Detroit Lions: 10 Observations from Sunday’s loss to Green Bay
Despite playing well for most of the game, the Detroit Lions suffer yet again at the hands of the Packers.
The Detroit Lions fought hard on Sunday, coming up on the losing end of a masterful performance from their favorite tormentor. Despite a 31-24 loss, another nail to the coffin of any playoff pipe dreams, and losing Matthew Stafford to a rib injury that looks ugly, Darrell Bevell again showed that maybe he can be more than just a placeholder at head coach.
Looking great in the all blue uniform combo, a spirited Lions offense kept pace with Green Bay in the first half, heading to the locker room knotted up at 14. A few soul crushing drives from Aaron Rodgers and company kept the Lions offense on ice for the entire third quarter, but the underdogs kept punching and were still very much alive until Stafford went down midway through the fourth.
Aaron Rodgers turned in a near-perfect showing, throwing for three touchdowns and running in another. The Lions offense was pretty good, but as we’ve seen over and over, pretty good isn’t going to get it done against the NFL elites.
While the Lions can hang their heads high in defeat for this one, the remaining three games offer no respite for a physically and mentally battered team–a team in transition that might be heading into the final stretch without their leader and MVP.
Here are my ten observations from Sunday…
1. Matthew Stafford is one of the toughest dudes in the NFL. But at a price.
Stafford took a vicious hit while starting to slide after scrambling for a first down inside the Packers’ five yard line. Nothing illegal or dirty to it, but it looked bad for Stafford immediately. He stayed in action for one more play, handing off to Kerryon Johnson for a touchdown run, but the way he tenderly left the field looked just as bad, and his attempt at a 32nd career fourth quarter comeback was cut short right as the offense was starting to regain its rhythm.
When Stafford was unable to return to the field for the next drive, of course I had to wonder whether that was the last we would see of him for the Lions this season, possibly for his career. Even before going down, the amount of speculation surrounding Stafford’s future in Detroit has been at a fever pitch. While X-rays reportedly came back negative and Stafford’s ribs aren’t broken, his status for next week at Tennessee remains in doubt.
The fact that he stayed on the field to finish the drive is yet another example of the superhuman toughness that has defined Stafford ever since his rookie year. After twelve years of hits like this though, how many more times can he keep rising off the mat?