NFL: Green Bay grinds out win over Washington

Updated: 9:10 p.m., 12/8

GREEN BAY — It wasn’t pretty, but the Green Bay Packers took down the Washington Redskins 20-15 on Sunday at Lambeau Field.

The Packers jumped out to an early 14-0 lead and looked to be on their way to a rout, but then things ground to a halt.

Green Bay’s offense posted 111 total yards of offense in the first quarter, but finished the day with just 341 yards. The Packers’ defense surrendered just 12 yards while forcing three straight three-and-outs to open the game, but the lowly Redskins were able to put scoring drives together on three of their final six possessions.

Even though it wasn’t the greatest of wins, the victory gave Green Bay 10 for the season and kept it atop the NFC North.

“We’ll never apologize for winning, we’re always going to feel great about winning,” said coach Matt LaFleur, who became the first coach in franchise history to win 10 games in their first season with the Packers. “But you always want to go out there and put your best performance out there. You know, I think there was more out there today for us.”

It was a total team effort that got the Packers off to a fast start in the first quarter.

Washington started the game with the football, but the Packers’ defense stuffed a pair of runs before Kenny Clark and Kyler Fackrell teamed up to sack Washington quarterback Dwayne Haskins on third down.

On the ensuing punt, the Packers found life in their return game as the newly-signed Tyler Ervin gained 10 yards and set the Packers up at midfield.

It took the Packers’ offense seven plays to go 50 yards and take the lead. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers hit tight end Jimmy Graham for a 20-yard completion on the first play of the drive before Rodgers scrambled for 13 yards on a third-and-six play.

Running back Aaron Jones capped the drive with a 4-yard touchdown — his 12th rushing score on the season and 15th overall.

After the Packers forced two more three-and-outs, the Packers extended their lead with another quick scoring drive. Rodgers hit Graham on a 25-yard pass to get things going before Jones broke free for runs of 16 and 12 yards to get the Pack into the red zone.

Rodgers finished off the five-play, 57-yard drive with a 12-yard touchdown pass to tight end Robert Tonyan to make it 14-0.

Outside linebacker Preston Smith sacked Haskins to end the next Redskins’ drive, and Jones opened the Packers’ possession with a 42-yard run, but the drive stalled and Green Bay was forced to punt.

Washington then put together an 11-play, 95-yard drive to tighten the game up (14-6, after Dustin Hopkins missed the extra point).

Green Bay’s offense looked to be on its way to a touchdown drive of its own, but Rodgers had the ball stripped away while being sacked.

The Packers’ defense kept the lead at eight going into halftime after safety Adrian Amos intercepted a pass.

“It’s always good, you know, eliminating points,” said Amos. “That’s always good. It’s always big to get turnovers in situations like (the) end of the half and end of the game, and in the red zone. Those are the three big times when you need stops.”

Green Bay upped its lead to 11 after a 32-yard Mason Crosby field goal to end the team’s first drive of the second half. After that score, the offense went into another rut until the 10-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

Up 17-9, the Packers put together a 14-play, 74-yard drive that set up a Crosby 33-yard field goal that looked to be the final touch to Green Bay’s win.

Instead, Washington drove 75 yards in eight plays and scored a touchdown to keep hope alive. The Packers finally finished off their win by stopping the two-point conversion and then recovering an onside kick.

“Winning’s the only thing that matters, and even in the midst of some of these games where it hasn’t been a great flow (on offense) the entire time, we are winning, so that’s the encouraging thing,” said Rodgers, who finished with just 195 passing yards. “We expect to win games where our defense holds them to less than 20 points, but we’ll find our rhythm — I’m not worried about that on offense.”

Jones was the team’s leading rusher and receiver, finishing with 192 total scrimmage yards. He carried the ball 16 times for 134 yards (8.4-yard average) and caught six passes for 58 yards.

Jones hauled in a key 25-yard pass on a third-and-14 play to extend the Packers’ final scoring drive.

Graham finished with three catches for 49 yards, while Davante Adams was limited to 41 yards on four catches. No other Packers’ wideout had over 19 receiving yards.

Blake Martinez led the defense with 10 total tackles while Clark had 1½ of the team’s four sacks. Along the Amos’ interception, the defense forced two other fumbles, but couldn’t recover either.

Green Bay will stay in town to take on the Chicago Bears at Lambeau next Sunday.

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