Green Bay Packers v. Detroit Lions: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Somehow, the Green Bay Packers came away with the win over the Detroit Lions. As always, here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from their performance.

It certainly wasn’t pretty and I’m not even sure what was going on in that first half, but once again, the Green Bay Packers were resilient and came away with the win against Detroit. In that first half we saw a very inaccurate Aaron Rodgers, the Packer run defense really struggling, and overall, it was just a very lackadaisical performance.

However, in the second half things began to turn around. As they’ve done all season long, the defense locked in and would only allow three points, while we also saw a more consistent dosage of Aaron Jones, and although still inaccurate at times, Rodgers was able to connect with Davante Adams and Allen Lazard.

Now at 13-3, the Green Bay Packers have earned a much-needed bye week and next week we will find out who will be coming to Lambeau Field for the NFC Divisional round. But before we start looking ahead, as always, I have the good, the bad, and the ugly from Green Bay’s most recent game.

The Good

Aaron Jones

While he didn’t quite put up the same production that he did last week in Minnesota, Aaron Jones gave this Green Bay Packers’ offense someone to lean on when things weren’t going well.

In total, Jones would rush for 100 yards on 25 attempts while also catching two passes for 43 yards. And if not for some overthrows, he could have done more damage in the passing game. Not to mention that without Jamaal Williams and Danny Vitale, Jones was the workhorse out of the backfield and as expected, he handled it wonderfully.

I also have to note that coming into this game, Jones was at 984 rushing yards on the season and with his performance he easily eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark for the first time in his short NFL career. Jones also played in all 16 NFL games for this first time in his career as well.

First-round bye

If we rewind back to August just before the season started, I can’t imagine that there are many of you out there that would have predicted this. And while it certainly wasn’t always pretty throughout the course of this season, the Green Bay Packers got to 13 wins and secured a first-round bye.

Davante Adams and Allen Lazard

It was tough sledding early on, but when Aaron Rodgers and this Packers team needed to make some magic happen, he had Davante Adams and Allen Lazard to lean on in the passing game. At this point in the season it is no surprise that these two were Rodgers go-to options, and both came up big when they were needed the most. Adams and Lazard would combine to haul in 11 receptions for 162 yards at nearly 15 yards per catch with two touchdown receptions, both of which came in the second half.

Mason Crosby

I’m sure most of us remember Mason Crosby’s last visit to Detroit when he went just 1/5 on his field goal attempts. And although he would miss another on Sunday, overall he would hit both extra point attempts while going 3 of 4 on field goals, including the game winner. I can only imagine how good that must have felt for Crosby given how his last trip to Ford Field went.

The Bad

Aaron Rodgers

Although it was a head-scratching first half of football from the entire Green Bay Packers team, the play of Aaron Rodgers, to put it simply, was just bad. We saw some accuracy issues last week in Minnesota, but against Detroit it was even worse as he was all over the place, especially with overthrows.

In the end he’d finish 27/55 for 323 yards with two touchdowns and an interception with most of that damage coming in the second half. Which to his credit, he was once again better in the third and fourth quarter of the game and he came up with the big plays when the Packers needed him most. Not to mention that among the errant throws, we also saw some vintage Aaron Rodgers’ magic with a few throws as well.

With that said, his inaccuracy coupled with his decision-making to constantly throw the ball downfield and to the sidelines when this Detroit defense is very susceptible over the middle is why he fell in this category.

The Ugly

The first half

Yes the Green Bay Packers had secured the NFC North last week in Minnesota but there was still so much to play for in this game, and that is what was the most frustrating part of the first half. With a first-round bye on the line and potentially the NFC’s No. 1 seed, the Packers looked unprepared and Matt LaFleur said it best when he said that they were “sleep-walking.”

I just covered the struggles of Aaron Rodgers, but we also saw some drops from his receivers and the Packer run defense gave up over 150 rushing yards after playing quite well in recent weeks. Not to mention that Kenny Golladay was about to put together a monster day before leaving with an injury and third string quarterback David Blough was out-playing Rodgers.

In the NFL there is no such thing as an easy week, teams have to come prepared and ready to play. However, it looked like the Green Bay Packers thought that they could just show up and Detroit was going to roll over. Fortunately, they regrouped and it didn’t cost them their bye week.