Monday, December 07, 2009

End of 3rd quarter: Packers 17 - Ravens 14

The story of the 3rd quarter is two Ravens' touchdowns in the span of 30 seconds, both coming off back-to-back turnovers by the Packers.

One turnover was a fumble by Donald Driver after a catch, which led to a long drive by the Ravens to make the score 17-7. On the first play after the ensuing kickoff, the pass from Aaron Rodgers to Driver was low, bounced off his leg and was caught in the air by the Ravens. On the first play afterward, QB Joe Flacco threw to the endzone and an interference penalty was called on Tramon Williams. This put the ball at the 1-yard line. Two plays later, touchdown Ravens...score 17-14 in favor of the Packers.

As said in my halftime post, the Packers just needed to play the same way in the second half as in the first half. They haven't.

It started with the defense missing tackles on the Ravens' first TD drive, and with Packers' receivers dropping passes they should be catching.

My pre-game prediction was the game would be a close one. The third quarter play by the Packers -- including turnovers (3 on the night so far) and penalties (9 for 143 yards so far) made it a lot closer than it needed to be coming out of the half. The Packers had the game under control. They let it get away.

The 4th quarter will decide not only this game, but also perhaps go a long way toward determining the Packers' wildcard chances. What is this team made of? The next 15 minutes will tell us a lot.

Go Pack Go!!!