Season Review Week 1-7: Green Bay Packers – Part II
Continuing the three part season review for the Green Bay Packers we look at the games against the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints.
Week 3: At Seattle Seahawks
After gaining their first win of the season against the Chicago Bears at home, the Packers faced the Seattle Seahawks in their first road game of the season.
Once again Green Bay’s offence struggled to make its mark against determined opponents and quarterback Aaron Rodgers had an especially torrid time in this encounter after he was sacked eight times all in the first half of the game.
Rodgers failed to pass for a single touchdown and was kept at bay by the Seahawks who started the game brightly.
Seattle’s quarterback Russell Wilson scored the opening points of the game in the second quarter connecting with wide receiver Golden Tate from a 41-yard pass to give the Seahawks a 7-0 lead.
Green Bay pegged back that lead to just a single point with a couple of field goals from Mason Crosby in the third quarter and setup the game for a grand stand finish in the final 20 minutes of the game.
The Packers struck first gaining the lead for the first time as Cedric Benson scored with one yard dash to the end zone at 8:44 to put Green Bay up 12-7.
Green Bay then held off counterattacks from the Seahawks before a horrific officiating decision turned the game on its head.
With just seconds left to play Wilson launched a pass to Golden Tate who shoved Green Bay’s Sam Shields and then fought for the ball with M.D Jennings.
The replacement officials who made a huge number of bad calls in previous games really out did themselves ruling that Tate won possession and gave the Seahawks the winning touchdown.
Cue pandemonium, with Packers players and coaches arguing with the refs over the call.
The decision was reviewed on replay and to the anger of Green Bay the on-field decision stood with Seattle sending the Packers unluckily to their second defeat of the season.
Week 4: Against New Orleans Saints
With a game stolen from their hands by a big blunder by replacement referees, the Green Bay Packers next faced the New Orleans Saints at home.
This time too the referees took centre stage as another blunder by the regular referees very nearly took a hard earned win away from the Packers.
Both Aaron Rodgers and New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees delivered big performances with Rodgers passing for four touchdowns while Brees threw three touchdown passes.
The game was a riveting affair as these two teams delivered brilliant offensive performances for the watching fans.
The Saints went up 27-21 early in the fourth quarter but Rodgers rallied his team.
Rodgers threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson with seven minutes left give Green Bay a slender one point lead.
New Orleans Darren Sproles then spilled the ball late in the fourth but the officials called that he was down by contact and the possession remained with the Saints leaving fans furious.
With time running out, Brees setup a field goal attempt which to the relief of Green Bay fans Garrett Hartley missed giving the Packers a much needed win.
It was the second time that a poor decision by officials could have resulted in a loss for Green Bay but thankfully Hartley’s miss gave the Packers a well deserved win.
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