Green Bay Packers

Green Bay Packers: Week 17 special teams recap

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:27 p.m. ET

Fansided, Kenn Korb/FanSided via Lombardi Ave

With the NFC North crown on the line, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Detroit Lions by a 31-24 margin in the final game of the NFL regular season.

The Green Bay Packers’ offense was boosted by a litany of options and their quarterback’s sterling end to what is arguably an MVP-worthy season.

The defense was yet again maligned with injuries, but held together when they needed to the most.

The special teams?

Let’s look into that, starting with …

Nov 28, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Green Bay Packers kicker Mason Crosby (2) kicks a field goal against the Philadelphia Eagles during the second half at Lincoln Financial Field. The Green Bay Packers won 27-13. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Mason Crosby

Kickoffs:

Scoring:

The day wasn’t his best, but Crosby definitely had at least one shining moment to outweigh the areas where he came up short.

Before halftime, the Packers had driven quickly in range for a score to try cutting into the 14-7 deficit they were faced with. With little time to work with, Aaron Rodgers and company found a huge play and picked up enough yardage to give Crosby a shot at a field goal as time expired in the half. It was 53 yards out — nowhere near automatic, even for a player with Crosby’s range — and he calmly put it through.

He missed an extra point later on, and at least one of his kickoffs was the beginning of a decent return for the Lions (another was as well, but that was moreso due to poor starting position from a celebration penalty on Davante Adams on the prior touchdown than Crosby’s kick itself), but those moments were more than made up for with the long three points Mason put on the board before the half.

Sep 18, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Green Bay Packers punter Jacob Schum (10) against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Vikings defeated the Packers 17-14. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Jacob Schum

Punts:

Schum was all over the place in this one, with pretty much every kick coming away as a unique outcome.

His first couple kicks were nice distance and forced fair catches well within the 20 yard line. Even better was his fourth kick, going 50+ yards (his longest of the day) and pinning the Lions at their own 5.

The other two were way on the other end of the spectrum.

His third kick wasn’t good (under 30 yards travelled), but it did at least end up in Detroit territory. His final punt was among the worst I ever remember encountering. This one couldn’t even get 20 yards down the field, giving the Lions the ball well into Green Bay territory; of course the Lions would go on to score from there.

Based on the time remaining and the lead by the Packers, it didn’t give Detroit anything more than a hash mark in the loss column for one-score games, but that type of outcome — giving the opposition excellent starting position, then that team scoring quickly — could easily cost a team a game.

Heck, just take the bad luck Green Bay has seen in onside kicks in past years and add it to this game for a second. We could have seen a situation where in 13 seconds a team that was down 14 is now tied through a miraculously stupefying chain of events.

Schum could have prevented that all from ever being a distant thought at all had he hit the ball better, but this is an inherent problem with him as a punter. He does make mistakes with huge, game-changing impacts at times. He isn’t broken; he’s just a flawed player, and more likely to make that sort of error than the Pat McAfees and Johnny Hekkers of the league.

Hopefully, he can avoid this sort of thing this weekend (and beyond).

Jan 1, 2017; Detroit, MI, USA; Green Bay Packers strong safety Micah Hyde (33) runs the ball against Detroit Lions strong safety Tavon Wilson (32) during the first quarter at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

The Return Units

Punts:

Kickoffs:

The return units were mostly quiet in this outing after some underrated contributions in the past couple months.

Micah Hyde put in a couple nice punt returns, but one came back after a Damarious Randall penalty. All of the kickoffs became touchbacks, except for the onside kick to end the game.

The good thing is that even with no huge plays, there weren’t really any big mistakes. The one to clean up would be the penalties, but those have gotten better as a whole in the past month.

As long as those numbers stay down, the return group will be doing a fine job.

Jan 1, 2017; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Lions fullback Zach Zenner (34) runs the ball against Green Bay Packers defensive back Kentrell Brice (29) during the first quarter at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

The Coverage Units

Punts:

Kickoffs:

The coverage units did a fine job here.

The punts which weren’t sent out of bounds were converged on effectively. The kickoffs which weren’t touchbacks mostly got eaten up quickly — including one which was kicked from the Green Bay 20 only getting brought a few yards beyond touchback range.

The only bad contribution was on the fourth kickoff, where a large return was allowed despite the ball starting well within the endzone; even then, the ball only went out to the Detroit 31.

All in all, a solid performance. Their showing here hopefully portends to the sort of outcome the playoffs could have in store for this unit.