The Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers and completed their sweep of their division rival. Let’s hand out our grades from the Thursday Night win.
Get out your brooms and get ready to do some sweeping off the old porch. The Detroit Lions handled business once again, this time with a 34-31 win over the Green Bay Packers on “Thursday Night Football.”
Let’s jump into some grades and see how things shook out on a night when the Lions clinched their spot in the playoffs and pushed their record to 12-1 on the season.
Quarterback: A-
Before everyone yells at me, hear me out. Apart from the one interception where I believe he thought he saw something pre-snap that was no longer there post-snap (it happens), Goff was surgical against the Packers.
He finished the evening 32-41 for 283 yards, three touchdowns, and the aforementioned interception. Remarkably, he completed at least five receptions to six different pass catchers, a rare accomplishment that has never been done before. He was once again great in the pocket, making small adjustments with his feet before ripping throws to receivers down the field. Patience, precision, and a mastery-level handle on the offense were all on full display during the game-winning drive that helped set up the go-ahead kick by Jake Bates.
Running backs: B+
It wasn’t their most efficient evening but combined running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs still put up 157 yards of total offense, along with two touchdowns.
For the most part, Green Bay did a decent job of slowing down the Lions’ vaunted ground game, but at the same time, when the Lions needed plays, they went to the best running back duo in football.
How many coaches would trust their running back to pick up one yard on fourth-and-1 with only 43 seconds remaining in a tie game? Dan Campbell would. And not only did Montgomery pick up one yard, he picked up an additionally six more and helped wind the clock down to set up Bates’ game-winning kick as time expired.
Wide Receivers: B+
On top of the 11 receptions for 66 yards from the running backs, listen to how well-balanced the Lions’ receivers were against Green Bay. Amon-Ra St. Brown with five catches for 43 yards, Jameson Williams with five catches for 80 yards, and Tim Patrick with six catches for 43 yards and two scores.
St. Brown was his usual consistent self, coming up big on money downs late in the game, while Williams continues to be one of the most explosive players in the NFL. And while neither of those two had monster numbers against the Packers, Patrick’s two second-half touchdowns helped seal things for Detroit.
The reason why the Lions are widely regarded as the best offense in football is because of all the different ways they can threaten opposing defenses. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson forces teams to defend every blade of grass, and with Patrick seemingly fully integrated into the offense—it only makes things more difficult defensively.
Tight ends: A
The statistics aren’t eye-popping for tight end Sam LaPorta, but if you watched the game live, then you know how big he was in crucial moments. He finished the day with five catches for 54 yards on seven targets, and was a chain-mover for Goff against Green Bay.
For one reason or another (possibly his early season injury was lingering), it has taken LaPorta a bit to get going in 2024, but with the regular season schedule now into December, no better time than now to get him fully ramped up and clicking within the offense.
Offensive line: A
As I mentioned earlier, Goff was only sacked one time on Thursday night, allowing him to remain comfortable in the pocket. And beyond that, he really wasn’t under much pressure for most of the evening—even with starting left tackle Taylor Decker in street clothes and reserve tackle Dan Skipper having to step up in his place.
Right guard Kevin Zeitler also missed a bit of time in the middle of the game, and rookie guard Christian Mahogany filled in fine for three snaps while Zeitler was being tended to.
And while I obviously still need to watch the All-22, this looked like another incredible performance once again from All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell. Sewell was a major reason why Montgomery was untouched on the first touchdown for the Lions, and the team continually ran behind him in big moments.
Defensive line: A-
As banged up as this unit was to start the game, it only got worse once star defensive tackle Alim McNeill exited the game with a head injury. Simply put—there may be no other position group in all of the NFL more affected by injury than the Lions’ defensive line.
Despite all of that, Green Bay running back Josh Jacobs was held to just 66 yards on 18 carries. And while quarterback Jordan Love was only sacked once, the Lions were able to tally seven quarterback hits and generate another two tackles for loss.
Linebackers: B
Apart from allowing Love to escape while he had a free run at the quarterback, it was another strong showing from linebacker Jack Campbell. He played all 50 snaps on defense and racked up eight total tackles as well as a quarterback hit of his own.
Beyond him, the Lions also got strong performances from Ezekiel Turner, Kwon Alexander, and David Long. Turner came up with a clutch tackle on Love late in the game that ended up forcing a field goal from Green Bay to tie things up, while Long came away with a fumble recovery after cornerback Carlton Davis III jarred the ball loose from Packers receiver Christian Watson.
Defensive backs: B-
It wasn’t a perfect performance from the defensive backs, but overall—they did enough to win the game against an offense with plenty of firepower. Love finished with a pedestrian 206 yards and one touchdown on the day, and his lone big play was when Watson got a few steps on Carlton Davis down the sideline for a 59-yard completion.
Apart from the one deep shot, Davis came away with a pass break up, and a forced fumble. Also, let’s give some credit to cornerback Amik Robertson. Packers receiver Jayden Reed is one of the more dynamic slot receivers in the game, and he was held to zero receptions on the night. Just out there doing cardio thanks to Robertson.
Special teams: A
Another game-winner for Jake Bates and another gameball for the rookie kicker. The moment never seems to be too big for him, and for that—all of Detroit and the entire fan base is very grateful.
Coaching: A+
Listen, people outside of this team and fan base are always going to second-guess Dan Campbell’s decisions. And to be perfectly honest, I really do not care. Over and over again, his decisions help propel this team to win. Yes, sometimes going for it in your own territory will come back to bite you, but if they picked that up—nobody is talking about it.
With the decision to hand the ball off to Montgomery, I completely understand that thought process. The Lions could have kicked there and gone ahead with just under 40 seconds remaining in the game. But as we know, Campbell loves to finish games on offense. Your defense is short-handed and the Packers offense is dangerous even with no timeouts remaining.
Defensively, this was another master class from defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn.
“Hell of a job by AG, and those guys just laid it on the line,” Campbell said during his postgame media availability. “We call them the northern savages, they just roll right in the door, and they’re in the game. It’s a hell of a job”
We have to give Glenn a ton of credit for being able to get all of the newcomers up to speed on such short notice.
“So, we just, we wanted to trim it back to where those guys could play fast, and that was really just cut it loose,” said Campbell of the defensive gameplan. “It’s not going to be perfect, it doesn’t need to be perfect, and so with that, any burden we can take off you guys to where you can just cut it loose. We knew there may be some errors, but I just want to turn on the tape and know the effort and the finish is there, and we’re going after the football, finding a way to get a takeaway. We got a takeaway. It was huge, man it was huge. Carlton Davis (III), big punch out there. Then we’ll shuffle the load a little bit to the offense or special teams if need be.”
