Lions 2019 rewatch: Week 6 notes from the Lions vs. the Packers and the officials, who decided Green Bay was supposed to win
The 4-1 Green Bay Packers host the 2-1-1 Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football in Lambeau Field. First place in the NFC North and ongoing bragging rights for Detroit, which had beaten the Packers four straight times entering the game.
Pregame notes
This was the Lions return from their bye week. Detroit wore road blue jerseys with the silver pants accented with blue piping stripes. Temp was 43 degrees at kickoff and the field was somewhat slick after it had rained during the day.
Starters Quandre Diggs, Da’Shawn Hand and Mike Daniels were all out for Detroit. The Packers were missing top WR Davante Adams and starting safety Darnell Savage.
First quarter
The Lions come out firing with a flea-flicker that works perfectly. Kerryon Johnson sells the run fake before flipping the ball back to Matthew Stafford. Kenny Golladay pulls away from Kevin King in man coverage with the safety sucked up to defend the run. Golladay eventually gets caught from behind at the Packers’ 11-yard line. Nick Bawden sold the run fake beautifully too. Huge play.
The very next snap, Bawden brushes into Stafford as he drops back for a handoff to Johnson. Stafford falls on the ball but it’s a wasted down. The Packers have very good coverage on the next two plays and force a short Matt Prater field goal. None of the Lions’ targets (WR or TE) do anything to try and get free after their initial route is covered while Stafford buys time. Pass protection is good enough that Stafford slips and falls down but still can get up and deliver a throw. 3-0 Lions.
Trey Flowers is playing right DE outside the OT’s shoulders and he blows up a nice misdirection run. Justin Coleman helps break up a contested-catch opportunity for WR Geronimo Allison on third down. Jahlani Tavai had a nice zone coverage drop, taking away the underneath route Aaron Rodgers wanted on the play.
The Lions next play is another deep strike, this time from Stafford to Marvin Hall. Kerryon Johnson has a great pass protection pickup and it allows Hall to run past Kevin King (recurring game theme) in coverage. Perfect throw that travels 48 yards in the air.
Kerryon Johnson eventually scores on a goal-line dive play where he barely broke the plane. The run blocking through the first two drives is consistently terrible, exacerbated by the Packers loading up the line and the box without worry of being beaten in single coverage outside. All the momentum remains with the visiting Lions, up 10-0 after less than five minutes off the clock.
A’Shawn Robinson ends the next Packers drive with a brilliant strip tackle that Christian Jones recovers. Lambeau Field is in shaken silence.
Second quarter
Stafford remains red-hot, the run game remains ice-cold. The drive stalls in the red zone as (recurring theme) the Packers load the box and middle-of-field and the Lions’ uncreative receivers cannot get any room without the threat of the deep ball. Graham Glasgow is getting worked at right guard, LT Taylor Decker cannot sustain his blocks either. All three TEs (Jesse James, T.J. Hockenson, Logan Thomas) have been worthless in the run game thus far. Hockenson dropped a difficult contested catch in the zone on this one, too. Another Prater FG makes it 13-0.
To recap: the Lions get 1st-and-goal inside the Packers 8-yard line on all three possessions but come away with just 13 points. Johnson has five carries for three yards in the red zone and was contacted behind the line on every attempt.
Sam Martin’s kickoff goes out of bounds and the Packers finally string together some positive plays. It’s aided by some terrible officiating; on the very first play, Romeo Okwara is held, facemasked and deliberately tripped all in very plain and obvious view but doesn’t get a flag. Twice the umpire reaches for his flag but decides against it.
Lions are playing more zone defense in coverage, showing man and sugaring the box pre-snap but then dropping into Cover-1. Rodgers burns it with a perfect throw to an uncovered Aaron Jones (Christian Jones and Jarrad Davis mix-up) on an RB wheel but the pass hits Jones in the face and falls incomplete in the end zone. Everything is coming up Lions!
A sketchy defensive holding call on Tracy Walker extends the Packers drive. The coverage is holding up well but the run defense keeps getting gashed, as the Packers smartly keep attacking the hole where Davis and/or Tavai show their rush before dropping. Running right at a dropping LB is a prudent strategy but the Lions maintain the look on every rep.
Eventually a Lions illegal substitution penalty (a good call) on 4th down overcomes a poor series from Rodgers and the Packers cash in for a touchdown to cut it to 13-7. Tavon Wilson misses a potential tackle for loss, Jarrad Davis badly overruns the point of attack on the touchdown shovel pass/jet sweep.
The right side of the Lions OL (Wagner/Glasgow) foils a drive with genuine ineptitude. Packers methodically drive for a field goal just before the half to tighten the score to 13-10. The Lions downfield coverage is excellent once again, the up-the-gut run defense remains terrible.
