The Green Bay Packers had not one, but *two* solid chances to put away the Carolina Panthers, and somehow, they managed to fumble both opportunities to close out the game. It was a nail-biter finish that should have been a comfortable victory, leaving everyone scratching their heads.
When the Clock Should Have Stopped Moving
The first chance came after Carolina scored a touchdown, but thankfully, they missed the two-point conversion, keeping the Packers up by eight points. Green Bay got the ball back with just over five and a half minutes left, and you’d think they would just grind out the clock, right? Nope. The offense promptly went absolutely nowhere. A screen pass to Tucker Kraft on first down got called back. On the re-do, Jordan Love threw incomplete to Matthew Golden, and even with a ton of contact, no flag for defensive pass interference came out. Then, Josh Jacobs caught a short checkdown pass on second down, but he went out of bounds, stopping the clock. To top it off, a bad snap on third down led to a completely legit intentional grounding penalty on Jordan Love. Less than a minute had ticked off the game clock, and the Packers hadn’t even *tried* to run the ball. Seriously? Thankfully, Carolina couldn’t put together a game-tying drive and turned the ball over on downs with 2:41 left.
One First Down Was All They Needed, But They Went Backwards
Here was the Packers’ second shot to seal it. Josh Jacobs scraped out eight yards on two carries, and then, in a clutch moment, Christian Watson, broken rib and all, caught a third-down pass to convert. That forced Carolina to burn their final timeout. With 2:28 remaining, the Packers just needed one more first down to end any chance of a Panthers miracle. Instead, they completely went the wrong way. Jacobs lost three yards on his next attempt, then gained a grand total of one yard on his following two carries. That forced a punt with about 30 seconds left on the clock. Carolina had a monumental task ahead, long field, no timeouts, but they were technically still in it. It took a Dani Dennis-Sutton sack to finally put them in an even deeper hole, and their last-gasp, lateral-heavy play went nowhere. The game mercifully ended, but the questions? Oh, those were just getting started.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was obviously disappointed, and he didn’t really have an answer for why they couldn’t close it out, especially on that second chance. He said, “It was disappointing. I would say it’s disappointing. Obviously got the one first down, and then we tried to lean on the run game and we went backwards. So that’s an area of emphasis that we have to improve upon because it puts a lot of pressure on your pass game to continue to just find ways to move the ball down the field.” LaFleur is absolutely right to highlight the run game. When you’re trying to close out a tight game, the ability to churn out yards on the ground and keep that clock moving is the purest form of football. It’s about controlling the game. If you can’t get those three yards a play when it matters most, you’re putting your entire offense in a bind. The Packers have to figure out how to lean on that run game when it counts, or these late-game scares are gonna keep happening.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Acme Packing Company.
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