Week 4 Post-Game: Lions 34 Packers 20

[APB]

Outplayed by a better team. The first half was their worst half this year, and that’s saying something.

Let’s hear it.

[paco]

Outplayed by a better team. The first half was their worst half this year, and that’s saying something.

Let’s hear it.

Not much more to say than that.

[Crazylegs Starks]

This felt pretty much like the previous two losses to the Lions. They're just better.

[Pckfn23]

Flat out need to get healthy, first off. Next find an identity.

[YoHoChecko]

Tough night to watch. Happy they stuck around and maintained some dignity because things looked like they were spiraling.

Lions were better; but at the end of the day, we're 2-2 with ten days off before a winnable game against the Raiders.

This is, based on most offseason comments, about what most people expected I feel. But it's harder to watch it than to expect it while hoping for better.

[YoHoChecko]

Carried over from the other thread.

That’s what I’m getting at. It’s a lazy narrative to dismiss the 2nd half comeback by saying the Lions weren’t trying. The Lions did what they do in both halves. The difference was the Packers actually started to play like a competent team in the 2nd half.

Yeah.

In the first half, the Lions were the better team and we simply had no answers and couldn't get out of our way.

In the second half, the Lions were the better team, but we actually played our game and to our abilities.

That's all. Nothing monumental.

[Pugger]

The Lions' D line really took it to our OL. Like someone said in the GDT I have no clue why MLF didn't try to establish the run after that 1st quarter INT with Jones back and our line full of backups on the left side.

[texas]

We had too many guys out to get too down about this. I think if we are at full strength, they're still a better team, but not by that much. Every time we lose DeVondre, it really hurts us more than people realize, even if at this point he is 2nd fiddle to Quay. Missing our top 2 CBs. Missing our top 2 OL and our 3rd best is hobbled. Our RB is being eased back in after an injury.

We simply are too shorthanded, which can be overcome against middling teams like ATL and NO (and bad teams like CHI), but not good teams like DET.

They were better than us, but in reality it was really just a few big plays in this game that made the difference, almost all of which went against us:

Goff INT (our favor)
Rasul going for the pick and missing it, giving up a big 1st down (their favor)
Rasul slipping and allowing a TD (their favor)
Refs missing a big hold on one of their big gains en route to a TD (their favor)
Love INT (their favor)
Refs missing the clock going to 0:00 (our favor)
Love INT in the red zone (their favor)
Quay giving them 4 points and 2 minutes via penalty (their favor)

All that said, we get our guys back, and we clean up some of the miscues, and it's a pretty even game imo. Then if they instead get the bad luck instead of us, we win.

[bud fox]

Carried over from the other thread.

That’s what I’m getting at. It’s a lazy narrative to dismiss the 2nd half comeback by saying the Lions weren’t trying. The Lions did what they do in both halves. The difference was the Packers actually started to play like a competent team in the 2nd half.

Yeah.

In the first half, the Lions were the better team and we simply had no answers and couldn't get out of our way.

In the second half, the Lions were the better team, but we actually played our game and to our abilities.

That's all. Nothing monumental.

They rushed 69.7% of the time in the second half and 47.6% in the first half.

They had less rushing attempts because they had less plays because they were playing safe and were happy to just waste time.

They have averaged 30 rushing attempts a game this season and today was 43.

What can I say - any normal person can see with their own eyes that the Lions were just trying to waste the clock and get to the end of the game. However these numbers back it up.

Defensively it was similar.

This is the first real team we have played against and if they had the Miami mentality would have put 60 on us.

[bud fox]

Lions are the first quality team we have played.

They played hard and stomped us out in the first half.

They then just tried to run out the game on both Off and Def.

I take nothing from the 2nd half.

Miami mentality we have 60 put on us.

[APB]

[bud fox]

I think its partly to get Love some early confidence. We then got too far behind and were forced to pass.

[texas]

Hard to get any running game going when you go 3 and out repeatedly. Hard to get anything going really.

[TheSkeptic]

Hard to get any running game going when you go 3 and out repeatedly. Hard to get anything going really.

Tough on the D too. They were gassed most of the game.

[wallyuwl]

Hard to get any running game going when you go 3 and out repeatedly. Hard to get anything going really.

Maybe more running would help to not gob3 and out.

[williewasgreat]

Wow, it's been a long time since the Lions were so much better than the Packers. It's just really hard to sort things out after such a bigtime beatdown like last night. We have a number of significant players injured and we are a very young team. But enough of the excuses. As I've thought about this game and season so far, my biggest concern is coaching. The continued penalties, especially on special teams, reflects directly on the coaching. The lack of any real commitment to running the ball, especially early in the game, even though the coach who calls the plays keeps saying we need to run the ball more. The inability to make many useful adjustments to the OL when they are getting abused beyond understanding. The inability to stop the running game on defense. The failure to maintain an aggressive tone throughout the game. There are certainly more issues, but these all point to problems in coaching.

I hope that we haven't seriously overestimated the abilities of the players. There has been so much talk about the depth of our OL. Yet, there is little to prove this from that game last night. It's obvious we cannot count on Bahk for anything anymore. I do think the youthfulness of this team is a big issue right now and I am not ignoring that. It certainly is a big issue with the QB. I believe he will improve as he gains more experience. My biggest concern with Love is his accuracy. It may never be better than mediocre, it's hard to tell right now.

[TheSkeptic]

Wow, it's been a long time since the Lions were so much better than the Packers. It's just really hard to sort things out after such a bigtime beatdown like last night. We have a number of significant players injured and we are a very young team. But enough of the excuses. As I've thought about this game and season so far, my biggest concern is coaching. The continued penalties, especially on special teams, reflects directly on the coaching. The lack of any real commitment to running the ball, especially early in the game, even though the coach who calls the plays keeps saying we need to run the ball more. The inability to make many useful adjustments to the OL when they are getting abused beyond understanding. The inability to stop the running game on defense. The failure to maintain an aggressive tone throughout the game. There are certainly more issues, but these all point to problems in coaching.

I hope that we haven't seriously overestimated the abilities of the players. There has been so much talk about the depth of our OL. Yet, there is little to prove this from that game last night. It's obvious we cannot count on Bahk for anything anymore. I do think the youthfulness of this team is a big issue right now and I am not ignoring that. It certainly is a big issue with the QB. I believe he will improve as he gains more experience. My biggest concern with Love is his accuracy. It may never be better than mediocre, it's hard to tell right now.

I think it is time to start Rhyan. And to sign a guard off another team's PS. And to cut Newman. Amazing that Newman was OK for a rookie and never got better. It may be time to take a long hard look at the Oline coach also.

As for Love, I think he needs to settle down emotionally, and his accuracy will improve. Favre had that emotional problem sometimes, too. We should not be expecting too much out of Love, Reed and Musgrave this season.

If the Packers sneak into the playoffs, great. If not then they will be better next season. All we should expect of this team this season is progression.

[flapackfan]

It's obvious to even the most casual fan; the O line was completely overwhelmed! Walker who had been OK in his fill-in role, was lost. Newman, Meyer, and Runyan, were manhandled! Any complaint of our offense, including Dillon, needs to be judged through the scope of the complete failure of the interior!

[musclestang]

Not a lot of bright spots. Defensively I thought Quay, Slayton, Gary had some nice games. Other than that, a whole lot of nothing. We have big guys that can plug holes and get after the passer. Why we insist on putting 1 or 2 of them on the field and letting them run all over us every week I'll never know.

Offensively? Love looked like a young QB. A couple. nice plays, a couple pretty poor to downright bad plays. I hope he's learning. Our offensive line was horrible. Not even sure what to say about it. But then that's what we've had a lot over the past couple seasons. I don't care what they've rated them as, way too many times where guys like Newman and some plug in OT on the left or right are letting guys just blow right past them repeatedly. Makes it difficult to run any sort of offense.

But what the heck? it's a back up offensive line and we come into the game doing nothing but drop back passing and getting killed while trying. Yay for learning experiences, but come on. Use your head MLF.

Reed had a great catch, but has made a couple questionable decisions on ST in a few games. Doubs was running routes and making catches. Looked good. Other than that? We stinks. Lots to clean up.

[Yoop]

we couldn't pass block last night, what makes anyone think run blocking would be easier, Lafleur quit trying to run because the run was stuffed.

we worried about interior blocking all off season because we where thin there, last night our worries came to fruition, we couldn't provide Love with time to throw, and Jones and our RB's rarely saw a crease.

never really got anything going, they went a little softer 2nd half and and Love completed some passes, but we where never a threat, I think I've been overly optimistic about this team.