Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur was upset with the way his defense handled a few trick plays orchestrated by the Detroit Lions during Sunday’s season finale loss at Ford Field.
The Lions hit two big plays for touchdowns, including a 75-yard score in the first quarter and another score early in the second half.
LaFleur pinned the blame on discipline from the defense, which ended up giving up 37 total points and over 400 yards of total offense to the Lions.
“I would say the consistency. Defense, football in general, comes down to discipline, and people owning their roles. And when you aren’t disciplined, or you go outside the scheme, bad stuff happens,” LaFleur said. “We cannot have that. We need all 11 doing their damn job. And if they don’t, stuff like that happens.”
A pair of gadget plays accounted for over 100 total yards and 14 points.
In the first quarter, the Lions ran a well-designed reverse featuring a wide receiver pass. Tom Kennedy found Kalif Raymond for a 75-yard touchdown after the entire Packers secondary reacted up the field to the reverse action.
On the second trick play, the Lions ran a reverse with a pitchback to quarterback Jared Goff, who found tight end Brock Wright wide open down the near sideline for a 36-yard touchdown.
On both plays, members of the secondary were completely out of position, creating wide-open receivers and easy touchdowns.
The Packers defense also gave up the lead late. After going up 30-27 on Josiah Deguara’s 62-yard touchdown, the Packers allowed a six-play, 75-yard scoring drive that included a 28-yard completion to Amon-Ra St. Brown and a 14-yard touchdown run by DeAndre Swift.
The Lions averaged 6.8 yards per play, including 9.2 yards per passing play. Goff threw a pair of touchdown passes and had a 115.7 passer rating.
The Packers defense didn’t have a takeaway and gave up two fourth-down conversions.
Joe Barry’s group played without starting linebacker De’Vondre Campbell on Sunday, and starters shuffled in and out as the Packers protected key players in an inconsequential game. But the performance followed the trend of the defense overall to end the year.
Over the final seven games of the 2021 season, the Packers gave up 28 or more points five times and had zero takeaways four times. Green Bay was 3-2 when giving up 28 or more points.
The Packers probably won’t face an avalanche of trick plays during the postseason, but the tape never lies, and now NFC playoffs teams have a few concepts they could use to test the defense in a win-or-go-home game. The discipline factor is something the Packers will need to confront on the practice field and film room while Green Bay has a first-round bye this coming week.
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