By Eric Goska
 |
| Tight end Dominique Dafney (49) scored Green Bay's 30th and final second-quarter touchdown of the season against the Bears Sunday. (screen shot from NFL Game Pass) |
For 100 seasons, the barrier had held firm.
Then along came the Packers of 2020 to smash through the
ceiling.
Green Bay rolled up three second-quarter touchdowns to forge
a lead it never lost in downing the Bears 35-16 at Soldier Field. The scores
were the latest in what has been a record-setting 15 minutes before halftime
for the Packers.
Producing points has been a storyline for the Green and Gold
all season. By counting five touchdowns in Chicago, the Packers finished with an
NFL-best 509 points.
While impressive, getting to 500 is nothing new. Twenty-six
teams have hit or surpassed that mark, led by the 2013 Denver Broncos (606),
the 2007 Patriots (589) and the 2018 Chiefs (565).
No, what is unique to Green Bay is the damage it inflicted
in the second quarter. The team registered 219 points in the period to become
the first team to crash 200 in NFL history.
For a century, 200 had been sacrosanct for any quarter in
any season. No longer.
A few teams – the 1980 Chargers (190 in 2Q), the 2013 Broncos
(183 in 4Q) and the 1986 Jets (181 in 2Q) – came within shouting distance. Not surprisingly,
the Patriots surpassed 175 in six different quarters this century, getting to
within one point (199) in the second period during their run to perfection
(16-0) in 2007.
Green Bay’s assault on the Patriots’ record began on opening
day in Minnesota. Cornerback Jaire Alexander sacked Kirk Cousins for a safety, Mason
Crosby toed a 43-yard field goal and Aaron Rodgers fired a pair of touchdowns as
Green Bay put up 19 in their 43-34 victory over the Vikings.
In the weeks that followed, Green Bay hit up the Lions,
Texans, 49ers, Eagles and Panthers for 14. They dinged Jacksonville for 17.
The team unleashed 21 against the Colts and the Bears
(twice). Only once – in Tampa – were they shut out in the second quarter.
The period has been a hotbed of activity. Nearly a third
(110) of the Packers’ 358 first downs originated there. Nearly half (30) of the
team’s 66 touchdowns were birthed there.
Green Bay spent more time on their opponents’ side of the
field than they did their own. They ran 159 of 274 offensive plays (58 percent)
from beyond the 50, the only period in which they bettered 50 percent.
Rodgers’ production led the charge. His stat line is
impressive: 113 completions in 158 attempts for 1,370 yards, 25 touchdowns, and
two interceptions. That equates to a passer rating of 132.1.
Those 25 touchdown passes are the most by any player in any
quarter in NFL history. Miami’s Dan Marino had held the record with 21 in the
second quarter in 1986.
Fueled by Rodgers, Green Bay amassed 1,739 second-quarter yards.
Only the teams of 1997 (1,853), 2004 (1,809), 2007 (1,768) and 2011 (1,767)
accumulated more.
But Rodgers wasn’t alone. This was a shared experience.
A whopping 15 players lit up the scoreboard in one manner or
another. Crosby set the pace with 37 points followed by Davante Adams, Robert Tonyan, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling with 30 each.
Receivers Equanimeous St. Brown, Malik Taylor, and tight end Dominque
Dafney scored their first NFL touchdowns in the period. In early December, linebacker
Preston Smith returned a Mitch Trubisky fumble for six points.
Smith’s rumble was only one of many defensive highlights. Half
of the 18 turnovers Green Bay forced occurred in the second quarter. The nine
takeaways were converted into 59 points.
Surpassing 150 points in a quarter had been rare for the Packers.
The club had done so previously on only five occasions: 1997 (151-2Q), 2009
(154-2Q), 2011 (154-2Q) and 2014 (151-1Q; 159-2Q).
Each of those teams reached the playoffs.
Thanks in no small part to their point production, the
Packers of 2020 now head into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the NFC. They
might take comfort in knowing that their record in the postseason when scoring
more than 10 points in the second quarter is 15-2, with their only losses
coming in San Francisco in 1999 and in New York in 1938.
219 2020 Packers 2nd 13-3
199 2007 Patriots 2nd 16-0
190 1980 Chargers 2nd 11-5
183 2013 Broncos 4th 13-3
183 2009 Patriots 2nd 10-6
183 2014 Patriots 2nd 12-4
181 1986 Jets 2nd 10-6
180 1961 Oilers 2nd 10-3-1
Note: The 1950 Rams, who played 12 games in the regular season, scored 169 points in the third quarter for an average of 14.1 per game. Whether they could have sustained that pace through 16 games will never be known.
No comments:
Post a Comment