Let me go on the record early in the season saying: FIRE KEVIN KING! He is a liability on defense & though he has the ground speed he lacks the spatial reasoning and awareness to play anything. QBs are just looking for 20 on the field and targeting him.

Either Joe Barry pulls out a safety blitz or two & employs a spy or we are just waiting around for another mobile QB to step up in the pocket & break open our defense especially later in the season/playoffs.

I agree 100% that passes deep in the GOLD ZONE are going to be the ruin of our offense. Sometimes you have to pin your ears back and shove it down their throats.

Great Victory over the SOL (Same Old Lions)

I'm not sure how much Cobb played in the first half. All three of his receptions came on the drive that made the game 28-17. One was a 14 yard gain on a 3rd and 14. Big play. Cobb's last reception was for 9 yards on a 3rd and 7. Another important chain-mover.

At any rate, Amari Rodgers got relegated to STs only. Interesting.

I'm not sure which was the bigger benefit: getting Stokes on the outside, or getting Sullivan off the field. Either way, Stokes gets a game ball in my book. He may have his ups and downs. I'm sure he'll get picked on. I'm also sure that if he is not starting on the outside by November this team will not go anywhere in the playoffs.

Ken, awesome article. Many nuggets, but loved this one: >>>>this was his night. He will sell a lot of sunglasses if he keeps this up.<<<<
Loved your weather and lightning and flood game recap! Masterful.

I foresaw this beatdown, but didn't think it would involve still such pathetic defense. They should have come out of the gate looking for honor and revenge for last week. I didn't share the doomsayers all offseason, as I want observable evidence before pronouncing such things, but after 2 weeks, this D is bad. Yep. bad. Who cares whether its DC or players at this point. Meanwhile Detro's multiple rookies and no names on Defense were more than adequate to bottle up GB pass attack, and gladly GB obliged with the run game. But not lost is the fact that those rooks were more than capable of bottling up the pass attack, as Rodgers was sacked despite 5 second dropbacks and still unable to find receivers. Very stark contrast. Two weeks in a row of opposing D patchwork of backfield of no names, rooks or second stringers. My offseason prediction of 9 wins, is not looking very good, as even with this win, Ken, you rightly bring up the due concerns. The scoreboards by halftime for the next two weeks, will give us an indicator if GB has a chance this year, that is if GB has less than a 3 score deficit by half.

Why no Dillion again in the red zone to punch it in, Heflin needs to be activated , Lowery and Lancaster get pushed around like girls , Kevin King is God awful!

If Lowry cannot show up against the LOLions, the FO better be beating the bushes for some help right away.

Spend a little draft capital and trade for an established DL because KC is the invisible man when he is the only guy that needs to be accounted for.

Turn the DL flag upside down, there is serious distress there.

PS - demote Lancaster and play Heflin, you never know what you have until you use it. No loss in relegating Lancasters snaps elsewhere. TJ who? I saw his pic on a milk carton.

The Lions actually had more rushing yards and more passing yards than Green Bay, and the Lions look to be one of the worst teams in the league.

Obviously, I'll take the win, and I think things are going to get better, but I don't find this performance very much comforting at all.

Yeah, I get it, when you are playing the dregs, best to rely on your stars but at some point very soon (next week?) we will need Lazard and MVS making contributions or this offense will bog down again.

Aaron Jones - looked super quick.

Davontae - looked like his usual good self.

AJ Dillon - still underutilized.

AR - was perfect when throwing on 2nd & 3rd down.

Ahh, the defense. Joe Barry is waaaay too passive to be successful with the amount of talent he has on hand. First half was an abomination.

Would like to point out a couple of positives:

1 - Gutey came into draft needing to find a quality starting CB and C. Mission accomplished.

2 - ST: Well, we picked up a fine punter and Kylin Hill looked very natural as KR last night. A Rodgers seems to be coming along as PR as well. And Mo Drayton has the ST looking better overall. Still plenty of room for improvement but showing positive signs.

From the 3rd quarter on, our offense showed it can play with anyone, and they are just getting warmed up. MVS had zero catches but ARod overthrew him on every pass that went his way. You cannot blame MVS for that. Our Defense needs pass rush help. Gary was inconsistent but had a few QB pressures, at the end of the game. Clark and Slaton were no where near the QB most of the game. On one play our pass rush was nonexistent as two or three Lion's O Linemen had no one to block and were standing upright on the LOS, during the play. We need Zadarious back and healthy if we want any kind of pass rush. Garvin was used in coverage and did not rush the passer, from what I saw. Gary was suckered out of position, on a couple of plays, that went the other way, nullifying his talents. Campbell had a solid game. Maybe we finally have a LB worth his salt. Goff was able to burn our Defense with his running, on a couple of plays. No excuse for that. Barry has some work to do.

Gute better pull his head out of his ass and find some help for the Defensive Line! Did they find Barry in the markdown bin at Walmart!

Game Balls:

Aaron Jones - Just a beast. When he is involved good things happen. When he isn't involved, the offense struggles. I especially liked him with Dillon together. And using Jones in different ways. He is just special.

Davante Adams - He just makes some simple plays look so good. Rodgers and him just have a special connection.

Robert Tonyan - He had a good game catching passes. But he also drew a couple of big penalties. Tonyan is a guy that adds a lot to the offense. I think he is a guy they need to get the ball to more often.

Eric Stokes - I believe he was credited with 4 pass breakups. 2 of which were in the redzone. I think the defense played better when he got moved to outside corner, King got moved to the slot. Actually I thought King looked better in the slot. Moving forward I think our best CB group maybe Stokes and Alexander as the top 2. With King as the 3rd.

Lame Calls:

Joe Barry 1st Half - This was the 2nd game in a row where we saw little pressure from the front. I have no clue what defense they were playing, but it almost felt like they were attempting to keep Goff from running rather then going after him. It feels like they are doing a prevent style so they don't give up chunk yards. 2nd half was MUCH better. We saw some blitzes. Just a lot more pressure on the QB. The defense seemed more aggressive.
Another lame call was hearing that LaFleur had to tell Joe Barry what to do for the defense. Either play coverage or rush the QB. Because what he was doing wasn't working. Perhaps Barry doesn't know what LaFleur wants? But he needs to start improving.

Notes:

Cobb - He is starting to show up. And especially on 3rd down. I believe he caught 2 3rd down passes that converted 1st downs. That to me is where Cobb is going to help this team. Giving Rodgers someone else he completely trusts on 3rd down.

Runyan - I'm not expert on OL play, but I felt like Runyan played well. I personally think he should be our starting LG ahead of Patrick

MVS - Rodgers missed a bunch of bombs to him. But the one throw I would like to see MVS try to get the ball through the defender. If he tries to get the ball, he will likely get an interference call. I would like to see MVS be more aggressive to the ball.

Game Balls: Rodgers, Jones, Tonyan, Myers, Stokes, Campbell, Amos and Gary.

Lame Calls: DC Barry??? King, Lowry and Lancaster.

Solid, much needed, bounce back win for the Pack. Now we need to get ready for the 49ers. Big challenge this Sunday evening. GPG! Thanks, Since '61

--The passes to Adams on the sideline and TD to Tonyan were amazing, which make the over throws to MVS puzzling.
-- Loved the balanced attack on offense.
--Dillon will eventually make some big runs and will be a surprise weapon with his receiving ability.
-- O line not giving AR that extra second, roll outs might have to be used occasionally against Niners.
--Defense.....well Stokes gives us some hope.
--Too bad Hill is not used on punt returns.

Game really wasn't so much a statement win by GB, but a statement loss by Detroit. Both teams seem to have potential and have some talent, but Detroit just seems to implode at the most inopportune moments. Fumbled snap was turning point and QB dropping ball on pass attempt sealed it.

Both teams were hurt by penalties of the random nature (nobody knows what Defensive Pass Interference is, and Offensive Holding can be called on every play) - not quite as bad as the NBA where most calls are generated by the need for TV timeouts and other unknown random forces, but similar.

Bottom line is GB needs to improve on defense to get a couple stops every now and then -- very few negative plays for GB not initiated by the Detroit offense.

Never bitch about a win. Packers did what they had to do. For me the question was if the lions brain trust watched the NO game and came with a plan? When Goeff targeted King twice with success right off the get go my question was answered.
The D plan didnt work out. They didnt have the skill players on D like NO to shut down the passing game and put pressure on Rodgers.
King actually make one hell of a play in the endzone - maybe after seeing Stokes get time on the field he read his own tea leaves and decided I better step it up or I'm toast. Still after three or four seasons he looks like crap. He lacks speed and agility and smarts.

One important note: Detroit started TWO rookie corners rather then spend the capital on experienced players in the off season. My point. It showed, it costs two games because no one wanted to SPEND THE BUCKS ON TALENT

When the head coach HAS to tell his DC how to adjust, then it’s a bad sign about the ability of the DC. In any case it improved in the second half. Barry may be a good position coach but he does not impress as DC.

I am not sure which play was the key play of the game:

- the 50 yard pass to Adams on third and long

- the 4th down stop at the 25 when ahead by 4.

Maybe both. One offensive and one defensive play to get both sides of the team going.

Games Balls: Jones, Stokes, Rookie OLinemen

Lame Call: Vanilla Defense, Rodgers hair, Defensive Ends.

Game Ball:
*Whichever Coach planted their face into Stokes helmet! Classic!
*Rodgers, for playing within the scheme...mostly
*Jones-Adams-Tonyan, get it to your playmakers!
*Campbell, very active game by the ILB!
*Stokes, the kid looks like he's got "IT", that will be huge down the line!
*Special Teams, for not F'ing the game up
*Runyan, great fill in by the 2nd year guard!

Lame Calls
*Soft first half Defense, ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK! I witnessed way too many passive players waiting for the ball carrier to come to them instead of attacking!

*Pass Rush, come on Barry BRING IT! Turn them dawgs loose man even if you have to blitz, we want our Defense to CREATE HAVOC!

ND

We’ll only go as far as our D takes us. This has been the case for ten years now. Hope Barry has some tricks up his sleeve but so far the D looks rather familiar. First thing I would do is bench King.

Did anyone see when Barry head butted Stokes and then fell back out of the picture, Hahahaha. In my twisted humor,I thought that was hilarious.

Studs: A couple of you also agree, but the real heroes of the game are the offensive linemen. Last week they played poorly as a unit, but Monday night fixed the mistakes. With few exceptions, Rodgers was untouched. They opened holes for Aaron Jones. Remember there are two rookies starting(one at the critical center spot), a second year player(Runyon), Jenkins is out of position. The Lions d-front was not as good as New Orleans but, hey, we'll take it!

Duds: the Packers d-line. Kenny Clark is often double-teamed, and the other linemen simply get stuck at the line or pushed around. A high draft pick next year needs to be a meat-eating interior lineman who can provide a rush AND stop the run.

We'll find out how good the Packers are next week against San Fran, a NFC contender, then the Steelers the week after. Button your chinstraps!

"Green Bay has first and goal at the one, and Matt LaFleur/Rodgers love to call pass plays. They are often ineffective, and sometimes get picked off or stopped for losses." What a strange comment. GB has made a killing with the short passing game inside the 5 under LaFleur. Conversely, their run game in those situations has been abysmal.

The packers simply dont have the talent or ability to get penetration or stop the run with 4 defensive lineman period and that wont change.

1. Gute is the main culprit adding undrafted free agents and a 5th round draft pick is terrible but it is what it is.

2. Joe berry and lafluer better come to this conclusion and realize the rams defense wont work here in green bay they dont have the defensive line to pull this off.

3. They have a talented secondary minus king so use that gift create pressure and live with the gms lack of effort to bring in capable dlineman

Much better performance for game 2.

It was great to see Kylin Hill show something on kickoff returns. Punt returns with Amari are another story.

However, there is plenty to work on:

-DL is porous. Lancaster and Lowrey aren’t earning their keep.
-Not getting pressure on the opposing QB. Granted, Z didn’t play, but we need to dial it up.
-Is it just me or is this offensive line not getting much of a push on running plays? Granted, we have 2 rookies on the OL. Maybe that’s part of it, but that’s how it looks to me.

Maybe I need to be patient knowing that it’s a new DC and a new scheme? Not sure just how different the scheme is, but maybe it will take time to come together. still, it’s a little unsettling that LeFleur had to tell Barry to change tactics for the 2nd half. Shouldn’t Barry be able to see that for himself?

Go Pack, GO!

The coaching staff knows who writes their pay checks and arent about to bench King, or play Gary more so we can see he is not very good, is to make sure Gutt is not embarrassed and top management is not embarrassed for picking Gutt.
You pass on Watt because he cant play two positions and pick Gary at 12 to play two positions of which he isnt any good at either is beyond moronic, its destructive to creating a solid defense when you had the picks.
The people this team could have had on D and have now is mind boggling and costs them a few super bowls thats for sure.

Lowry, King, Lancaster, Sullivan... all have come in for criticism, and rightfully so but there is so much hope for Gary that he's escaping similar criticism. He's been a disappointment. He's not getting to the QB and against the run, he's been run around quite a bit. He's got great speed and power but he still can't seem to beat his man with any kind of consistency. Every now and then he makes a good play and everyone gets excited, then he disappears again.

The entire front seven is a disaster at this point. Gute is out there desperately looking for help but pass rushers and big uglies aren't available very often. Might need to make a major trade. Maybe some team in need of an offensive lineman with depth at DL might be interested in Patrick and I'd throw in MVS and Lazard and King and Lowry and Lancaster and Sullivan and Keke and Summers and Burks... there are an awful lot of bad football players on this team.

Get Stoked on Stokes and take away the crown of King! Like Sternberger cull him out!

'Bobby Touchdown, that boy is sick
Throw one up, he's coming down with six'

Aaron Jones always lights it up against Lions type teams - hopefully he will do same against 49ers.
I'd like to see us persist with Jon Runyan.
MVS slows down when he looks up searching for the ball; which he does a lot. Rogers was covering for him.
Stokes looks like he will be a player. I hope Joe Barry starts to look and sound like a D.C. soon.