MIAMI, FL (WTAQ) – Now that was a holiday parlay. Consider, before Santa Claus even took off from the North Pole, the Giants, Commanders, Seahawks and Lions all lost on Saturday and the final piece to that handful of propositions was the besieged Green Bay Packers defense being asked to shut down the high octane Miami Dolphins offense down after intermission to keep their faint playoff hopes alive. It all happened on Christmas weekend.
The Packers put some wind in their post-season sails and knocked Miami out of Wild Card consideration handing them their fourth straight loss with Green Bay’s third straight victory 26-20.
Even more remarkable was how the defense rebounded from giving up explosive play after explosive play in the first half to fall behind 20-10 in the second quarter. Tua Tagovailoa hit Jaylen Waddle on an 84 yard touchdown catch and run, he found Tyreek Hill for a 52 yard bomb to the one that set up Jeff Wilson’s one yard TD run. Raheem Mostert was ripping off chunks on the ground and it was looking like defensive coordinator Joe Barry’s unit was ready for his replacement before the season was over.
Aaron Rodgers and the offense meanwhile, stumbled badly in the red zone despite out of this world field position, starting their first possession at the Miami 9 thanks to a 93 yard kickoff return from the suddenly amazing Keisean Nixon. They had to settle for Mason Crosby’s 36 yard field goal to tie the game at 3. In the second half, a turnover had Green Bay start at the Dolphin 14 but again, could muster only 3 but that did give them their first lead at 23-20.
One snap after the Pack’s first field goal, Waddle got loose over the middle and found the right sideline to go the distance for a 10-3 Miami lead. Rodgers would convert a third and 8 with a 12 yard scramble and on 4th and goal from the 2, an excellent play fake got Marcedes Lewis open for the touchdown to make it 10-10 after one.
Wilson’s touchdown after Hill’s big catch between Adrian Amos and Rudy Ford put Miami back up by 7 and then the Packers came up with one of the most ill fated gambles on the year. In punt formation from their own 20, Special Teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia called a fake with a direct snap to fullback Dallin Leavitt. Miami however, had 8 men in the box and easily stuffed Leavitt to take over in prime position for a two touchdown lead. A Preston Smith sack and forced fumble, recovered by Miami, led to a 34 yard Jason Sanders field goal and only a 20-10 advantage.
Miami had a chance for more after a three and out but Jarran Reed came up with a big play, punching the ball out of Mostert’s hands and recovering the fumble at midfield.
Christian Watson’s 6th catch of the first half converted a 4th and 1 in Miami territory but it would be his last catch of the day, leaving with a hip injury. Crosby hit from 46 with :02 left in the half to pull Green Bay within a touchdown.
They got the equalizing score on the opening drive of the third quarter with unlikely pass catching heroes. After Rodgers converted a 4th and 1 with a quarterback sneak, third string running back Patrick Taylor came up with a 17 yard swing pass and run on third and 9 from the 45. On the next snap, the 38 year old Lewis pulled down a remarkable 31 yard grab up the left sideline and A.J. Dillon capped the drive with a one yard run.
The Dolphins moved to the Green Bay 30 late in the third but stalled and Sanders was wide right on a 48 yard field goal try.
Rodgers took a deep shot to Lazard on the next series but he appeared to get pushed in the back by rookie Kader Kohou who turned around in time to intercept the long pass in the end zone taking at least three points away.
On the next snap, Tagovailoa overthrew Hill and Jaire Alexander picked off the pass returning it 24 yards to the Miami 14. That’s when the Packers failed to punch it in but still took the lead.
Tagovailoa made his next mistake at the Green Bay 30 when he didn’t see De’Vondre Campbell drifting to his left and he snared the pick with a 14 yard return to the Packer 36 with 6:02 remaining. Romeo Doubs ran down a corner route for 22 and Robert Tonyan’s only catch of the night covered 13 more. The Packers forced the Dolphins to burn all three timeouts as they reached the Miami 8 just outside the 2 minute warning. Crosby connected from 26 for the 26th point.
The defense had one more play in them. Rasul Douglas dropped his zone coverage and found a passing lane to intercept Tagovailoa at the 44 and after running five yards, simply fell down to allow Rodgers to kneel twice to secure the impressive comeback victory.
When it was over, Head Coach Matt LaFleur met the media.
Douglas said after getting pounded by big plays in the first half, secondary coach Jerry Gray got hot at halftime, cursing out his unit. Out of character for the mild mannered coach, Douglas said everyone’s eyes got big and realized things had to change. They did. Tagovailoa was 9 of 12 for a whopping 229 yards in the first half. Both Waddle (5/143) and Hill (4/103) were killing the secondary. In the final two quarters, he managed 81 yards on 7 completions with those three huge interceptions.
The Packers managed 301 yards of offense but they were just two of five in the red zone. Rodgers said they still produced big drives during the game, their only TD march of the second quarter, the opening series of the third and the final possession which ate up 4 minutes and produced the final 6 point margin. Rodgers finished 24 of 38 for 238 yards with a score and a pick for a rating of 78.6. Watson was the top receiver with 6 catches for 46 yards before the injury. Lazard caught five (on 11 targets) for 61 yards. On the ground, Dillon finished with 36 yards on 11 carries. Aaron Jones, given only three touches in the first half finished with just 34 total yards but had a big 18 yard run late. Defensively, Adrian Amos led with 11 tackles, Reed had 6 with a sack and the big fumble force and recovery and of course the hat trick of interceptions down the stretch.
Watson wasn’t the only casualty for the Pack. Nixon had to leave the game with a sore groin that bothered him last week in practice. Doubs took over kickoff return duties. Dean Lowry went out early with a calf injury but Reed and Devonte Wyatt picked up the slack and Yosh Nijman had to leave with a shoulder injury. Royce Newman went the rest of the way at right tackle and even though he had a couple of penalties, held firm in protection. Rodgers got sacked only twice as he faced more blitzes than he’s seen all year.
The inactives were Shemar Jean-Charles, Jonathan Garvin, David Bakhtiari, Caleb Jones and Jonathan Ford.
Elgton Jenkins was all smiles all day after signing a four year contract extension on Friday before leaving. The Packers have him locked up for a reported 68 million dollars making him one of the highest paid guards in the league.
Two games remain, both on the frozen tundra. The Packers must beat the NFC North champion Vikings and then the Lions while getting just a little more help from the Commanders who have to lose one more or the Giants dropping both and this improbable December drive (LaFleur is now 15-0 all-time in December by the way) will finish with one of the wildest, Wild Card runs in franchise history.
