Grading Packers’ Blowout Loss to Detroit Lions
Yogi Berra once famously said it was deja vu all over again.
For the Green Bay Packers in their huge NFC North clash against the Detroit Lions on Thursday night, it seemed like it was trending that direction for a brief moment.
After a first half in which the Packers were dragged all over their home field and trailed 27-3, they showed some life to pull within 27-17.
This deficit, however, was too much to overcome.
The Lions’ 15-play 75-yard drive took more than 8 minutes off the clock. It was punctuated by David Montgomery's third touchdown of the night.
Montgomery's run was the final dagger on a night full of dominance in the trenches by the Lions.
When it was all said and done, the Lions won 34-20. Our weekly postgame grades are a better indication of the one-sided nature of the game than the final score.
Pass Offense
Statistically, this was the worst game the passing offense has played this season.
Jordan Love threw two interceptions. At one point, he had completed as many passes with his right hand as his left.
It was that kind of night for the Packers' offense.
Each interior lineman was beaten for a sack during the first two drives of the game. By the end of the first half, every offensive lineman had given up at least one pressure.
Following the news that David Bakhtiari is likely out for the season, it was not a good night for a Packers front that had been mostly excellent to start the season.
They didn't find a rhythm in the passing game until the score was 27-3.
Their biggest play of the night, Love's 44-yard completion to Jayden Reed, should not have counted. The third quarter had expired before Josh Myers snapped the ball.
While the Packers scored 17 points in the second half, everything felt like a slog.
Overall, Love thinks the team will continue to get better as it gets more reps together.
“Once I continue to get more comfortable and continue to see everything clearly and continue to play fast, I think we'll keep getting better, keep growing with everybody and building that chemistry,” Love said.
“We've played well, but there's so much stuff we can clean up. I don't think we're playing like the team we are yet.”
If the Packers are going to be successful, Love and the entire offense needs to start faster.
In the last two games, the Packers have a point differential of minus-41 in the first half.
It's hard to run a normal offense when trailing that quickly.
Two turnovers, five sacks and overall sloppy play leads to a poor grade for the quarterback and offensive line.
Grade: D+
Rush Offense
Packers coach Matt LaFleur said the combination of being unable to stop the run or run the ball is a “recipe for losing football.”
Against the Lions, the Packers were unable to do either.
The rushing offense was supposed to be one of the strong points of the team. After an abysmal start to the season in that phase, the offense was supposed to get a boost with Aaron Jones returning to the lineup.
Perhaps that was news to LaFleur. Jones didn't touch the ball until the early portion of the second quarter.
In fact, AJ Dillon received the first carry of the night. Jones and Dillon ended up evenly splitting carries with five apiece.
Detroit's defense is ferocious against the run. Opposing running backs were averaging 3.2 yards per carry coming into the game. The Packers averaged only 2.3.
Playing without Jones or the left side of the offensive line for most of the first three games didn’t help, but they weren't great when all of those guys played in the season opener.
The Packers have to find a way to get a more consistent ground game. If they don't, they'll continue to struggle until the offense gets into fastbreak mode, which isn't a sustainable way to play offense.
Grade: F
Pass Defense
On a bleak night, this will have to pass for a bright spot of sorts.
Was the Packers' pass defense OK because it limited the Lions to 190 net passing yards. Or was that a manageable number only because the Lions ran the football 43 times?
That's for you to decide.
Nonetheless, the Packers were able to get pressure on Jared Goff and force him into an early mistake when Rudy Ford intercepted Goff’s first third-down pass of the night.
Goff finished with 210 passing yards and an 86.6 passer rating. He was sacked twice. That's a solid performance on the whole.
Unfortunately, they had enough self-inflicted wounds that led to explosive plays.
On the first touchdown drive of the night, Rasul Douglas was beaten by tight end Sam LaPorta and receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown for explosive plays. Goff baited Douglas on the 24-yard touchdown. Douglas, perhaps a bit greedy following Ford’s interception, bit on St. Brown's double move.
Overall, the numbers look great, but big plays are the name of the game.
The Lions made more of those than the Packers did, victimizing some of their best players along the way.
Grade: C-
Rush Defense
Lions WR Kalif Raymond has nothing but green grass against the Packers.
Photo by Benny Sieu/USA Today Sports Images
The early trend this season has been Green Bay's run defense either holds the opponent in check or gives up more than 200 rushing yards.
Thursday’s performance was the latter.
The first half was an embarrassment. The Lions were blowing holes wide enough to drive a semi through, including a touchdown run by David Montgomery in which he might not have been touched if the end zone were 20 yards deeper.
The Lions ran 43 times and gained 211 yards on the ground. Of those, 40 came on a double-reverse in which outside linebacker Kingsley Enagbare and inside linebacker Quay Walker got sucked in.
The Packers have been one of the worst teams in the league against the run under LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst. That continued against Montgomery, who rushed for 121 yards and three scores.
"We’re going to have to do something different, because it’s insane to do the same things over and over again and expect a different result,” LaFleur said.
Grade: F
Special Teams
Keisean Nixon had a 34-yard punt return with about 3 minutes left in the game. That led to a 50-yard field goal by Anders Carlson.
That's about all there is to say positively about Rich Bisaccia's special teams group.
Unlike last year, when Nixon earned All-Pro honors, his aggressive approach hasn’t paid any dividends. Green Bay’s average starting point following a kickoff return on Thursday was the 18.9-yard line.
Whether it’s kickoff return or punt return, the play usually ends with laundry on the field.
The special teams was penalized four times on Thursday if you include the illegal kick out of bounds on an onside kick attempt late in the game.
With as many players as the Packers have that are there solely for special teams, along with a highly decorated coordinator, the expectations have to be higher than what's being produced on the field.
Grade: D
Coaching
There weren't many big decisions to be made by LaFleur, so there's little to grade in that aspect.
That said, one team looked ready to be under the lights of “Thursday Night Football,” and it wasn't LaFleur's.
This is the fourth game in a row the Packers have lost to the Lions. That isn't all on LaFleur, but his team's uninspired effort in the first half reflects poorly on him.
What is more concerning is that the offense is averaging 20.6 points per game since the season opener against Chicago.
LaFleur is coaching a young team, but those excuses only last for so long. He has to do a better job of getting his team off to a good start.
Perhaps getting Jones involved earlier would have helped. He did not touch the ball until the second quarter.
The Lions' run defense has been great, but designing a short pass to Jones could have helped get the ball in the hands of the team's best player and get the quarterback in rhythm. Instead, it was a story that's been told too many times since Jones has been in Green Bay in which a premier playmaker doesn’t get enough opportunities.
What’s troubling is the Packers have not scored in the first half in either of their last two games. They haven't scored on the first drive of the game since being gifted a short field by the Bears.
LaFleur often says that the issues start with him. When it comes to getting his team off to a better start, he's right.
Grade: D
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