Review: Bills 27, Packers 17~ if it weren’t clear for you that Buffalo was clearly a better team than Green Bay heading into the game, it should be crystal now…the odd part is it isn’t talent. Green Bay seems just out of sync, and that can be directed at leadership – yes coaching and player. More on that later.
The main things to take away was the commitment to the run game. The Packers got away from it on the 2nd possession, and they suffered greatly from doing so. The other key takeaway was the defense in the 2nd half.
- 2nd half defense: gave up 28 plays; 126 yards; 3 points; 2 Interceptions; 1 punt. – extremely impressive vs. the best offense in the NFL, coming off a bye, at home on Sunday Night Football.
- Run Game: Green Bay rushed 31 times for 208 yards and won the time of possession 33:48 to 26:12.
They also won the turnover battle. So Green Bay accomplished the goals I set out prior to the week, and still lost. Something’s wrong, very wrong.
Current Status~ the Packers now have bloated salaries (even more bloated than need be) from going “All In” and 2 of those contracts (Rodgers and Bakhtiari) are killing this team – both on the field and in salary cap. For those of you that wanted Green Bay to make a trade for THIS year, why? This team went all in and is 3-5, with 3 very unimpressive wins.
- Chicago is straight trash, per usual.
- Tampa is atrocious now.
- New England got beat by Chicago.
Now, the reason for hope that Green Bay can win the Super Bowl is because their defense is improving throughout the season and they have a solid OL (when healthy) and the obvious ability to commit to the run game, thus limiting the amount of big time throws Rodgers would need to make in January. Now, getting to January, it starts with beating Detroit.
Matchup~
| GB O | (rank) | vs. | Det D | (rank) | |
| Rush | 120.5 | 15 | 154.9 | 30 | |
| Pass | 217.4 | 22 | 266.4 | 27 | |
| Total | 339.9 | 17 | 421.3 | 32 | |
| Pts | 18.1 | 26 | 32.1 | 32 | |
| GB D | Det O | ||||
| Rush | 141.3 | 29 | 136.6 | 10 | |
| Pass | 174.8 | 2 | 258.3 | 17 | |
| Total | 316.0 | 8 | 394.9 | 4 | |
| Pts | 21.6 | 16 | 24.7 | 9 | |
| T/O | |||||
| Takeaways | 7 | T-27th | 6 | T-30th | |
| Giveaways | 10 | T-15th | 11 | T-20th | |
| Diff. | (3) | T-23rd | (5) | T-29th |
Neither team can defend the run, so if Green Bay continues to pound the rock, they should be able to move the ball at will on Detroit. Regardless of competition, if you rack up over 200 yards on the ground, you will likely win.
Also, after seeing the best offense in the NFL last week, Green Bay now gets to see the worst Defense. A recipe for getting on track couldn’t be better than seeing the 1-6 Lions.
Win the turnover battle, begin to chip away at that overall deficit on the season, rack up a boat load of yards on the ground, and find a way to win.
Packers 34 (-3.5)
Lions 24
Season: 4-4
Overall: 85-46
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