The Green Bay Packers will spend the next eight months haunted by squandered opportunities from Saturday night’s Divisional Round game against the 49ers, as they were the better, more consistent team for most of the night but also made the most costly errors.
The Packers trailed 7-6 at the half after scoring just six points on three red zone drives in the first half before trading touchdowns with the Niners early in the third quarter. However, they seemed to finally take control of the game when Keisean Nixon returned a kickoff deep into Niners territory, with Eric Wilson saving the day with a diving fumble recovery to set up a go-ahead TD and two-point conversion from Jordan Love.
The defense would continue to do yeoman’s work against Brock Purdy and a 49ers offense that looked flustered, but then Love suddenly started to look like a young quarterback as it came time to finish the game. First came an interception at midfield after he rifled a ball high and behind his tight end on third down, bouncing into the hands of Dre Greenlaw.
Dre Greenlaw makes a big play on defense!
: #GBvsSF on FOX
: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/yDUx5ZutVa pic.twitter.com/9Mz6QAhnQ5
— NFL (@NFL) January 21, 2024
That set up a Niners field goal to close the gap to four, and after back-to-back drives ending in punts, the Packers would find some life thanks to Aaron Jones and drive down into San Francisco territory. However, they would come up empty for the third time on the night after a Anders Carlson 41-yard field goal pulled just wide left of the uprights, and that was all the invitation the Niners needed to walk through the door.
After a dreadful night for the first three-plus quarters, Brock Purdy finally found a rhythm to move San Francisco down the field, where Christian McCaffrey punched in his second TD of the game to give the Niners a 27-24 lead.
CMC FOR THE LEAD
— NFL (@NFL) January 21, 2024
The Packers would get a first down on their final minute drive trying to tie or win the game, but with just under 50 seconds left, Love made a terrible decision to just huck the ball up into the middle of the field, where Greenlaw came away with his second pick of the night to seal a Niners win.
INT NO. 2 FROM DRE GREENLAW!
— NFL (@NFL) January 21, 2024
It’s about as bad a throw as you’ll see in that situation, as the Packers had timeouts and it wasn’t fourth down, so they would’ve been perfectly fine with a throwaway. Instead, he forced it into triple coverage, throwing across his body in the rain with no juice on the ball, and it fluttered into Greenlaw’s arms to put the game on ice.
The pick that sent the 49ers to another NFC Championship game
— NFL (@NFL) January 21, 2024
Love was great for much of the game, including a pair of touchdown passes in the third quarter, but red zone stallouts and his two miscues in the middle of the field will haunt him for months to come. He and the Packers will hope they become learning experiences for the future, but given how well the Packers played and how poorly Purdy and the Niners offense looked for much of the game, it will be a long time before Green Bay comes to terms with losing this game.
San Francisco meanwhile will feel like they escaped one, and after their injury luck a year ago, they might feel they were owed this kind of win. Deebo Samuel’s injury status will be a big story going into next week as he left with a shoulder injury early on, but San Francisco played about as poorly as they have all year and managed to come out with a win, allowing them to now try to settle in for the NFC title game back at home.
0 Commentaires