5 Big Questions Revisited in Green Bay Packers v. Lions

Q: Can the Green Bay Packers contain the red-hot Amon-Ra St. Brown?

A: No

Amon-Ra St. Brown entered Sunday’s game with 43 receptions, 451 yards, and four touchdowns since Week 13. Against Green Bay, he found similar success, particularly over the middle of the field and after the catch, finishing with eight receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown.

Now, I’ll add the caveat that the Green Bay defense was playing very vanilla, while Detroit was emptying the playbook, and they were also without De’Vondre Campbell in the middle of the defense–which showed. Jared Goff was 15/16 for 146 yards and a touchdown when attacking the middle of the field. Over half of his 238 passing yards also came after the catch.

Bonus Question: How many sacks will Preston Smith have?

A: 0

Preston Smith entered the game with nine sacks. Had he reached 10, that would have earned him a $750,000 bonus, plus his base salary would have increased by $500,000 in 2022. Had Smith been able to get to 12 sacks for the season, he would have earned an additional $1.2 million on top of everything else.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to record any sacks, although he did come close. It also appeared that the coaching staff was trying to help him out by playing him late in the game during obvious passing situations.