Advertisement
But it was the 1 yard Jackson didn’t pick up in the fourth quarter that gnawed at him after Green Bay’s 35-31 loss to Carolina at Lambeau Field.
“I felt like I missed a big opportunity to get the ball in the end zone,” Jackson said. “It’s eating at me right now.”
Jackson, running off left tackle, gained 6 yards on first down from the Carolina 7 before Panthers middle linebacker Jon Beason brought him down. Jackson felt he should have scored.
“Well, as a running back, and you are on the goal line like that, you have to smell the end zone, you have to get in,” said Jackson, who had a career-best 113 yards rushing against Detroit last season. “And I didn’t do that. I was grinding my feet, doing everything I possibly could do, but it just didn’t come out.”
Then on a second-and-1 run off right tackle, Beason and defensive end Charles Johnson were credited with stopping Jackson for no gain. On third down, Carolina’s Damione Lewis and Julius Peppers stacked up Packers fullback John Kuhn, again at the 1.
Green Bay had to settle for Mason Crosby’s 19-yard field and a 31-28 lead with 1 minute, 57 seconds left.
“We have to finish drives,” Packers left guard Daryn Colledge said. “We have to be able to make plays when it’s crucial. We were down there at the end of the game with a chance to put seven (points) on the board and we didn’t get it done. And that’s 100 percent the offensive line’s fault. … As an offensive line, we’ve got to be able to punch those in.”
The Packers’ offense lost two starters. Grant suffered a sprained thumb in the second quarter, and center Scott Wells was, knocked out of the game with a first-half concussion. Jason Spitz moved from right guard to center and Josh Sitton entered at right guard, and the Packers wound up with 438 yards — including 145 rushing. But they were left wanting more.
“It’s disappointing,” Spitz said. “It’s a different ballgame if we get the ball in the end zone.“
Packers right tackle Mark Tauscher, who played through a hamstring injury despite some discomfort early in the game, said the 5-7 Packers “haven’t as a team been able to find enough plays to win.“
Now, time is running out on Green Bay. “No question,” Tauscher said. “This was a huge game. We needed it.”
