Week Fourteen: Green Bay Packers (9-3) @ Detroit Lions (11-1)

[Motown Bombers]

I love how this team doesn't let things spiral out of control. The Packers hit them with a quick TD to start the second half. The Lions then throw and INT and the Packers get another quick score. Before you know it, the Lions are down. Lions teams of the past would have let that snowball. 

[Sports_Freak]

41 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

12-1

 

Unreal

 

14-3 would feel like a failure now. 

 

This 10 day break is very needed now. 

That 5 game stretch earlier in the season, with 4 out of 5 on the road was when I thought we would lose a couple. We went 5-0. I'm confident we'll win 3 our of 4 to finish the regular season. 

[Motown Bombers]

Lions record for wins in a season is 12. They will break that record this year. 

[NYLion]

18 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

I love how this team doesn't let things spiral out of control. The Packers hit them with a quick TD to start the second half. The Lions then throw and INT and the Packers get another quick score. Before you know it, the Lions are down. Lions teams of the past would have let that snowball. 

Their resilience is something else. Goff threw that awful pick then he was pretty much perfect the rest of the way, bad playcall on 4th down in their own territory then they continue to be aggressive not phased one bit, offensive line struggling to run block then pave a Detroit sized hole through the Green Bay D-line on the final 4th down. They refused to lose this game and now 10 days of much needed rest to hopefully get a few guys back and lets pray that the Alim injury isn't serious.

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Motown Bombers]

Packers are 7-2 in their last 9. Their 2 losses are to the Lions. 

[Edman85]

The Lions don't win that game without 4th down intelligence. "Taking the points" at the end of the half would have bit them later. The drive in the second half when they went twice would not have been a touchdown. The toss sweep was a poor play call but the right call from a go or punt standpoint.

[RedRamage]

8 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

I don't care that we converted there, that we reckless and dumb imo. 

I don't entirely disagree with this. It's possible to have a good outcome but for the decision to still be bad (just like it's possible to make a good objective decision that turns out poorly). I think I see Campbell's mentality... like:

If we kick a FG we and we leave too much time they might go down the field and kick a FG (tie) or get a TD (win) or we might stop them (lose).

But if we try for a 4th down and get stopped they still might down down and kick a FG (win) or get a TD (win) or we might stop them (tie).

I'm just not sure that I'd have risked that converting a FG into a win instead of a tie.

[RedRamage]

7 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

I don't know what a victork is, but I think I agree.  

It's a Victory Stork, obviously. Hey, if the Tigers can have a Rally Goose, why can't the Lions have a Victory Stork??

[RandyMarsh]

6 minutes ago, RedRamage said:

I don't entirely disagree with this. It's possible to have a good outcome but for the decision to still be bad (just like it's possible to make a good objective decision that turns out poorly). I think I see Campbell's mentality... like:

If we kick a FG we and we leave too much time they might go down the field and kick a FG (tie) or get a TD (win) or we might stop them (lose).

But if we try for a 4th down and get stopped they still might down down and kick a FG (win) or get a TD (win) or we might stop them (tie).

I'm just not sure that I'd have risked that converting a FG into a win instead of a tie.

I think you have to look at these decisions in the context of how the game had played out.

Our defense was decimated and exhausted, they were on the field alot in the 2nd half and while doing the best they could they still gave up 24 points and showed no ability to stop GB from driving down the field. 

On top of that Branch left the previous series injured so he may not have been ready either. 

If you have a chance to end the game right there and not make your defense go back out there on their last legs you do it.imo 

GB's kicker has a monster leg, they would've only needed 25 yds to be in FG range, then if they make that you are dependent on a coin flip in ot.

Bottom line the reward outweighed the risk to me which is why I was all for the call.

[RedRamage]

Dan Campbell is now tied with Caldwell with 36 regular season wins. This makes him (tied for) 7th place in total win among Detroit Lions head coaches.

Winning percentage is a little bit more nebulous in my opinion because it's not fixed for the current guy. Right now Campbell has a .570 (4th best in Lions history, minimum 10 games coached), but obviously if like Goff has a freak injury next year and the Lions end up 6-11 or something that will drop his percentage a lot.

But just four season and he's already tied for 7th best. The next milestone is obviously 37 wins which will push into sole possession of 7th place. Beyond that is 43 which is held by Joe Schmidt and Monte Clark. That'll have to wait for 2025 of course.

[RedRamage]

2 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

I think you have to look at these decisions in the context of how the game had played out.

Our defense was decimated and exhausted, they were on the field alot in the 2nd half and while doing the best they could they still gave up 24 points and showed no ability to stop GB from driving down the field. 

On top of that Branch left the previous series injured so he may not have been ready either. 

If you have a chance to end the game right there and not make your defense go back out there on their last legs you do it.imo 

GB's kicker has a monster leg, they would've only needed 25 yds to be in FG range, then if they make that you are dependent on a coin flip in ot.

Bottom line the reward outweighed the risk to me which is why I was all for the call.

Yeah... I can see the argument either way. I just don't know if I would have done it... but then again Campbell's got the record to backup his choices so who am I to criticize?

I also wonder if there wasn't a bit of doubt on the GB side of things that played to our advantage? I have to think that there was some hesitancy on the DL of the Packers to not twitch too quickly and get drawn offsides.

[RandyMarsh]

One other thing to keep in mind is the possibility of a rare Bates miss. By going for it and converting you were atleast guaranteed OT even with a miss. 

If you kicked on 4th down and missed you'd hand the ball to GB at like the 35 yd line only needing a FG to win. Good chance at the very least they get in position for an attempt.

Again though, I'm sure this had nothing to do with the decision but it is an extra thing to consider when breaking it down as a whole. 

Edited December 6, 2024 by RandyMarsh

[Motor City Sonics]

I got news for you.  We got away with one.    On the 4th down play Goff's knee touched the ground before he handed it off.  He should have been called down.  

[Sports_Freak]

1 minute ago, Motor City Sonics said:

I got news for you.  We got away with one.    On the 4th down play Goff's knee touched the ground before he handed it off.  He should have been called down.  

Only in college. If Green Bay touched him, he woulda been down. It was a clean play. Lucky...but legit.

[Motown Bombers]

5 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

I got news for you.  We got away with one.    On the 4th down play Goff's knee touched the ground before he handed it off.  He should have been called down.  

He wasn't touched down by a Packer. 

[Motown Bombers]

The Lions did this exact same thing last year against the Chargers. It was something like 4th and 2 in a tied game. The Lions were in field goal range with about a minute or less left. They went for it on 4th down instead of kicking the go ahead field goal and converted with a short pass to Laporta. 

[ben9753]

I love that DC is unique. All other coaches play scared, scared of the media questioning them, scared for their jobs. DC is the only one in the game that doesn’t kick there on 4th down. 

[Edman85]

26 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

One other thing to keep in mind is the possibility of a rare Bates miss. By going for it and converting you were atleast guaranteed OT even with a miss. 

If you kicked on 4th down and missed you'd hand the ball to GB at like the 35 yd line only needing a FG to win. Good chance at the very least they get in position for an attempt.

Again though, I'm sure this had nothing to do with the decision but it is an extra thing to consider when breaking it down as a whole. 

There is this too. People assume field goals are guarantees.

[Motown Bombers]

I like how so many were on the Packers bandwagon because they beat an even more depleted 49ers team and a soft as hell Dolphins team. 

[Sports_Freak]

3 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

I like how so many were on the Packers bandwagon because they beat an even more depleted 49ers team and a soft as hell Dolphins team. 

For when they fall off the bandwagon...1-800-CALL-SAM.

[Motown Bombers]

3 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

For when they fall off the bandwagon...1-800-CALL-SAM.

Hopefully they got their hands stamped when they try to re-enter the Lions bandwagon. 

[KnoxP]

49 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Only in college. If Green Bay touched him, he woulda been down. It was a clean play. Lucky...but legit.

 

46 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

He wasn't touched down by a Packer. 

I've seen some chatter on this...he was not 'giving himself up'.  So, no I don't think we got away with anything.

[Motown Bombers]