Lions Have Dominated at Home But Packers Are Road Warriors

The Green Bay Packers have been one of the best road teams in the NFL under coach Matt LaFleur. They’ll have to prove it again on Thursday at the Detroit Lions.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson (9) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Detroit Lions last year. / Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will enter the lions’ den on Thursday night when they play at the Detroit Lions.

Ford Field gives the Lions one of the best homefield advantages in the NFL. As they have risen to power under coach Dan Campbell, the volume has been cranked to 11. Detroit is 11-3 at home since the start of last season, second only to the Buffalo Bills (13-2).

The Packers are no slouches on the road, though. Under coach Matt LaFleur, the Packers have won almost 60 percent of their road games since the start of the 2019 season. They haven’t lost a true road game this season; the nine-win Packers’ only losses were to the Eagles on a neutral field and to the Vikings and Lions at Lambeau Field.

Of course, this will be by far the Packers’ biggest road test. Victories over the Titans, Rams and Jaguars were more like neutral-field games due to the influx of Packers fans. It was loud at Soldier Field, but it will be louder at Ford Field and, obviously, the Lions – with their 11-1 record and 10-game winning streak – are better than the Bears.

“This’ll be a good test for us, for sure,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said.

Detroit is 5-1 at home this year, the second-best mark in the NFL. With an NFL-high 211 points, it has outscored opponents by 102 points.

The team’s only home loss this season came in Week 2, 20-16 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Somehow.

Statistically, it was total domination. The Lions had 2-to-1 advantages in total yards, rushing yards and passing yards. They ran 36 more plays and dominated on third down. The Lions, however, went 1-of-7 in the red zone, which was the difference in the game.

Last year’s matchup at Ford Field was a turning-point game for the Packers. Last Thanksgiving, Detroit was 8-2 with a four-game home winning streak. The Packers were 4-6 and going nowhere fast in Jordan Love’s debut season.

With Ford Field at its absolute loudest, the fans were ready for their Lions to deliver a crushing blow to their rivals.

Instead, Love threw three touchdown passes in a 29-22 upset.

That win kick-started a drive to the playoffs that included a blowout win at the Minnesota Vikings in Week 17 and a dominating victory at the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round.

“You’ve just got to treat it like another game,” Love said this week. “Obviously, it’s going to be a loud environment, so you’ve got to be able to handle that, and I think it starts with the offense being able to get off on the snap count.

“We do a great job throughout the week of trying to emulate with the speakers and making it a loud environment, but just communicating in the huddle, everyone hearing the call and just being able to communicate in a loud environment, I think is the biggest thing. Other than that, it’s just another game. You kind of try and just block all that stuff out. The noise of the crowd definitely is a factor.”

Under LaFleur, the Packers are 28-19 in road games, their .596 winning percentage ranking sixth-best in the league.

“I couldn’t tell you,” LaFleur said of the key to that success. “I just think you’ve got to focus on the game plan and what your responsibilities are and own it inside and out, so you can go out there and play fast. That’s half the battle.”

Interestingly, homefield advantage means almost nothing. This year, home teams are 100-95, a winning percentage of .513. Six teams have won three-fourths of their home games. In 2014, home teams went 147-108-1, a winning percentage of .576. Fourteen teams won at least three-fourths of their home games.

Is the noise factor overblown?

“No, that’s a real thing. It definitely is a real thing,” LaFleur said. “But you’ve got to handle it. And I think you get accustomed to (it). Half your games are on the road, so you do get accustomed to going on a silent count. Obviously, it’s an advantage for a defense. No doubt about it. But, ultimately, it’s about the execution post-snap.”

From 1995 through 1999, the Packers were the best team in the NFL. They went 30-2 at home and 18-14 on the road. LaFleur’s Packers haven’t been as dominant at home (37-11) but they’ve been better on the road (.28-19).

Teams – the Packers included – simply are better at mitigating the crowd factor.

“I think, like anything, there’s an evolution to this game and I’m sure there’s not as many silent counts back then as there are now (and) different tricks that you try to use to try to get that advantage back from an offensive perspective,” LaFleur said.

“Because that is your one advantage, knowing when the ball’s going to be snapped. And you’ve got to be able to use that as a weapon. But, certainly, it’s definitely more difficult when you’re on the road and you have to use the silent count.”

The silent count is a big deal for the Packers. Not just during the first week of December but the first week of August.

“We’ve had a lot of success on the road,” Stenavich said. “One thing that we really practice a lot (is) our silent cadence. Even in training camp, we have at least once a week where we’re just working on silent cadence just to make sure we’re on top of it for these situations right here. This is going to be an excellent environment for a football game. So, yeah, we’re definitely prepared for it.”

All the Packers are prepared for it. They turned their season around in Detroit last year. This season doesn’t need to be turned around, but it would be an emphatic statement to knock off the Lions.

“Ain’t no better feeling,” Keisean Nixon said of winning on the road. “It’s so rowdy before the game and after the game there’s more fans of ours than theirs. We want to hear ‘Go Pack Go.’”

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