Offense hums early before Packers hold off Lions 34-27

After giving up an early lead, the Lions came up just short of making a comeback. Marvin Jones had two impressive touchdowns and over 200 yards receiving – his career best – in the losing effort. Nelson seemed to open up the field for everyone, and the offense clicked along nicely, however it is worth noting that Lacy’s dominance indicates a Lion defense running far below capacity.

The Packers scored just four plays later to go up 14-3. Here are my notes from the game.

The Packers improve to 2-1 with the victory.

“That’s all about spacing and timing and receivers getting off their press coverage and then throwing an accurate football”, said Rodgers, whose tone-setting three-step throws included a 14-yard touchdown to Davante Adams on a slant on the opening series of the game and another strike to tight end Jared Cook for a 15-yard pickup and a first down earlier in the drive.

FAST FACTS: WR Anquan Boldin caught a TD pass last week, his first with the Lions. But Rodgers had a critical 11-yard run on third-and-8 from the Packers 27 with 3:22 left to effectively seal the win. He is a big-time threat with the ball in his hands from anywhere on the field, and he showed it on that play. Matt Prater missed a 43-yarder, wasting a decent Lions drive. Now QB Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions look to win on the road today. Aaron Rodgers-to-Jordy Nelson is a big deal once again.

Green Bay Packers CB LaDarius Gunter breaks up a pass by Lions QB Matthew Stafford to the end zone intended for WR Marvin Jones Sunday afternoon in Green Bay.

They went into halftime with a 31-10 lead. “But we had a lot of explosive plays and played at a real high level, particularly in the first half”. “I think they played well and played tough, we just played poorly in the first half”.

Receivers kept dropping passes and the Lions were stopping Lacy at crucial times.

The two players were downgraded on Saturday after previously being listed as doubtful. They did not punt until the fourth quarter.

DET-Jones Jr. 35 yard pass from M.Stafford (M.Prater kick), 3:34. The play cut the lead to just seven, with over three minutes left.

While Rodgers finished the day with only 205 passing yards, the first-half numbers were startling: Rodgers was 12 of 18 for 174 yards and the four scores for a rating of 137.5.

The Packers need to hope some of that magic carries over to this game.

Final Score: Packers-34, Lions-27.

Over the past few years, these two rivals have had some entertaining contests, most especially in the last season’s infamous win of the Green Bay Packers. Stafford made multiple throws that could have easily been intercepted, but were dropped by the Packers. “I mean, it does”. Following up last week’s impressive performance, Jones caught 6 balls for 205, and 2 touchdowns. When I’m in full sprint, I have trouble with just about every single one of my five senses.

Taylor starts opposite of Ansah on Detroit’s defensive line, and is coming off a productive game against the Titans last week.

He’s already in most of the Lions’ goal-line sets, and if he gets hot, there’s no reason the Lions won’t get him more involved in the running game. “It’s no excuse”, safety Glover Quin said – but the Lions didn’t force a turnover for the second time in three games and got no meaningful pressure on Rodgers without Ansah, their best pass rusher. They’d need to re-establish themselves at home against NFC North foes, while Detroit would like to build on its breakthrough previous year at Lambeau Field.