GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Favored by a touchdown, winners by nearly two, the Green Bay Packers kept hope alive through the holiday by beating the Los Angeles Rams 24-12 on a 15 degree night at Lambeau Field in front of the national Monday Night Football audience and 77,269 bundled up fans. It brings the Packers to 6-8 with three to play, still residing in slot number 10 in the NFC Wild Card playoff picture, trying to chase down 7-6-1 Washington along with Seattle and Detroit who both stand 7-7.
It was far from perfect against the reigning Super Bowl Champion Rams who at 4-10, were unceremoniously eliminated from even post-season consideration to defend their title. Granted, the Rams arrived a shell of the team that played at Lambeau last November, without Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald who sat out his third straight game. But the Packers were minus Rashan Gary and David Bakhtiari. They managed to not only double up the Rams on the scoreboard, but on the state sheet. The offense played grind it out ball to accumulate 345 yards while the defense, finally looked like a shutdown unit, allowed only 156 total yards and just 84 net passing yards to Baker Mayfield, making his first Los Angeles start. Pressure was constant as Preston Smith recorded two of the five sacks, Quay Walker got his first full sack which forced a fumble L.A. recovered and even ex-Ram Justin Hollins got in for a half a sack. Mayfield finished 12 of 21 for 111 yards, a touchdown and an interception for a rating of 67.8. Victimized by big plays of late, the Packer D allowed a long completion of 18 yards and that was on a well blocked screen pass to Cam Akers who ran hard, picking up 65 yards on 12 carries. L.A. was just four of 11 on third down and that led to four punts, compared to just one for Green Bay’s Pat O’Donnell.
Offensively, the Packers did well against a tough run defense, with or without Donald. A.J. Dillon did much of the bruising work with 11 carries for 36 yards and two touchdowns while Aaron Jones found plenty of holes to gain 90 yards on 17 carries. With the Rams staying put deploying two deep safeties most of the night, Rodgers stayed underneath to complete 22 of 30 for 229 yards with a score and a pick good for a rating of 95.2. His 10th interception of the year was unsightly, badly overshooting an open Allen Lazard at the end of the first quarter, with Taylor Rapp chasing down the ball. He did toss his 23rd TD of the year, to Jones that covered 7 yards and built an insurmountable 24-6 lead. The best thing the offense did was play keep away. Early on were trading field goals of 34 yards from Mason Crosby and 33 from Matt Gay. Dillon’s smashing 8 yard scoring run had plenty of contact after four yards but his power and some pile pushing help made it 10-3. L.A. got an impressive 55 yard Gay field goal through the cold in the final minute of the half to make it 10-6 at the break. That’s when the offense wouldn’t give it up. They controlled the ball for 21:56 of the second half, compared to just 8:04 for the Rams. On the opening drive of the third, Green Bay marched 68 yards in 11 plays, covering 6:56 with Dillon knifing in from the one. A short, 35 yard field, was covered on the Jones touchdown catch and Green Bay started the final drive at their 14 with 8:51 left and never gave it up. They reached the Rams’ one yard line before Rodgers took three knees to secure the team’s sixth win.
Afterwards, Head Coach Matt LaFleur summed it up.
The passing game welcomed the return of 4th round pick Romeo Doubs who has been out with a high ankle sprain suffered against Detroit on November 6. He showed up early, catching the first third down conversion of the game. He finished with a team high five catches on five targets for 55 yards. Christian Watson caught 4 balls for 46 but was kept out of the end zone for the first time in a month. Randall Cobb caught three passes and Lazard only 1. The torch may be getting passed already. The receiver room was rocked by the game day decision of General Manager Brian Gutekunst who released veteran Sammy Watkins. The 9th year veteran could not shake his recent injury history, missing much of camp and four regular season games with a hamstring pull. He finished with 13 receptions for 206 yards with diminishing playing time. His highlight night was in week two against the Bears gaining 93 yards on 3 receptions. Both LaFleur and Cobb had high praise for how Watkins handled himself and the coach admitted it was a hard, ill-timed decision but they needed a third running back and promoted Patrick Taylor from the practice squad to the 53 man roster. Taylor even got four spot carries late and gained 15 yards.
Rodgers felt there was a lot to like offensively, especially after intermission.
There’s no doubt Keisean Nixon has delivered a huge lift to the Special Teams since taking over the return role. He broke off a 51 yard kickoff return in the second half that the offense unfortunately couldn’t capitalize on. He also averaged 18 yards on two punt returns. In the last four weeks since taking on the job after the Packers gave up on former third round pick Amari Rodgers, Nixon has at least one return of 30 plus yards which hasn’t happened since Sam Shields did it in 2010. He now leads the entire NFL with 8 kickoff returns of at least 30 yards and he’s the league leader with 3 returns of more than 50 yards.
A couple of other milestones and noteworthy achievements included Mason Crosby’s streak mentioned by Rodgers. It’s now at 255 consecutive games which ties the franchise record held by Brett Favre. Crosby, a fixture for 16 seasons, nearly had the streak derailed by off-season knee surgery. He’s also endured plenty of other aches, horrible slumps and heartbreaking battles with cancer at home with not only his wife, Molly, but losing a sister in-law to the disease, but number two has always been there for the Packers, a fantastic run still going for the franchises’ all-time leading scorer.
Aaron Jones now has an even 5100 rushing yards in his career and that moved him past John Brockington for third place on the Pack’s all-time list. Brockington pulverized his way to 5024 yards during his Packer Hall of Fame career in the 70’s.
Jaire Alexander got some heady news before kickoff. While the rest of the NFL’s Pro-Bowl roster will be announced Wednesday, players from both the Packers and Rams were announced Monday night. Alexander was named an NFC corner for the second time in his career. Donald was the lone selection from the Rams.
The only injury of note was A.J. Dillon getting evaluated for a concussion that forced him to the locker room in the second half but he was in good spirits post-game.
The inactive players for the Packers included David Bakhtiari, Shemar Jean-Charles, Krys Barnes, Caleb Jones and Jonathan Ford.
LaFleur is now three for three against his former mentor Sean McVay. The Packers have now won 6 straight on Monday night, that’s a franchise record (5-0 under LaFleur), but most importantly, they live to fight yet another day. They’ll still be alive when they travel to Miami to take on the 8-6 Dolphins, losers of three in a row that has pushed them down to the 7th and final Wild Card slot in the AFC.
