Good and Bad News Alike For Green Bay

Packers Defeat Lions 28-26

Photo courtesy of NFL.com

You may have noticed that I did not offer a game preview for this past Sunday. Some might say it was because I was too busy running Man-with-a-van gigs in Brooklyn all weekend. However, the official explanation from the Daily Dope Sheet is that I was trying to make a point. My point was supposed to be that this game would be such a gimme, that it was not worth even speculating. Boy was I wrong. Yesterday's squeaker provided some good and bad news alike for Green Bay.

Good News: The Packers beat the Lions 28-26
Bad News: The Packers only beat the Lions 28-26
Good News: Green Bay got the W
Bad News: Detroit's perpetual boneheadedness may be the only reason Green Bay hung on to win
Good News: Fullback John Kuhn proved the Pack can run out the clock in the final minutes
Bad News: Halfback Brandon Jackson proved that opponents are correct to not trust the Packer's play action game
Good News: Green Bay's defense stepped up big in the closing minutes, forcing the Lions to punt and all but guaranteeing a victory
Bad News: The Lions offense had their way with Green Bay's soft defensive schemes for much of the game
Good News: The Packer's soft defensive scheme can be largely credited to the relative unavailability of many of Green Bay's better position players
Bad News: Many of Green Bay's better position players on defense remain relatively unavailable

As the dust settles, the Packers are a very ugly 3-1. Washington will be a tough test. Before we depart, here's some bitter food for thought... If you want to rank NFC North teams based on how handily they defeated the Detroit Lions, the list would look like this:

Vikings
Packers
Bears