Every week, there are key stats that define the Green Bay Packers performance. In “Behind the Numbers,” I dive into what those figures are and the impact they had on the game.
As the old saying goes, you control the trenches, you control the game, and that’s what the Lions did against the Packers. The Lions dominated the run game on both sides of the ball, and that success spilled over into the passing game, resulting in a convincing victory for Detroit.
Buy Packers Tickets“Give Detroit a lot of credit. They came in and whooped us pretty good,” said Matt LaFleur.
Below, I highlight a few other contributors to this lopsided outcome, but ultimately, the Lions’ ability to control the line of scrimmage was the defining aspect of this game. Here is a closer look at five important stats and how these results affected Green Bay’s performance.
211 vs. 27: Lions rush yards compared to the Packers
Do you want to know how this game quickly turned into a dominating performance for the Lions? Well, it all starts right here with the run game. This matchup with Detroit was always going to be a difficult one for the Packers because success started with doing two things this team isn’t very good at, which is running the ball and stopping the run.
The Lions rushed for 211 yards against Green Bay at 4.9 yards per attempt. Conversely, the Packers averaged only 2.9 yards per carry while totaling 27 rush yards. For Detroit, they were able to stay ahead of first down markers, open up opportunities in the passing game, and control the time of possession. For Green Bay, they had a number of short drives, and the lack of early down success put them in obvious passing situations.
“I think any time you go out there,” said LaFleur. “and you can’t effectively run the football and conversely can’t stop the run, that’s a recipe for losing football and that’s what happened tonight. Give Detroit credit. We knew they were a tough opponent, but they manhandled us really in every phase.”
47% vs. 29%: Love's pressure rate compared to Goff's pressure rate
Green Bay’s strategy right out of the gates was to try to throw the ball. The run game hadn’t been able to get going at all this season, and run defense is a strength of this Lions team. They entered Thursday’s game, allowing just 3.2 yards per rush. The Detroit secondary was also dealing with injuries. However, if the offensive line can’t hold up, and they didn’t from the first snap on with two quick pressures from Aidan Hutchinson, not much else matters.
Due to a lack of early down success, both in the run and passing games, the Packers faced a lot of second and third-and-longs. This allowed a very good Lions’ pass rush to be aggressive and get after Jordan Love, which they did, and, in general, it allowed the defense to do the dictating by getting into favorable matchups. Love was pressured on 47 percent of his dropbacks, according to PFF. At that rate, it doesn’t much matter what the play call is, the play has little chance of succeeding.
On the flip side, the Lions’ success on the ground put them in advantageous down and distances. This set up play-action, opened up the passing game, allowed Goff to rely on the quick game, and all of that took some of the bite away from the Packers’ pass rush because, on second and third and shorts, they can’t strictly go and get the quarterback–they also have to be worried about defending the run game. In short, the defense was on its heels for much of the game.
Pressuring Goff was a must for the Packers. As we saw, if he has time in the pocket, he will pick defenses apart. However, he was under pressure only 29 percent of the time, which for context, over the course of the season, would have ranked 27th in the NFL.
1: Number of targets for Aaron Jones
Given how poor the run blocking was, I’m not sure giving Aaron Jones additional rush attempts would have mattered. I did, however, expect to see him take on a larger role in the passing game. The Lions’ entered this game as one of the worst defenses in football at defending running backs in the passing game, ranking 28th by DVOA. Utilizing Jones in the passing game could have exploited a weakness in this defense, got him the ball in space to make plays, and perhaps even helped limit the Detroit pass rush by allowing Love to get the ball out of his hands quickly. Instead, Jones was targeted only once the entire game.
Time of possession and total plays
Again, as is the theme of this article, you can trace the issues back to the Packers’ struggles in the ground game on both sides of the ball. The Lions ran 20 more plays than the Packers’ offense did, and Detroit held the ball for nearly 16 minutes longer. A lack of complimentary football ultimately leads to results like this. Issues on early downs put the Packers in third-and-longs, leading to short drives for the offense. Meanwhile, the defense’s inability to stop the run leads to long drives for the opponent. You’re not going to win many games when there is that large of a discrepancy in total plays ran and time of possession.
Too many special teams miscues
I don’t have a specific number to reference here, so I’ll go with “too many,” in that there have been way too many mistakes by the Packers special teams unit through four games. There’s been penalties, muffed punt attempts, a punt return for a touchdown allowed, and the kick return unit has not given the offense good starting field position. Either Keisean Nixon has to stop taking the ball out so often, or the blocking has to be better. It wouldn’t have much mattered against Detroit, given how poorly the game went, but the Packers’ average starting field position for much of the game was not good.
On the bright side, both rookies, Daniel Whelan and Anders Carlson, have looked good. In fact, Carlson is perfect on both extra point and field goal attempts. In Year 2 under Rich Bisaccia and with a continued emphasis put into this phase of the game by Green Bay, the special teams unit has not played up to its potential through the early portion of this season.
