DETROIT – If you’re Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst and you’re staring at a flip card in the Ford Field press box, you should be able to circle six or seven names of proven veterans who can make a play that tilts the field and transforms what appears to be a certain loss into a season-turning victory.
These are guys who have made clutch plays in critical moments — some of them during Super Bowls — and are there to bail you out when maybe the rest of the team or some of those other game-changers just aren’t making it happen.
Gutekunst, who assembled a third of this roster on his own and the rest as an adviser to former general manager Ted Thompson, has been looking to add difference-makers to the Packers, but should have been able to find at least one or two capable of crushing the hopes of a 1-3 Detroit Lions team.
On his entire 53-man roster, only one — receiver Davante Adams — provided the material worthy of a difference-maker. Playing on an injured calf, he caught nine passes for 140 yards and a touchdown, and had he held onto a circus catch at the 1-yard line with 4 minutes left (the play was overturned on review), he might have flipped the game entirely on his own.
Instead, the Packers got what they deserved, a crushing 31-23 loss to NFC North rival Detroit, and that’s being kind given they trailed 24-0 at halftime and probably deserved to lose by much more.
Sure, blame the loss on kicker Mason Crosby’s four missed field goals and an extra point, but every specialist goes through a crummy day, and there are more than enough so-called stars on the team to tell him, "Don’t worry, we’ve got this."
And sure, receivers Randall Cobb (hamstring) and Geronimo Allison (concussion) and cornerback Jaire Alexander (groin) were not active. But there were more than enough guys available to make a difference.
Let’s go through the list:
Aaron Rodgers: He completed 32 of 52 passes for 442 yards and three touchdowns for an impressive 108.0 passer rating. But he was 9 of 19 for 141 yards (72.0 rating) in the first half and lost two fumbles on sacks in which he left the pocket seeking more than what was given.
Rodgers continued a trend of missing some easy completions with wild throws and did not see some open receivers when he had them.
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