Lions Work Overtime but Lose to Packers : Green Bay: Peete’s interception sets up Jacke’s game-winning field goal.

The Green Bay Packers had been stretched all afternoon--stretched by the Detroit Lions’ run-and-shoot offense featuring rookies Barry Sanders and Rodney Peete and stretched into overtime by a rally that produced a 20-20 tie.

Veteran safety Mark Murphy then stepped in for the Packers, intercepting Peete’s pass intended for ex-Packer Walter Stanley on the first scrimmage play of overtime Sunday. That set up Chris Jacke’s 38-yard field goal with 12:46 to go, giving the Packers a 23-20 victory.

It was a time of redemption for a Packer defense near the bottom statistically in the National Football League, and also for Jacke, who’d missed a 50-yarder on the final play of regulation.

“The pass was on the money,” Murphy said. “I just came under and made the play. I got a good jump. We knew we had to come up with some turnovers.”

And the Packers (4-4) got their only two turnovers late in the game. First, Tim Harris recovered a Peete fumble on a handoff exchange at the Green Bay 36 with 44 seconds to go in regulation when Detroit was driving for a potential game-winning score.

That Packer opportunity fizzled when Jacke missed from 50 yards. But Murphy came up with his interception and Jacke made the most of the second chance.

“I felt stupid the first time. I shouldn’t have missed it,” he said. “The second one was a chip shot.”

Peete and the Lions, plagued all season by turnovers, looked like they would escape without one Sunday. They rallied with 10 fourth-quarter points to tie the game before the fumble and interception kept them from victory and dropped them to 1-7.

“This is the toughest of the bunch. It was so close,” said Peete, playing in front of his father, Packer assistant coach Willie Peete.

“We should have won. It’s tough, especially when you throw an interception and give them a chance to go the other way. I made a bad read.”

Lion Coach Wayne Fontes, who suggested that the Packers were stealing some of his signals, called the fumble by Peete a “back breaker.” Peete fumbled as he tried to hand off on a reverse.

“We knew we had to get closer for a field goal and we tried to cross them up and their guy (Harris) made a super play.”

Peete, who completed 14 of 28 passes for 201 yards, tied the game at 20-20 on a 14-yard run with 3:59 left following an interception by Jerry Holmes, who returned 16 yards to the Green Bay one. After the Lions were called for holding, Peete sprinted to the corner of the end zone for the score.