Week Twelve: Green Bay Packers (4-6) @ Detroit Lions (8-2)

[MichiganCardinal]

          vs.          

Setting: 11/23/2023, 12:30pm on FOX

Site: Ford Field in Detroit, MI

Weather: Climate Controlled

Opening Spread: Lions -7.5

All-Time Series Record: Packers lead, 105-76-7

Last Meeting: 09/28/2023, Lions won 34-20

 

Green Bay Packers (4-6)

Head Coach: Matt LaFleur (5th Season: 51-25)

Projected Starting QB: Jordan Love (4th Season: 4-7)

Last Game: 23-20 W v. Los Angeles Chargers (4-6)

Looking Ahead to Week #13: Sunday Night v. Kansas City Chiefs (7-2)*

*not yet played week 12

 

Your Detroit Lions (8-2)

Head Coach: Dan Campbell (3rd Season: 20-23-1)

Projected Starting QB: Jared Goff (8th Season: 62-47-1)

Last Week: 31-26 W v. Chicago Bears (3-8)

Looking Ahead to Week #13: Sunday @ New Orleans Saints (5-5)

 

Elsewhere in the NFL

Thanksgiving: Commanders @ Cowboys (4:30pm), 49ers @ Seahawks (8:20pm)

Black Friday: Dolphins @ Jets (3:00pm)

Primetime: Ravens @ Chargers (SNF), Bears @ Vikings (MNF)

1:00pm: Saints @ Falcons, Steelers @ Bengals, Jaguars @ Texans, Buccaneers @ Colts, Patriots @ Giants, Panthers @ Titans

4:05/4:25pm: Rams @ Cardinals, Browns @ Broncos, Chiefs @ Raiders, Bills @ Eagles

[MichiganCardinal]

At the risk of putting the cart before the horse....

Lions have a 2 1/2 game lead in the North with seven left for the Lions and six left for the Vikings, two against each other.

If the Lions can win their next three (v. Packers, @ Saints, @ Bears) and are sitting at 11-2, while the Vikings go 1-1 (v. Bears, Bye, @ Raiders) and sit at 7-6, OR the Lions go 2-1 and the Vikings go 0-2, the Lions would clinch with a win at home against the Broncos, without having played Minnesota even once. Ideal for many reasons, not the least of which would be that the home crowd deserves it.

If the Lions go 3-0 and the Vikings lose to the Bears, we would actually be watching the Vikings/Raiders 4:05 game in week 14 with the chance of clinching with a Raiders victory.

Most likely might be clinching the following week on Christmas Eve in Minnesota. Any later and you start to sweat, with Lions/Cowboys and Packers/Vikings in week 17, followed by the final showdown in week 18.

[lordstanley]

I’d really like the Lions to have it wrapped up prior to the final 3 games. I could see them losing @Minnesota and @Dallas so that it comes down to the final game at home to Minnesota. Too many lingering memories of the horror of the final game of 1981 to want it to come to that. Young ones can go to the 2:11:45 of this clip, if you dare, to see the play when a generation of then-teens like me became truly Lionized. 
 

 

[buddha]

7 hours ago, lordstanley said:

I’d really like the Lions to have it wrapped up prior to the final 3 games. I could see them losing @Minnesota and @Dallas so that it comes down to the final game at home to Minnesota. Too many lingering memories of the horror of the final game of 1981 to want it to come to that. Young ones can go to the 2:11:45 of this clip, if you dare, to see the play when a generation of then-teens like me became truly Lionized. 
 

 

i remember listening to that on the radio.  😞

[RandyMarsh]

Too young for that but wasnt there a few times in the 2010s where we either couldve clinched the division or atleast the playoffs with just 1 win in the last 3 only to proceed to lose all of them?

[CMRivdogs]

We moved to Detroit from Chicago in December 2000. The first game we attended was the last game of the regular season against the then hapless Bears, just needing a win to make the playoffs.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by CMRivdogs

[MichiganCardinal]

8 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

Too young for that but wasnt there a few times in the 2010s where we either couldve clinched the division or atleast the playoffs with just 1 win in the last 3 only to proceed to lose all of them?

You’re describing everything I remember about the Caldwell era.

[CMRivdogs]

7 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

We moved to Detroit from Chicago in December 2000. The first game we attended was the last game of the regular season against the then hapless Bears, just needing a win to make the playoffs.

 

 

 

[lordstanley]

36 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

We moved to Detroit from Chicago in December 2000. The first game we attended was the last game of the regular season against the then hapless Bears, just needing a win to make the playoffs.

 

 

Christmas Eve. We were visiting the in-laws in Taipei so I ducked out in the middle of the night local time and listened to it at an all-night Internet cafe  surrounded by gamers in their pods. 

[lordstanley]

Is it too much to ask for the Lions to not only win on Thursday but win decisively? Can’t complain about the record of course, but I don’t feel as good about the Lions’ strength as I did a month ago. The past four games have been a blowout loss to Baltimore (F), an easy but mistake-filled win over the Raiders (C+), a nail biter at the Chargers when our defense got trashed (B-) and a horrific 56 minutes at home to the lowly Bears (D+). I’m greedy and want to see the Lions dominate on both offense and defense against the Packers and win by 20. 

Edited November 20, 2023 by lordstanley

[MichiganCardinal]

27 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

Is it too much to ask for the Lions to not only win on Thursday but win decisively? Can’t complain about the record of course, but I don’t feel as good about the Lions’ strength as I did a month ago. The past four games have been a blowout loss to Baltimore (F), an easy but mistake-filled win over the Raiders (C+), a nail biter at the Chargers when our defense got trashed (B-) and a horrific 56 minutes at home to the lowly Bears (D+). I’m greedy and want to see the Lions dominate on both offense and defense against the Packers and win by 20. 

Would be nice. I expect the Packers to come out swinging. They got embarrassed at their place the last time we saw them.

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, MichiganCardinal said:

Would be nice. I expect the Packers to come out swinging. They got embarrassed at their place the last time we saw them.

That's why I was a bit glad the Packers won yesterday. Not coming into the game ticked off...

[buddha]

this is a sneakily very important game.  that next bears game is now trending towards very competitive.

although i dont expect goff to play that poorly again.

[Jason_R]

And, of course, the next Bears game is outside in the swirling north winds of Soldier Field. Not a good setting for Goff. 

[djhutch]

Suddenly I'm a little concerned about the Packers D, having held the Chargers to half the points the Lions did.

[RedRamage]

44 minutes ago, buddha said:

this is a sneakily very important game.  that next bears game is now trending towards very competitive.

although i dont expect goff to play that poorly again.

Fields had one of his best games ever, Goff had ones of his worst games ever, and we still won. I'm not saying that it'll be a cake walk when we face the Bear next, but Bears needed a LOT to go there way... and it did... and they still lost. So I'm more concerned that I was before yesterday, but I'm still assuming the Lions can and should win the game.

That said... man this defense does NOT know how to handle a mobile QB. They just look silly against a guy who can run back there.
 

[number20]

I have no idea what to think about this upcoming game. I'm never worried about the offense - pretty confident they'll bring it. It's that defense. Who knows what we're getting on Thursday

[TP_Fan]

We can all agree that the defensive issues is largely in part to the scheming of Aaron Glenn, correct?  He is consistently outclassed by any qb who can run. Lots of missed assignments, poor gap management, terrible edge integrity and consistently making the same errors. 

[MichiganCardinal]

12 minutes ago, TP_Fan said:

We can all agree that the defensive issues is largely in part to the scheming of Aaron Glenn, correct?  He is consistently outclassed by any qb who can run. Lots of missed assignments, poor gap management, terrible edge integrity and consistently making the same errors. 

I think Thursday will be telling. Have offenses figured out the Lions defense? In week three, the Green Bay offense couldn’t do anything against Detroit in the first half and the game was never in doubt as a result. If Green Bay puts us into another shoot out I’ll be concerned.

I also think his scheme would be a lot more effective with one more edge rusher who can win a one-on-one and with one more good player in the secondary. We should have had the latter between CJGJ and Moseley. The former though, that falls on player evaluation for trusting Charles Harris to make some leap.

[RedRamage]

37 minutes ago, TP_Fan said:

We can all agree that the defensive issues is largely in part to the scheming of Aaron Glenn, correct?  

Hard to say for sure. I mean the whole appeal of a running QB is that it makes it harder for a defense so we should expect to running QBs to be harder to defend in general. That said, how much of the much harder for our defense to handle is due to poor scheme or inability to our players to execute correctly? 

The reality is that it's both, but which is a bigger issue? I'd lean towards scheme, but again I don't know for sure.

[Motown Bombers]

Yes Fields ran for 104 yards. He also only threw for 169 yards and didn't even complete a pass the entire 4th quarter. He had 273 yards from scrimmage. If a QB threw for 273 yards, there wouldn't be this much consternation. His yards per carry average against the Lions was inline with his season average. It's not like he was doing much better, he just had way more rushing attempts than he had in any other game previously and it seemed be design. The offense did the defense no favors by turning it over 4 times and in quick succession on some of them. 

[Tigeraholic1]

Everyone full participants at practice including Buggs. Jonah Jackson, did not practice. I imagine it was just a walk through but good for a short week!

[KnoxP]

22 minutes ago, RedRamage said:

Hard to say for sure. I mean the whole appeal of a running QB is that it makes it harder for a defense so we should expect to running QBs to be harder to defend in general.

This...

Also if it is 'scheming' someone explain what should be done vs what was done.  Things listed above sound more like execution vs scheming, but that's just me.  Open to hearing from anyone...

[Tigeraholic1]

..

 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by Tigeraholic1

[Tigeraholic1]

 

Ooof, Packers.

Edited November 20, 2023 by Tigeraholic1