GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers were on the field for 2,216 plays combined on offense and defense this season and several hundred more on special teams.
For the next 10 weekdays, we will examine 10 plays, subjectively chosen, as the ones that most shaped the Packers’ season that ended with Sunday’s 23-20 NFC wild-card playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field.
Here’s No. 10:
Date: Jan. 6, 2014
Location: Lambeau Field
Game: Packers vs. 49ers, NFC wild-card playoff game
The play: Cornerback Micah Hyde's near interception of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the fourth quarter.
Why it mattered: With the game tied at 20-20, the 49ers took over with 5:06 remaining. On second-and-10 from their own 31-yard line, 49ers receiver Anquan Boldin ran a short out route toward his own sideline. Hyde broke on the ball and undercut the route. He jumped for a ball that was thrown high, but it went through his hands and was incomplete. Hyde might have returned it for a touchdown. At the very least, he would have given the Packers the ball deep in 49ers’ territory. Six plays later, Kaepernick scrambled for 11 yards on third-and-8 from the Packers’ 38-yard line to set up the game-winning field goal as time expired.
Quotable: “It was a catch I should have made,” Hyde said. “I make those catches all of the time in practice. It was just a difficult catch I should have made.”
