ESPN Wisconsin

Nothing too special on a few mistakes

Oct 29, 2012 -- 9:58pm
 
Photo/Associated Press via ESPN.com

GREEN BAY – Tim Masthay won’t be throwing any more passes this season – at least, not as the holder on a fake field goal.

“You can tell all the opponents,” Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Monday. “We will not be running that play again this year.”

Faking what would have been a 55-yard field-goal attempt, Masthay dropped back into the shotgun and threw incomplete to tight end D.J. Williams on fourth-and-6 from the Jacksonville’s 37-yard line. It was significant not only because Masthay misread the coverage and didn’t go through the proper progression – he should’ve seen tight end Ryan Taylor, who was open to his left – but because it was a rare trick play that didn’t work for the Packers’ special-teams units this season.

“With the wind based on your calculations you go through every game, the 35-yard line was right at the point you make that decision whether to go for it on fourth down or go for it on that particular play or take the chance with a long field goal,” McCarthy said. “I thought that was the right time to call it. The ball was not supposed to be thrown where it was thrown.”

The Packers still won the game, 24-15.

“(I was) disappointed that we didn't execute it properly. We had an opportunity there to make a first down,” special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum said. “They got the Cover-2 look and we should’ve thrown the ball to Ryan Taylor and completed the first down. I think Tim got occupied with the play clock and making sure that we got it started as opposed to seeing the look quickly enough. Had he recognized that, he would’ve set his feet and completed the ball.”

Meanwhile, the Packers made two other mistakes on special teams – including on the biggest play of the game, when Davon House blocked a punt that Dezman Moses recovered for a touchdown. Both on that play and on a Jaguars field goal, the Packers only had 10 men on the field.

On the blocked punt, wide receiver Jarrett Boykin was talking to wide receivers coach Edgar Bennett on the sideline and didn’t realize he was supposed to be on the field.

“I recognized it right away, but we had a young guy that was talking to his position coach on the sideline, and he should’ve been on the field,” Slocum said. “Fortunately, the play turned out for us the way it did.”

The Packers had only 10 men on the field for Josh Scobee’s 32-yard field goal with 6:50 left in the game after defensive end Mike Neal suffered a sprained ankle earlier in the drive and was not replaced on the field-goal block team.

“It’s not OK,” McCarthy said. “It’s a young man who was tied up with his coach and he’ll learn from that. The second one, 10 men on the field, was the timing and communication of Mike Neal getting hurt and the medical staff. It happens. You don’t like it when it happens, but that’s what happened on the field goal.”

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