I overestimated the Detroit Lions. I though they were a good football team that would play the Packers even on Thanksgiving day.
And I was wrong…
I can’t say I saw the entire game. A house full of over 20 Thanksgiving guests and my turkey-carving duties saw to that. But I really didn’t need to. What I did see:
I saw the Packers as steely, methodical and under control (except for Pat Lee – although I haven’t seen that play yet). The Packers made few mistakes, committing zero turnovers and eight penalties, only two more than their season average of six per game in what was definitely a chippy contest.
I saw the Lions as young, dumb, and mentally numb. One could say the Lions choked a bit in a big spot. Stafford threw 3 interceptions (should have been a pick-six fourth, Tramon…). The Lions came into the game averaging 8.5 penalties per game and committed eleven in this game. In the first quarter, they basically stopped themselves with penalties on several drives. And of course N-DUMB-ukong Suh showed the world he is still an immature little boy playing with men, and gave the Packers seven points in the process.
I saw the Lions coach then have a polite conversation with the “Boy Named Suh” as he came off the field after being ejected.. Personally, I would have chewed him out right there on National TV in front of all of tryptophan-filled America. And then I would have kicked him in the ass all the way to the locker room. After the game, Suh denied he intentionally tried to stop on Dietrich-Smith, giving some lame-ass excuse about just trying to extricate himself from Smith. Of course, if that was his intent, it might have helped if he had stopped pounding Smiths’ head into the ground. As TJ Lang said after the game, “His explanation is crap.”
I saw the Packers offense once again find the hot hand and ride it. This time it was forgotten-man James Jones. When the Packers drafted Randall Cobb, I wrote that defensive coordinators would be starting a petition to have the Packers’ offense declared illegal. Seriously, how can you prepare for an offense with such a diverse group of offensive weapons? And it’s only going to get worse for them, as Cobb starts to see more action (he was thrown to four times in this game).
I saw a huge drop in talent level when the Lions suffered injuries to some of their players. The Packers injury fill-ins (DJ Smith, Robert Francois and Evan Dietrich-Smith) all stepped in an played with little drop-off. Of course, this more than anything is the story of these Packers. For them to win the Super Bowl last season with all the injuries they had only gets more impressive the more you think about it. The “next man up” theme has continued this season, and it’s obvious the players are proud of their mantra.
I saw the fierce Lions turn into nothing more than Paper Lions. Yes they have made great strides towards digging themselves out of the huge hole Matt Millen placed them in, but there is still much work to do. They need a year or two more to build depth like Ted Thompson has done. They need their coach to hold his players accountable for their mistakes, as Mike McCarthy has done since ever since the Tampa Bay debacle in 2009.
Yes, I thought the Lions were better than this… and I was very, very wrong.
Go Pack!
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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.
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Good analysis.
When I saw the Lions’ Burleson amping the team up before the game I had a strong feeling that the Lions would come in too jacked up and I was pleasantly surprised.
Their nerves or whatever showed up in the form of drops, poor throws, penalties, and a myriad of other issues. Yay for the Packers and their maturity!
Reminded me a bit of the GB/MIN game in 2009.
explain that last part…
He’s saying GB came out too amped up vs Minny in 09.. He’s right.
Yep, Bearmeat is right.
Similar to how the Pack did in ’09, the Lions wanted that to be a “statement game”, a mini-Super Bowl; what have you, and instead of going out and executing their gameplan they went out too emotionally charged.
As a result they made some dumb mistakes, missed some plays they could have executed, etc.
Obviously not 1:1 as the GB OL was abysmal amongst other things.
If you already had a strong feeling they were going to come out too jacked up, then why were you also surprised by it?
Pat Lee got screwed , he was being mugged by 2 Lions on a punt return, after the whistle, shouldve been no flag, instead, he gets tossed…insane…
that’s what I’ve read, but still, if you react with a punch, you’re wrong.
It looked to me like Pat Lee was punched before he punched a lion. It was a stupid play on his part, but I have seen much worse not result in an ejection.
Loved the way capers took away megatron. Do not let the other teams best player beat you. Tramon had his best game of the year even though it included two dropped interceptions. Stafford could have easily had five picks.
CM3 is a great athlete and he has incredible football intelligence. He made so many smart plays yesterday I cannot list them all.
Nice to hear your “voice” again. I expected Tramon to be put on Johnson, because Tramon has the ‘ups” to go up there and contest the catch. Johnson will hurt you in just one main way – catching jump balls in the end zone. take that away and you’ve neutralized the Lions offense.
i read an article that quoted tramon saying he would not have been able to play Megatron the way he did a couple months ago. His shoulder is finally healthy for the most part. If he continues his success over end of the season it will have a huge impact for this defense. Without a solid pass rush we need our back end to be rock solid.
Al, hoping by now you’ve seen the Pat Lee thing. If you have you now know the facts. The alarming part is that this is obviously a coaching thing, Lee was being mugged long after the play was over, as was Dietrich-Smith. Fortunately, the Refs saw the entire deal with Suh, not so for Pat Lee. And your comment about what Schwartz should and could have done echos my sentiments, but he obviously has no problem with this type of ‘play’! Let us not forget who the D-Coordinator was in Tennessee when Albert Haynesworth pulled a similar stunt, it was Jim Schwartz. That said, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, you were not the only one to overestimate the Lions, but your present description is nearly spot-on, you just forgot to insert “Dirty” into the equation!
Skip Bayless would take Tim Tebow over A-Rod in the last 2 minutes of a game to win it! He just said it on “First Take”! If this doesn’t remove any sampling of creditability the guy might have had left (if he ever had any)I don’t know what it takes.
just ignore him…
skip bayless has a grudge against rodgers for some reason. he is joke. i do not know why he has any credibility to lose in the first place.
Here’s the thing about Skip Bayless. Throughout his career, he’s seen players like Joe Montana, John Elway, Brett Favre and Tom Brady. All players that have had some of the most memorable comeback wins in NFL history.
Winning is what matters most right? Screw the stats, I just want to see my quarterback win. That’s understandable right?
Here’s the thing.
In TODAY’S NFL, the quarterback has become so good that he plays a full 60 minutes of good/great/flawless football, therefore eliminating the need to “come from behind”.
Skip can’t wrap his mind around this simple fact. He cares about accomplishments (playoffs wins, super Bowl wins, etc), and just winning the game even if it’s ugly.
What he doesn’t know is that Aaron Rodgers has taken the next step. And that is playing flawless football therefore eliminating the need for “one final drive”.
This is why Skip would take Romo, Sanchez or Tebow over Rodgers. Because they have that ability to come from behind, or have had more success than Rodgers in the postseason. And truth be told, yes, even Romo has a handful of comeback wins.
However, Skip DOES have some sort of grudge against Rodgers, but I think I may know what it is.
Bayless BANKED on Rodgers losing in the Super Bowl because he was going against two time champion and comeback hero Big Ben.
His gamble failed, and Skip looked like a fool.
Skip’s pride was hurt, and therefore he just can’t give credit where credit is due, PLUS, he has an idea of the perfect quarterback, and Rodgers is one step higher than that idea.
…….
So yeah, I can’t stand Skip either. For some reason I can’t stop watching First Take, even though I know he uses shock value just to keep me watching.
What good will a sports talk show be if no one said shocking things.
May as well stand in front of the mirror and listen to ourselves talk while patting our backs in agreement.
I believe there’s an answer to that.
First off, most sports analyst’s are former players and coaches, and so they have a real feel for what the game is like.
Also, they’re the ones who do all the film study and come up with conclusions. I expect to hear them say something that we haven’t heard yet.
For example. Mark Schlereth on ESPN was talking about an undefeated season for the Packers and was explaining why it was a bad thing for the team to talk about it.
He was on the Broncos team that went 13-0, and a reporter asked if they were wondering about going 16-0. Mark said that one of his teamates began to shout with a three minute rant of “OF COURSE WE’RE THINKING ABOUT IT!!”
He said that now that elephant in the room had been addressed, they were all distracted from the game, and got their butts wooped.
There is absolutely NO NEED for someone to be a complete blow horn, ESPECIALLY from someone who has never played in a professional Sport.
I want to LEARN something when I hear analysts, not be completely pissed off and wishing I was there to correct their stupidity, which unfortunately I know will never happen.
The problem with most former players as analyts…the first words out of their mouth concerning anyone,well,95% is HE’S GREAT,THEIR GREAT, it’s not a cereal commercial with Tony the Tiger.
Al’s right ,we’re falling into his trap of giving him negative attention .
I thought the Detroit double-teamers on Lee did everything but remove his spleen. They were blatantly holding him in addition to the jabs and punches down the field. The flag should have been thrown on the Lion players well before Lee threw his punch.
Also, why not a flag on the Cobb TD drop in the end-zone? He was mugged for about 10 yards prior. The Pack got a break on the Vanden Bosch roughing call however.
Pat Lee clip is here. What is tough to see is how long after the play everything occurred. Gunners get mugged routinely, but whis might have gone on after the whistle.
http://www.nfl.com/videos/green-bay-packers/09000d5d8246ecaf/Lee-disqualified-from-game
If you watch the play, Lee gets turned around at about the 35-36 second mark. The play is whistled dead at 30 seconds left.
There was clearly illegal contact (holding) prior to the end of the play, which should have been called. It’s also clear that Lee was trying to disengage for most of the time, which he was unable to do.
Dirty is the only word to describe this team. And it starts with the coaching.
al,this team is classless.it starts with the coach and the crap keeps rollin downhill.49er loss,the coach loses it for what i thought was nothing,to the personal fouls that this team collects week in and week out.i would have put SUE in his place when he came off the field yesterday,but not SHORTS he treats him like a little boy that needs a band-aid.al love ur site, live in hamilton nj and would love to shoot the shi- with u some sunday in the not to distant future….packer fan ror 51 yeats
The whole organization is classless. I got banned yesterday from a Lions blog for politely pointing out reasons why GB is a better football team that DET.
It takes some time to learn to win (and lose) with class I guess…
And Schwartz’s Defenses in Tennessee were dirty too. They routinely started fights with their rivals in the AFC…
Haynesworth
Finnegan
Suh
I’m just sayin…
Schwartz has been on my idiot list all season.
From what I have seen he got into a trash talking contest with a rival player earlier in the season.
Ggot punked by Harbaugh after taunting Harbaugh earlier in the game when Harbaugh challenged a scoring play and got a personal foul (not reported very well during that game). He deserved to get punked and he handled like one of his dirt ball players.
And it is pretty obvious that he coaches his players to play after the whistle. If he does not coach that than he has a serious discipline problem and should be faulted for that as well. Either way, he is a moron and will be gone in a few years just like all the other hot head coaches.
Could you imagine seeing MM, Belichek, or any other top coach trash talking an opposing player? The answer is no for a reason.
Some of thier fans are also classless. What about that FOOL at the end of the game, as they show the fans before they go to the on field commentators ,this sub human in a Lion’s jersey gives the national audience two handed fingers and practically knockes over a woman as he leans over to follow the camera .
I would be interested in people’s views of whether Smith should replace Hawk and move up the chart. Clearly he will have to be on the field for bishop for the next game or two, and though I have not watched the game a second time, Smith was in the right place, moves toward the ball carrier, makes his tackles, is just all around better than Hawk, whose playing time and position I simply incapable of understanding. Did anyone else see how many time Hawk just simply either takes himself out of plays, or waits for the play to come to him? Smith was a refreshing contrast.
DJ Smith is a down hill player for sure. He is at his best moving forward. Just from what little I have seen he may have the best instincts in the run game of all the LBs. The test for him will be when he has to cover in space…but Hawk was not even close in coverage in the first half either so maybe we would not lose too much.
Smith had a great hit on STs as well.
Losing Bishop is much more painful than losing hawk that is for sure.
yes losing bishop is not good by any account, but losing Hawk could be a blessing in disguise.
Losing any player is never a blessing in any form.
Glad to see how many are back on the Hawk bashing train and again wearing blindfolds.
NFL Rewind,watched every play on Hawk and if he is be blamed for being out of cover on plays 15-20 yds away from him,fine,otherwise watch the game again and tell where he wasn’t playing well.
Actually for the first quarter of the game the Lions were far from Paper. The game turned when Kevin Smith went out because the Lions were beginning to dominate us, by using the slow and methodical approach how to beat us. Keeping Aaron of the field, and when he was on the field, able to use pressure because the defense was rested.
I think that’s partially fair but at the same time when Smith was in the game, the Liobs were still being held at bay (granted he went out early).
I think yesterday showed that the Packers are the better team, the deeper team, and the more mature team. The Lions are young but on the rise but still have holes to fill and a lot to learn.
Indeed Wag.
I think though this entire 1st Quarter needs to be dissected as we had a major weakness exposed. This will be fixed before the playoffs but the 1st quarter was a GREAT learning tool on how to beat us, but knowing this team, they will improve and perfect this flaw to make it a strongsuit than a weakness.
This Packer team was put together with high character players in mind , for the most part. TT and MM look for players who love to play football and are not selfish. There are no TOs or R moss’s on this team. No Haynesworths. Finley is probably the exception but even he gets the message this team is preaching. It all showed up yesterday.
All I got to say about Skip Bayless is Skip BRAINLESS!!!