It wasn’t exactly pretty, although it did have its moments, but the Green Bay Packers did what they had to do and beat the Lions 26-0 to improve to 3-2. The Lions fielded the equivalent of a”B” team and never came close to mounting any kind of challenge to the Packers. The only team that could stop the Packers Sunday was the Packers and they did an excellent job of that with more penalties and sacks. I guess two weeks of cleaning the house wasn’t enough.
Head coach Mike McCarthy better find a new vacuum and scrub brush because whatever he is using to “clean our house” is not working. 13 penalties against the Lions? That is ridiculous, but not any more ridiculous than five more sacks of Aaron Rodgers. The Packers can beat the Lions and probably the Browns next week playing like that, but the Vikings will most assuredly give them beat-down number two when the teams meet again November 1. Rodgers did have a little more time to execute and had an excellent day with 350 yards passing and a TD on his way to a 113 passer rating.
The Packers defense welcomed Clay Matthews to the starting lineup and he was an instant hit. I love Brady Poppinga but I’m barring injury he won’t be playing much linebacker anymore for the Packers. Matthews looks to be everything the the Packers thought he was and he needs to be is on the field getting better and better each week. I think the Packers’ defense will improve as the year goes on as they learn what they can and can’t do in the new scheme. We already might be seeing more of Aaron Kampman lined up at end than we did the first four games and Kampman seemed to respond favorably.
We really can’t tell much about this win because the Lions are so depleted, but it is a win and game one of the two must-win games is in the books. The Browns are up and the Packers might actually be able to pick up some ground on the Vikings with a win. The Steelers are early four point favorites over he Queens in Pittsburgh. Just once I’d like to see complete and total domination. I mean, five weeks into the season we shouldn’t have our quarterback faking a hand-off to thin-air like Rodgers had to do Sunday, that was embarrassing. I guess we’ll see Sunday if any cleaning gets done this week.