Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said two drives in the second half – one a failed scoring opportunity, and the other a quick three-and-out – turned the tide in the wrong direction during his team’s stunning loss to the New York Giants on Sunday in London.
The Packers led 20-10 at half-time, but the Giants got hot and the Green Bay offense couldn’t muster a response.
“Those two drives hurt us. We had a decent drive to get down there, and then a sack on third down. And then three-and-out, with two opportunities to make plays on the next drive. By the time we knew it, we were down seven.”
On the first drive of the second half, the Packers drove to the Giants’ 36-yard line, but a sack on 3rd-and-8 stalled the drive and eliminated the chance to kick a field goal.
Dexter Lawrence beat right guard Royce Newman clean for the drive-killing and point-preventing sack.
Later, after the Giants tied the game at 20-20, Rodgers threw three straight incompletions and the Packers punted.
Rodgers thought the Packers had legitimate opportunities for big plays on the drive but the execution wasn’t there.
“I feel like we had three good calls,” Rodgers said. “We had to hit one of those to give our defense some rest and turn the tide back in our favor.”
On first down, a mix up in the routes killed what could have been an explosive play to Allen Lazard. On second down, Rodgers just missed Randall Cobb against man-to-man coverage over the middle of the field for what could have been another explosive play. Third down saw Lazard fail to win a contested catch opportunity against single coverage.
The Packers punted, failed to recover the muffed punt and then let the Giants drive for the go-ahead touchdown.
With a chance to tie the game late, Rodgers had two straight passes batted down from the 6-yard line. Once again, he liked both calls, but the Giants got hands up and disrupted both attempts, essentially ending the game.
“The margin for error for us in winning is small, so we have to make those plays,” Rodgers said.
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