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Aaron Rodgers and the Packers have seen better days. The NFL‘s back-to-back MVP looked anything but in Green Bay’s 15-9 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 9 that moved them to 3-6 on the season. Rodgers was one of the main culprits for why his team is now well under .500 after he played arguably one of the worst games of his Hall of Fame career.
In all, Rodgers threw three interceptions on the day, and each of them came at the worst possible time during their respective drives. Two of those picks came on the Packers’ first drives of the afternoon. After moving the ball all the way to the Detroit 5-yard line on their first possession of the game, Rodgers’ pass for Allen Lazard was picked off inside the end zone by Kerby Joseph. Rodgers’ throw went off the helmet of a Lions defender around the line of scrimmage, and Joseph was able to secure the interception after the ball jolted into the air and eliminated Green Bay’s scoring opportunity.
On the very next possession, the Packers were again able to move the ball deep into Lions territory and were knocking on the door of the end zone as the ball sat at the Detroit 1-yard line. After A.J. Dillon was unable to punch it in on third-and-goal, Matt LaFleur kept his offense on the field on fourth down and Rodgers tried to trick the Lions with a pass to left tackle David Bakhtiari, but that throw was also picked off as the quarterback couldn’t put enough on the pass, which was intercepted by rookie Aidan Hutchinson.
Despite those two early picks, the Green Bay defense allowed the club to hang around and only trailed by eight entering halftime. After Jaire Alexander picked off Jared Goff on Detroit’s opening possession of the second half, the opportunity for the Packers to take control of this game was in their hands. Until Rodgers threw another pick.
Just two plays after Alexander’s interception, Rodgers gave the ball back to the Lions as his pass to Robert Tonyan inside the Detroit 5-yard line was picked off by Joseph for the defender’s second interception of the day.
This was Rodgers’ first career game with multiple red zone interceptions, and first multi-interception game against a divisional opponent since 2013. In his two previous MVP campaigns the last two seasons, Rodgers had 63 touchdowns and just two interceptions in the red zone. He is also the only quarterback since at least 2000 with two red zone interceptions on the first two drives of a game.
That’s particularly damning when you consider the matchup. Coming into Week 9, the Lions ranked dead-last in the NFL in DVOA against the pass. They were allowing 266.4 passing yards per game (27th) and allowing opposing clubs to score touchdowns on 73.08% of their red zone trips (30th) before this week.
Not exactly a wonderful day in the neighborhood for Mr. Rodgers.
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