you say, if Lowry continues his improved play, the benefits will multiply.
PatrickGB
January 11, 2022 at 12:17 pm
Taylor was beat out by a late round draft pick to start the season. Thankfully he was signed to the PS. He is a hard downhill runner. Yet I don’t see his being as explosive as Hill so it made sense at the time. However, in post season, it’s good to have him as our third back.
Starrbrite
January 11, 2022 at 02:29 pm
Agree completely Patrick.