The Green Bay Packers had a bevy of problems in the fourth quarter Sunday and lost to New England.
Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones (33) had a critical fourth quarter fumble in the Packers’ loss to New England Sunday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
The Green Bay Packers are 0-4 on the road this season, sit in 10 th place in the 16-team NFC and are below .500 at the midway point in a season for the first time since Mike McCarthy’s rookie season.
Host New England scored the final 14 points of the game Sunday night and toppled the Packers, 31-17. Green Bay fell to 3-4-1 and is in third place in the NFC North.
Here’s a look at the heroes — and zeroes — from Green Bay’s loss Sunday.
Zero: ST coach Ron Zook
Week after week, Green Bay’s special teams are a major liability and hinder the Packers’ chances of victory.
Against the Los Angeles Rams last week, kick returner Ty Montgomery fumbled away a chance at victory, then was traded 48 hours later. The Rams also completed a fake punt on the Packers and downed a pair of punts inside the 5-yard line.
The comedy of errors continued Sunday in New England.
Packers safety Josh Jones was off sides on the opening kickoff. That’s right, the opening kickoff.
And later, tight end Robert Tonyan roughed punter Ryan Allen on a fourth-and-21 — a play that gave New England an automatic first down.
Green Bay’s special teams have bordered on comedic since Mike McCarthy became the Packers’ head coach in 2006. Zook — Green Bay’s third special teams coach in that time — is simply the latest to have failed.
Hero: WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling
The rookie wide receiver continues to blossom as a force in Green Bay’s passing game.
Valdes-Scantling caught three passes for 101 yards, including a 51-yard reception. Valdes-Scantling now has 17 receptions for 358 yards this season, an average of 21.1 yards per catch.
“Yeah he made two great catches, back-to-back plays,” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “An adjustment on third-and-1 to take it down the sidelines. When the ball left my hand I thought it was not a great throw. He came down with it, both feet inbounds, fantastic, moving to the number 2 spot on the left side, and he made a fingertip catch in tight coverage the next play. So those are plays that you love.”
Zero: S/ILB Jermaine Whitehead
Green Bay needed Whitehead — one of the brighter players on defense — to step up after the trade of Ha Clinton-Dix last week. Instead, Whitehead was ejected in the second quarter after he slapped Patriots center David Andrews with an open palm.
The call was certainly controversial and continued a trend of the NFL making its product much softer than it once was. Still, Whitehead needed to be smarter, understand that his team needed him and not make foolish choices.
Zero: RB Aaron Jones
Green Bay’s dynamic second-year running back entered the game averaging 6.23 yards per carry, the most among backs with at least 30 carries. But Jones had a critical fumble on the first play of the fourth quarter with the game tied, 17-17.
New England then marched 76 yards in 10 plays and took the lead on a 1-yard James White touchdown run. The Patriots never trailed again.
“Good defensive play looking at it on replay,” Jones said. “Punched the ball out. It’s my mistake. I’ll correct. The fumble is going to eat at me until I get another chance to carry the ball.”
Hero: LB Blake Martinez
Martinez has been a tackling machine this year, and was again for much of the night. But Martinez sprained an ankle in the second half and it looked like his night was over.
Not a chance. Martinez returned a short time later and finished the night with seven tackles, the third-most on the team.
Zero: S Tramon Williams
The Packers still trailed, 24-17, midway through the fourth quarter.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady faked a screen pass, then threw downfield for Josh Gordon. Tramon Williams, a cornerback converted to safety this week, had a clean shot at Gordon, but whiffed. Gordon then went untouched for a 55-yard touchdown that largely ended things and dropped the Packers below.500.
“I was trying to get there, you know, and make the play,” Williams said. “Ran up so fast on him, he’s a big guy, ran up so fast on him and couldn’t quite wrap him at that point. Just trying to make a play, man. They had two guys streaming down the middle wide open. I had to choose the most dangerous and I figured it would be going to him. I made it there, just didn’t get it done.”
Zero: HC Mike McCarthy
The Packers are just 24-25-1 in their last 50 regular season games under McCarthy. On Sunday, the Patriots used a trick play in which receiver Julian Edelman hit running back James White with a 37-yard reception to set up the go-ahead score. Bill Belichick’s special teams also whipped Green Bay’s units. And McCarthy’s offense got very little doen against Belichick’s defense.
“We need to be better,” McCarthy said.
I have covered the Green Bay Packers for several media outlets since 2001, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s “Packer Plus” and currently Bobmcginnfootball.com. I have also written eight books on the Packers including best sellers, “100 Things Packers Fans Should Kno…
