The Green Bay Packers had a chance to get their sinking season turned around on Sunday in Detroit, but a forgettable and disappointing performance from quarterback Aaron Rodgers ensured a fifth-straight loss and a 3-6 record through nine games.
Most weeks, Packers Wire does “Good, Bad and Ugly” focusing on the entire performance.
This week, it’s only fitting this space is used on the 38-year-old quarterback.
Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from the Packers’ 15-9 defeat to the Lions, Aaron Rodgers edition:
The Good
Scrambling for 40 yards. Three of Rodgers’ five longest runs of the 2022 season came on Sunday. He converted a pair of third-and-long situations with scrambles, picking up 3rd-and-10 on the first drive with a 16-yard run and then moving the sticks on 3rd-and-17 with an improbable 18-yard run in the fourth quarter. Rodgers, on four attempts (one kneeldown), led the team in rushing. Even in Year 18, Rodgers can break the pocket and make something happen with his legs.
The Bad
Three interceptions inside the 25-yard line. Sunday was just the fifth time Rodgers has thrown three interceptions in a game in his career. This rare turnover spree was especially costly for the Packers because all three came in scoring territory, including two thrown into the end zone. He allowed one to get tipped into the air on an RPO, he undershot another to David Bakhtiari on a trick play and he took a shot to Robert Tonyan inside the 5-yard line (and right after a Jaire Alexander interception) on the third. That’s a lot of points to throw away. The Packers aren’t close to good enough to overcome this amount of turnovers and squandered points, even in Detroit to a Lions team that had lost five straight.
The Ugly
Four-straight incompletions with the game on the line. As poor and costly as the three interceptions were, Rodgers and the Packers still had a shot – with 1st-and-10 from the 17-yard line down six points – to win the game late in the fourth quarter. But the offense went down with nothing more than a whimper. Rodgers threw incomplete passes on four-straight plays, including a desperation heave to no one on fourth down to end it. The only throw that had any shot of being completed was on 3rd-and-10 to Amari Rodgers, but the ball was a little off target and the defender broke it up. This four-play sequence, with obvious mistakes from the quarterback, offensive line and wide receivers, was emblematic of the 2022 Packers.
