The Green Bay Packers dropped to 2-2 on the season after being “manhandled” by the Detroit Lions in a 34-20 loss Thursday night.
Neither the offense nor defense came to play in the first half, allowing the Lions to take a 24-point lead into halftime. Last week, the Packers overcame a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the New Orleans Saints, but poor execution and too many self-inflicted wounds made another comeback inconceivable.
Green Bay came up short in every major facet of their Week 4 matchup against a divisional rival. Detroit won the turnover battle, was more efficient on third and fourth down, gained more yards, and dominated time of possession. Until the last couple of years, the Packers had been the older, domineering brother to the Lions. However, Green Bay has lost four consecutive meetings to a franchise that has adopted a punch-first mentality under Dan Campbell.
For most of the game, the Packers were overwhelmed by the physicality of the Lions. The offensive line failed to generate any push or open up lanes for the running backs. Aaron Jones was the leading rusher with five carries for 18 yards. Protecting Jordan Love was also a massive issue, as he was hit on 11 of his dropbacks and sacked on five.
Green Bay couldn’t control the line of scrimmage on defense, either. Detroit took advantage of light boxes and consistently won at the point of attack to rush for 211 yards, matching the total this Packers defense surrendered in their Week 2 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. David Montgomery was questionable to play with a thigh injury, yet tallied 121 yards on 32 carries with three touchdowns.
Matt LaFleur used the words “humbling” and “embarrassing” to describe his team’s performance.
In 10 days, Green Bay will travel to Las Vegas to face the Raiders in another primetime game on Monday Night Football. They will have to find ways to start faster in games moving forward, but before we look ahead, let’s try to identify a few standouts from the recent loss.