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.
As we look back on the season, we will examine 10 plays, subjectively chosen, as the ones that more shaped the Packers’ season that ended with Sunday’s 23-20 NFC wild-card playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field.
No. 10 appeared on Monday.
Here’s No. 9:
Date: Nov. 24, 2013
Location: Lambeau Field
Game: Packers vs. Vikings, 26-26 tie
The play: Matt Flynn’s 9-yard pass to tight end Andrew Quarless in the third quarter.
Why it mattered: It marked the beginning of Flynn’s 4 1/2-game stint as the Packers’ quarterback. Re-signed only 12 days earlier, Flynn entered the game in relief of struggling Scott Tolzien with 8:22 remaining in the third quarter and the Packers trailing 20-7. Although Flynn’s first series ended with a punt, he helped rally the Packers from a 16-point, fourth-quarter deficit. Flynn managed to lead the Packers to a 2-2-1 record in those five games in which he appeared and helped keep the Packers in playoff contention before Aaron Rodgers returned from his broken collarbone.
Quotable: “I thought Matt Flynn coming in gave us the spark on offense that we needed,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said in his Nov. 24 postgame press conference. “We transitioned into some no-huddle that frankly we hadn't worked on in a number of weeks. Just the configuration of getting Matt in and out of the huddle and doing things at the line of scrimmage where our offense was able to press their defense gave us a spark there.”
