Week 14 Game Recap: Green Bay Packers 30, San Francisco 49ers 19

What you need to know

Green Bay Packers

Brett Favre went into San Francisco and played a very good game as he had many times before, on a day where he extended his own record with his fifteenth straight season with over 3000 yards passing. Favre completed 22 of 34 passes for 293 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers in this game to help give the Packers their fifth win of the season.

Donald Driver led all receivers with nine catches for 160 yards, including a 68 yard touchdown where he made a few defenders miss, switched directions and outran the 49ers defenders. Greg Jennings caught five balls for 50 yards, while the number three receiver, Ruvell Martin snuck behind the defense early in the game to pick up a long touchdown on an afternoon where he caught two balls for 42 yards. With David Martin again inactive, Bubba Franks and Donald Lee shared the tight end duties, both catching one pass each for eleven yards. Out of the backfield, Ahman Green and Vernand Morency also each caught one ball each, with Green’s catch going for thirteen yards and Morency’s reception for one yard.

Including a one yard touchdown, Ahman Green carried the ball 21 times for 77 yards. Teammate Vernand Morency saw the majority of his rushing action late in the game after the Packers had built a lead, and gained 69 yards on 7 attempts. Noah Herron received one carry, going for two yards, while the Packers gave the ball to Donald Driver twice on the ground to get him more involved, but lost six yards on those plays. Brett Favre lost three yards on his three official attempts.

San Francisco 49ers

The bright spot on the afternoon was Frank Gore, who despite losing his sixth fumble of the season, gained 130 yards on nineteen carries and scored once. The 49ers gave the ball to Maurice Hicks three times, whereby Hicks gained one yard on all three carries. Tight end Vernon Davis was credited with one carry, going for nine yards, while quarterback Alex Smith added four yards on two official attempts.

Through the air, Alex Smith struggled most of the afternoon, completing 12 of 29 passes for 201 yards and one touchdown to two interceptions. Vernon Davis had a breakout performance in this game, with three catches for 74 yards and a touchdown, but also had a 35 yard reception called back following a holding penalty. Davis was the most targeted 49ers’ player in this game, but was also the target on both of Smith’s interceptions, as the Packers’ defense was well aware of San Francisco’s desire to get Davis the ball. Rookie Delanie Walker, who lined up both in the slot as and as a second tight end, also saw extensive action and caught two balls for 30 yards. Out of the backfield, Frank Gore added 38 yards on three receptions, while Michael Robinson picked up four yards on his only catch.

The 49ers’ wide receivers were quiet much of the game. Antonio Bryant started the game on the bench for disciplinary reasons, and was not targeted until the second half of the game, a 39 yard catch, and his only target on the day. Arnaz Battle was thrown to six times, but caught just one ball for eleven yards as Smith was off the mark in throwing the ball downfield. Taylor Jacobs picked up five yards on his only reception, while Brian Gilmore, who received the start in place of Bryant, failed to catch a ball.

What you ought to know

QB Brett Favre, Pass: 22 - 34 - 293 - 2 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 3 - -3 - 0

Favre completed 65% of his passes against the 49ers defense for an average of 8.6 yards per attempt, and did not turn the ball over in helping Green Bay pick up their fifth win of the season. Favre’s first touchdown was to a wide open Ruvell Martin, who had snuck behind the defense. On his second touchdown, Favre threw a nice ball to lead Donald Driver under it, and then let his receiver do the rest of the work en route to a 68 yard touchdown.

RB Ahman Green, Rush: 21 - 77 - 1, Rec: 1 - 13 - 0 (2 targets)

Opening the game with a nine yard run, this was nearly his long run on the afternoon, though he later picked up a ten yard gain on a day where the Packers led the entire game, but he only averaged 3.7 yards per carry. On the play before his one yard touchdown plunge, Green was targeted on an unsuccessful passing attempt.

RB Vernand Morency, Rush: 7 - 69 - 0, Rec: 1 - 1 - 0 (1 targets)

With a thirty nine yard run in the closing minutes on a third and one play with an eleven point lead, Morency helped to seal the Packers’ victory on a day where he picked up 160 all purpose yards.

WR Donald Driver, Rush: 2 - -6 - 0, Rec: 9 - 160 - 1 (11 targets)

Driver’s big play came on his sixty eight yard touchdown when he took a well thrown ball from Brett Favre and beat the defender covering him before cutting back and outsprinting the 49ers secondary to the end zone. In addition to this, Driver also caught passes of 19, 21 and 22 yards while averaging nearly eighteen yards per catch on the afternoon.

WR Greg Jennings, Rec: 5 - 50 - 0 (11 targets)

Tying Donald Driver for targets in both the first and second half despite briefly leaving the game with an injury, Jennings did not quite put up the same numbers as his teammate. Despite this, he played a solid game, and nearly had a touchdown as he took a short pass at the eight yard line down to the one, setting up Ahman Green’s touchdown. Additionally, he had a thirty three yard reception overturned on a first quarter challenge, showing that he came down out of bounds at the opponents five yard line.

TE Bubba Franks, Rec: 1 - 11 - 0 (3 targets)

Franks had a quiet afternoon, though he did have a six yard catch erased on a defensive offsides penalty where saving the down was judged to be more important.

PK Dave Rayner 3 - 3 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 12 points

Rayner connected from 21, 23 and 44 yards out, and was perfect on all three extra point attempts.

GB Rush Defense

The unit gave up 146 yards on the ground, but fortunately had the lead and was not focused specifically on stopping the run. The unit did force a Gore fumble early in the game deep in San Francisco territory to help set up a Dave Rayner field goal and put the team up by a touchdown.

GB Pass Defense

With two interceptions and a sack, the unit looked pretty good, though gave up a late touchdown of 52 yards to Vernon Davis, and had allowed penetration into the red zone on the previous drive before coming up with a key A.J. Hawk interception.

QB Alex Smith, Pass: 12 - 29 - 201 - 1 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 2 - 4 - 0

Smith struggled in this game, completing just 41% of his passes and throwing a key red zone interception in the final eight minutes of the game that otherwise could have brought the score to within ten at that point. Smith showed significant trust in his rookie tight end in this game, though that proved to be his downfall at the same time as Packers honed in on this part of the game plan.

RB Frank Gore, Rush: 19 - 130 - 1, Rec: 3 - 38 - 0 (4 targets)

Gore looked good coming out of the backfield on a couple of swing passes, and showed a balance of speed and power in eclipsing the century mark for the fourth time in five games after a sub par effort at New Orleans the week before. The big game kept him averaging over one hundred yards per game, and on pace for over 1650 yards on the ground and over 2100 all purpose yards.

WR Arnaz Battle, Rec: 1 - 11 - 0 (6 targets)

Due to a number of poorly thrown passes, Battle struggled to get anything going in this game. Of the six targets, Battle was targeted just twice in the first half while teammate Antonio Bryant was standing on the sidelines for a portion thereof.

WR Antonio Bryant, Rec: 1 - 39 - 0 (1 targets)

Bryant did not get the start due to disciplinary reasons, and failed to catch more than two passes for the fifth time in six games, a stretch for which he has 13 catches for 258 yards and one touchdown, and has gone eleven games without surpassing the hundred yard mark. Unless Bryant turns his inconsistent play around, he will fail to break the 50 reception or 1000 yard mark.

TE Vernon Davis, Rush: 1 - 9 - 0, Rec: 3 - 74 - 1 (9 targets)

Davis had his biggest game since the season since Week 1, in a game which could have been much bigger. Davis showed the ability to break tackles in finding the end zone late in the 4th quarter on a 52 yard play, but also showed these abilities earlier in the fourth quarter when he rumbled for 35 yards, only to have the play called back for offensive holding. Earlier in the game, Davis was underthrown in the end zone, setting up a Joe Nedney field goal, and was the target on AJ Hawk’s interception late in the game as well.

PK Joe Nedney 2 - 2 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 7 points

Nedney connected from 24 and 36 yards out and converted his only official extra point attempt early in the game. However, it should be noted that a bad snap caused his extra point attempt to be aborted in a 30-19 game late in the fourth quarter.

SF Rush Defense

The Packers hovered near the 100 yard mark on the afternoon until Vernand Morency broke off a thirty nine carry in the games final minutes, a respectable performance considering the Packers led nearly the entire afternoon. That said, the unit kept Ahman Green under the four yards per carry mark.

SF Pass Defense

The secondary had few answers for the combination of Brett Favre to Donald Driver, and when they were able to cover Driver, the Packers found Greg Jennings or Ruvell Martin open to help extend the lead. The unit picked up only one sack on the afternoon.