The Green Bay Packers essentially wrote the book on how to lose to an inferior opponent during Monday night’s 24-22 loss to the New York Giants.
The Packers had won three straight games entering Week 14, including victories over the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs in back-to-back weeks, but Matt LaFleur’s team played losing football in almost every single way against the Giants.
The Packers…
— turned the ball over 3 times and lost the turnover battle
— converted only 5/14 on third down
— scored touchdowns on only 2/5 trips inside the red zone
— lost the sack battle 2-0
— gave up 209 rushing yards
— were out-gained by 1.9 yards/play
— missed a field goal
— produced only two quarterback hits and zero pass breakups
— gave up explosive plays with chance to win the game
Every phase played a role in the disappointing defeat. In fact, LaFleur said the Packers were “bad in all three phases.”
Jordan Love had a pair of turnovers in the first half. Both came inside Giants territory. The Packers punted twice and had a pair of turnovers over the first five possessions, and then settled for field goal attempts four times over a five-possession stretch between the second, third and fourth quarters.
The defense gave up over 100 total yards and two scores to Saquon Barkley. Rookie third-string quarterback Tommy Devito had 71 rushing yards and no turnovers or sacks taken and led a game-winning drive. WanDale Robinson also had over 100 total yards, including a 32-yard run setting up a score and a 32-yard catch setting up the game-winning score.
Returner Keisean Nixon fumbled away a punt return, leading to a Giants touchdown. Anders Carlson also missed a 45-yard field goal.
The Packers were favorites to win on the road and had every opportunity to beat the Giants despite sloppy play across the board. But the playcaller threw away too many plays, the quarterback made too many mistakes with the ball, the defense got beat at the line of scrimmage and the special teams had two penalties and made two critical errors.
It took complete team efforts to beat the Lions and Chiefs. On Monday night at MetLife Stadium, a complete team effort was required to get the Packers beat.