The Green Bay Packers needed a spark on offense Sunday, and MarShawn Lloyd provided one by going straight over a Tampa Bay Buccaneers defender.
Lloyd’s hurdle turned a short reception into a 12-yard gain during the fourth quarter of Green Bay’s 17-14 win.
The Packers’ highlight video captured the leap, but Lloyd’s explanation Monday added a detail about a coach suggesting the move after watching a defender tackle him low earlier in the game.
“Honestly the play before, he went kind of low,” Lloyd said in a video shared by WISN 12 News’ Pat Timlin. “My coach actually said, ‘You should probably go over [the] top of him.’”
Turns out he was encouraged by a Packers coach to go over the top, after the Bucs went low and forced Lloyd to fumble on the drive before.
Lloyd said he kept the advice in mind. He had hurdled defenders in high school and college, and when the opening appeared Sunday, he took it. He described feeling “the juice” afterward.
The sequence gave the play more meaning than a highlight alone could show. Earlier in the fourth quarter, Lloyd caught a pass for 16 yards before a defender knocked the ball loose. It rolled out of bounds, allowing Green Bay to keep possession. The hurdle came on a later Packers drive, per the Buccaneers’ account of the game.
Lloyd’s Hurdle Followed a Costly Scare
The earlier fumble didn’t end in a turnover, but Green Bay’s next one did.
Three snaps after Lloyd lost the ball out of bounds, Kaleb Johnson fumbled at the Tampa Bay 3-yard line, ending a chance to extend the Packers’ lead.
The contrast was clear when Lloyd got the ball again. Instead of meeting another low tackle, he cleared the defender and moved the chains. The play brought some energy to an offense that had struggled to finish its drives.
It didn’t produce points, though.
A false start followed the hurdle, and Jordan Love threw an interception in the red zone later in the possession. Green Bay needed a defensive stop on Tampa Bay’s final drive to protect its three-point lead.
Lloyd finished with five catches for 36 yards, adding seven carries for 13 yards, via the Packers’ game log. His work as a receiver notched more yardage than his rushing attempts, including both the 16-yard catch that ended with the loose ball and the 12-yard hurdle.
Packers Still Have a Ball-Security Problem
Head coach Matt LaFleur had no patience for the fumbles after the win.
“We put the ball on the ground way too much,” he told reporters, via the Packers’ game recap. LaFleur also warned that players who fail to secure the ball risk losing playing time.
That message holds consequence in a backfield short of options. Josh Jacobs is on the commissioner’s exempt list, while Chris Brooks left Sunday’s game with an ankle injury.
Lloyd and Johnson both had chances to contribute against Tampa Bay, and both put the ball on the turf.
Lloyd’s hurdle showed how fast he can turn a routine catch into the play everyone remembers.
And his account also showed that it was a response to what had happened in the past, with a coach seeing the low tackle, surfacing an idea, and Lloyd found the moment to use it.
Now the Packers need that same awareness paired with a firm grip on the football.
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