ATLANTA The jovial Shawn Slocum of the last several weeks was replaced by a much surlier version Sunday.
The Green Bay Packers special teams coach had every right to be irritated after a 20-17 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in which his units regression had a direct impact on the loss.
Im frustrated when we dont win the field position battle, which weve been doing, Slocum said. Im frustrated because thats what special teams is about.
Then to give up an impact kickoff return in the last part of the game that gave them a scoring opportunity from midfield, thats not good enough.
The Packers were elated after a 16-play drive culminated in a game-tying 10-yard pass from Aaron Rodgers to Jordy Nelson with 56 seconds left in the ballgame. The score sat at 20-20 and the Packers needed just one defensive stop to force overtime in the meeting between two of the top teams in the NFC.
It took a single kickoff return for the Packers to turn desperate.
Eric Weems fielded the ball from Mason Crosbys foot four yards deep into the end zone and streaked up the middle. He found a seam and was a blur past Packers defenders before Matt Wilhelm reached out, grabbed Weems facemask and yanked him to the ground. Weems had already reached the 36-yard line, but the penalty moved the Falcons to the Green Bay 49-yard line.
Matt Bryant kicked a game-winning 47-yard field goal six plays later.
At that point it was get him on the ground by any means necessary, Wilhelm said. I just threw a hand in there. If I grabbed his collar, his facemask, his jersey, whatever it may be, Im trying to get him on the ground. Coming to the sideline, guys were saying 'You saved a touchdown.'
Does it make anything better? Absolutely not. Probably, the reason weve been so successful on special teams and as a teams, is because weve been able to limit penalties.
Slocum explained the coverage team didnt get any penetration on the backside and he refused to justify the penalty.
Im extremely bothered, Slocum said. They got the ball at the 50-yard line.
Slocum declined to say whether he thought Weems would have scored without the facemask.
Ill let you decide that, Slocum said.
The final kickoff will be whats remembered most, but the Packers faltered again and again on special teams on Sunday.
Sam Shields came out from 4 yards deep in the end zone on the Packers' first kickoff return and was tackled at the 11-yard line. His second opportunity came at the start of the second half and Shields sprinted for a 37-yard gain before being tackled by Bryant at the 32-yard line.
Shields third return was a complete disaster as he brought the ball out of the corner of the end zone and ran mostly parallel before being pushed out of bounds at the 13-yard line. He also received an unnecessary roughness penalty on the play, so the Packers started at their 13-yard line. Slocum said Shields should have stayed in the end zone.
The final return, which came after the game-winning field goal, was returned 20 yards by Shields.
Outside of the 37-yarder, Shields averaged 16.7 yards per return. No one in the NFL with a minimum of 10 kickoff returns averages fewer than 18.3 yards per return.
Its not going to be there all the time, Shields said. Youve just got to read what you see and hit the hole.
The problem was the Packers consistently started with poor field position following a Falcons score when its most important to respond.
It's tough, it really is, Rodgers said. We've had the luxury of really the last three weeks of flipping the field position and having great field position and pinning them deep and having great kickoff returns.
Today we started a lot of drives inside the 20-yard line and it's tough, but we're not making any excuses about the way we played on offense. Seventeen points is not good enough.
Thats partly why Slocum was so distressed following the game. Early-season criticism of the special teams units had subsided for nearly a month. There werent many issues to lament.
But neither the kickoff or kickoff coverage teams played well in a game where the Packers (7-4) and Falcons (9-2) were playing with playoff seedings possibly on the line.
Then there were the penalties.
Shields and Wilhelm had their miscues.
Jarrett Bush was flagged for an illegal touch on punt coverage in the first quarter.
Dimitri Nance was called for an illegal block on a punt return during the following series.
The team only had 10-men on the field for a punt return in the third quarter, which resulted in a fair catch.
Tramon Williams averaged 1 yard on two punt returns.
The Packers came to Atlanta with six games of three or fewer penalties for the first time since 1974.
Weve been playing without penalties and to have as many as we had today was uncommon, Slocum said. Weve got to play better in a tight ballgame and not have those situations that affected field position tremendously.
When you have big games and its tight, we need to play better. Weve got to emphasize the small things because they become big things in tight ballgames.