I’ll take a win over Green Bay any way it comes, and this one came about as ugly as it gets. Jake Bates hit a 22-yarder with one second left, the Lions beat the Packers 20-17, and Detroit is 4-2 with its first division win. Most of the afternoon was spent making that harder than it needed to be.
The giveaways were mostly self-inflicted. Up 10-7 late in the second quarter with the ball at the Green Bay 12, Gibbs coughed it up and the Packers recovered at their own 8. Then early in the third quarter, Goff botched a snap at his own 41 and Green Bay fell on it. A couple of minutes later Jordan Love found Josh Jacobs for a 25-yard touchdown and the Packers were ahead 14-10. That’s two fumbles in a game where Detroit outgained Green Bay 415 to 324, and it turned what should have been a comfortable afternoon into a coin flip.
Then there was the fourth-down call. Tied at 17 with just under five minutes left, Dan Campbell went for it on fourth-and-1 from his own 24. Gibbs got stuffed for a loss of two, and Green Bay took over at the Detroit 22. I like that Campbell trusts his offense, and I usually defend these calls. This one I’d have punted. The defense held the Packers to five yards on three plays, and D.J. Wonnum blocked the 35-yard field goal that would have put Green Bay up three. That block saved the game, and it probably saved a week of arguing about the call.
The last drive was the Lions at their best. A roughing the passer flag on a LaPorta catch moved the ball into Green Bay territory, and after that it was mostly Gibbs running right at them while the Packers burned all three timeouts. Goff took a knee to drain the clock and Bates did the rest. Gibbs finished with 116 yards on 29 carries. The team only averaged 3.6 yards a carry, so it wasn’t pretty, but he was the reason they could close it out on the ground.
The passing game carried everything before that. Goff was 22-of-32 for 303 yards and two touchdowns, both to Jameson Williams. Amon-Ra St. Brown caught nine balls for 153 yards and looked like the best player on the field for long stretches. When this offense isn’t handing the ball to the other team, it moves it on anybody.
Now the defense, since two weeks ago I told everyone not to get carried away. Holding Green Bay to 17 points and 324 yards sounds like progress, and against what Detroit had been allowing (just over 400 yards and almost 30 points a game coming in) it is. But check it against Green Bay’s own numbers. The Packers came in averaging about 21 points and 329 yards a game. They got almost exactly their normal yardage, and a few points less than normal with a blocked kick helping out. Love threw 45 times for 274 yards, which is a lot of work for 6.1 yards an attempt, and Brian Branch picked him off to open the fourth quarter. The run defense held Green Bay to 60 yards, though the Packers are under three yards a carry for the season, so that’s less impressive than it looks.
So that’s two straight games of the defense holding an offense to roughly what it usually does. That’s better than the first month, when opponents were moving the ball at will. It’s still a long way from a unit you’d lean on to win a game.
And here comes the team that will test that. Minnesota is 6-0 and comes to Ford Field on Sunday giving up about 12 points a game. Their offense isn’t scaring anyone, but their defense is the kind that turns two lost fumbles into a loss. Against Green Bay the Lions could survive their own mistakes. Against the Vikings I don’t think they get that luxury, and I’d like to see a clean game before I believe they’re ready for a team that good.
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