Megan Turner
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The Green Bay Packers did a lot of things well in Saturday’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Packers’ defense went into the NFC Divisional playoff game and stopped the run, pressured Jimmy Garoppolo, and took away the football. But Green Bay’s special teams unit — ranked last in the league — turned in one of the worst special teams performances in NFL playoff history.
After coming off a timeout and with seconds left in regulation, Green Bay looks to have taken the field with only 10 men to try to block the 49ers game-winning field goal.
“We would just like to play even … kinda have a wash in the special teams,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “That’d be good, but in crucial, critical situations, we obviously had some issues.”
The Packers’ special teams caused letdowns throughout the entire game, though.
The blocked field goal at the end of the first half prevented the Packers from taking a 10-0 lead. A 45-yard kickoff return by San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel to midfield to open the second half set up the 49ers’ first points of the game coming off a field goal.
San Francisco never led in its 13-10 win until Robbie Gould’s 45-yard field goal as time expired — the team didn’t score an offensive or defensive touchdown in the game. Yahoo Sports reports there were two field goals by Gould and a six-yard return of a blocked punt by safety Talanoa Hufanga, and that’s all the 49ers needed. Mason Crosby made one of his two field-goal attempts; the other was blocked by safety Jimmie Ward.
The Packers earned the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye in the NFC, but for the second straight year the team came up short of the Super Bowl.
“This is a tough pill to swallow for all of us right now,” Head Coach Matt LaFleur said. “That’s a really disappointed locker room. I hurt for them.”
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BUT BUT BUT … an OUTKICK commenter on an earlier article about this game credited the GB defeat to “another Rogers’ “CHOKE”. ?? … … Sports fans seemingly delight in declaring that XYZ athlete “CHOKED” especially in team sports where success or failure is always a group effort. In this case – the “choke”- if there has to always be a “choke” – occurred when Rogers was off the field. ???
Rodgers has to own this loss. Nine scoreless drives kept SF in the game. The special teams gaffs shouldn’t have mattered if Rodgers and the offense did its job. Even after the blocked punt and TD, Rodgers had 4:30 to lead his team down the field and get into in scoring position, but failed to do so. Garrappolo looked better in his final drive than Rodgers did. I think the GB super bowl run is over. The GB roster is going to look a lot different next season.