By Eric Goska
 |
| (photos by Eric Goska) |
Follow the bouncing ball.
Ahkello Witherspoon and Duke
Shelley did. The two defensive backs became the first enemy combatants to
recover Packers fumbles this season.
Green Bay twice coughed up
the football in its game with the Rams Sunday at Lambeau Field. Fortunately,
neither turnover led to points as the Packers outlasted Los Angeles 20-3 to end
a four-game losing streak and improve to 3-5.
Negatives have outweighed
positives as Green Bay dropped five of its first seven games. Slow starts,
penalties, interceptions, blown assignments—the list stretched seemingly
without end.
An overlooked bright spot: Green
Bay had not lost a fumble in any of its first seven games. That happens about
once in a blue cheesehead.
Yes, the Packers had been
separated from the pigskin during that stretch. But until the Rams came to town,
those loose balls had always been recovered by Green and Gold hands.
Prior to Sunday, the Packers
had fumbled seven times. Jordan Love put three on the carpet followed by Sean
Clifford, Emanuel Wilson, Jayden Reed and Aaron Jones with one each.
Five men made sure those bobbles
didn’t get away: Love (with two recoveries), Clifford, Kiondre Thomas, Elgton
Jenkins and Zach Tom. One of Love’s fumbles went out of bounds.
That’s seven fumbles, six recoveries and zero points scored by the opposition as a result of those momentary lapses.
For two quarters Sunday, the
Packers remained as secure as Fort Knox. The team reeled off 32 plays and
gained 151 yards with no butterfingers in forging a 7-3 lead.
Keisean Nixon then zipped 51 yards
with Lucas Havrisik’s kickoff to start the third quarter. The elusive
cornerback set his team up three yards short of midfield.
Here, the script changed.
Green Bay lost fumbles on back-to-back possessions.
Dontayvion Wicks was guilty
of the first. Hitting the ground without being touched, the rookie receiver
lost the ball as he stretched it forward. Witherspoon recovered.
Jones was to blame for
second. The veteran running back lost the handle during a 9-yard run that could
have been longer had he maintained control.
If ever there was a game in
which two lost fumbles might not prove lethal, this was it. The Rams, with Brett Rypien filling in for Matthew Stafford at
quarterback, mustered all of 187 yards and never once pierced the Packers’ red
zone.
Rypien moved the Rams to the
Green Bay 29 after the first turnover. From there, Los Angeles went backward
with Ethan Evans punting on 4th-and-17.
The Rams penetrated one yard further after the second turnover, but again retreated. Isaiah McDuffie and Jonathan Owens threw Royce Freeman for a 3-yard loss, and then Havrisik sent a 49-yard field goal attempt wide right.
Wicks’ miscue ended Green Bay’s
string of 443 plays to open the season without a lost fumble. The run is the
third longest in team history.
In 1995, the Packers’ offense
got off 536 consecutive plays before Brett Favre lost a fumble to the Lions’
Chris Spielman. In 2020, the offense initiated 448 plays in a row before Aaron
Rodgers gave the ball away to the Vikings’ Eric Wilson.
Green Bay has been much
maligned in 2023, but going 400-plus is a positive worth spotlighting. In 75 of
its last 100 seasons (1923-2022), the team had lost its first fumble before
running its 100th offensive play. Fifty times that first giveaway occurred before
even 50 plays had been run.
Though this streak has ended,
the Packers can take aim at another goal: fewest lost fumbles in a season. The record
is six, first set in 1943 and tied in 1995, 2011, 2020 and 2021.
Since 1923, the most offensive plays to start a season by the Packers without a lost fumble by the offense.
536* 1995 Brett Favre
448 2020 Aaron Rodgers
443 2023 Dontayvion Wicks
316 1993 Brett Favre
257 1984 James Lofton
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