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The Lions control the NFC North after blowing out the Packers, 24-14

Online Niel November 5, 2024

Green Bay, Wisconsin. – Any time, any place.

This was one of the Detroit Lionsmottos under head coach Dan Campbell.

And they lived it up to the max Sunday in Green Bay, where they walked into a wet, soggy Lambeau Field, decimated the division-leading rival Green Bay Packers on the line and maintained their No. 1 seed of the NFC with a 24. -14 victory that was much more decisive than the final score indicated.

“We’re built for it, man. It doesn’t matter. Just because we’re playing inside, it doesn’t matter,” Campbell said. “We can play anywhere. We can play in the snow, in the rain, in the mud; it’s just us and we’re made to win.”

For the second time in four games, the Lions (7-1) turned a highly anticipated America’s Game of the Week into a quick victory. Detroit defeated the Dallas Cowboys, 47-9, in America’s Game of the Week in Week 6. In the two games, they allowed just one touchdown.

The Lions have now won three straight games at Lambeau Field — a former house of horrors for Detroit — for the first time since 1986-88. The Lions are 2-0 in the division to start this season. However, the Lions weren’t going to take any victory laps with a rematch between the two teams looming in Detroit on December 5th.

After a 34-20 win at Lambeau last season, the Lions were defeated 29-22 on Thanksgiving at Ford Field.

“They’ll be ready next time we play them, but for now, this win is big for us,” Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. said. Brown, who entered the stadium on Sunday. wearing a hoodie that read: “GREENBAY SUCKS.”

Earlier in the week, Packers safety Xavier McKinney said the Lions were “trying to embarrass people,” telling reporters the Green Bay organization and its players “really don’t take it lightly.”

To their credit, the Packers avoided getting blown out after trailing, 24-6, entering the fourth quarter. Green Bay added a touchdown and a two-point conversion with 3:46 left in the game to cut the deficit and make the scoreboard a little nicer.

But Detroit had its way with the home team despite persistent rain — conditions that, going into the game, many pundits thought would favor the Packers — and Green Bay made all of the game’s critical errors.

The Packers had 10 penalties to Detroit’s five and committed several critical drops while also missing most of their opportunities. With 10:07 left in the game and Detroit holding a 24-6 lead, Packers wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks was wide open and had a third-down pass go right through his hands in the end zone, and Green Bay turned over- a down. the next song.

The critical error came with 32 seconds left in the first half. After Detroit added a field goal to take a 10-3 lead with 58 seconds left, Packers quarterback Jordan Love made the worst decision of the game. Looking to avoid a sack by Lions quarterback Alex Anzalone, he attempted to throw the ball back to running back Josh Jacobs, but was intercepted by Kerby Joseph for a pick-six that gave the Lions a 17-3 lead. Detroit getting the ball to start the third quarter.

As he was coming up on a blitz, Joseph shed two blockers, looked up and the ball was right there.

“I just saw Jordan Love throw the ball, so I jumped up and the ball was right there,” Joseph said. “Shout out to Levi (Onwuzurike). He got that block for me and then I knew it was a touchdown, but I really couldn’t believe it. But I just want to say, shout out to my team.”

The Lions made the most of the opportunity and drove down the field with a nine-play, 71-yard drive, culminating in a 15-yard touchdown run in the gut by Jahmyr Gibbs to make it 24-3.

Gibbs had 65 rushing yards on 11 carries and set the NFL record for most consecutive games averaging over 5.0 yards per carry (seven).

St. Brown started the scoring for Detroit with a 3-yard touchdown run and totaled seven catches for 56 yards. Lions quarterback Jared Goff — often criticized for being much better inside than outside — went 18-for-22 for 145 yards and a touchdown. He nearly had another perfect pass in the first half, but threw an incomplete pass on his final attempt to finish 11-for-12 in the first two quarters.

Goff, who has gone 12-for-12 or better in the first half three times this season, joked when he learned of the stat that he should have taken a sack on his last attempt of the half.

“I didn’t know that. I should have taken a sack, it probably would have helped,” he said.

St. Brown called Goff’s performance “super impressive.”

“I’m out there freezing my ass off and I don’t know how they’re going to throw in that weather with the rain, the wind,” said St. Brown. “He hardly seemed to mind.”

Packers running back Josh Jacobs had 10 carries in the first half for 89 yards, but the Packers were forced away from the running game as they tried to claw back a double-digit deficit for the entire second half. He finished with 95 yards on 13 carries. Love finished the game 23-for-39 passing for 273 yards, no touchdowns and one interception, while former Michigan State star Jayden Reed led all receivers with 113 yards.

The Packers, who entered Sunday with the league’s 25th-ranked red zone offense, went on a 14-play drive to start the game, but settled for a 30-yard field goal by Brandon McManus to go up, 3-0. , when running back Chris Brooks dropped a third-down pass over the middle to end the threat.

The Packers were 1-4 in the red zone, with their only score coming in the final minutes of the game.

“We’re doing a good job of eliminating those points. We stop people from getting seven there and look, that was one of the biggest differences in the game,” Campbell said.

When the Lions first got the ball, they had a similarly tough 13-play drive. After going on fourth-and-goal at the 5, Detroit baited Green Bay into an encroachment penalty that made it first-and-goal at the 3. St. Brown made a ferocious double move on Packers defensive back Keisean Nixon and made a toe catch on a perfect back-shoulder pass from Goff to go up 7-3 in the opening game of of the second quarter.

“We’ve worked on it in the past and I thought it would be good this week. I thought at the end of the day it was just him and me making a play,” Goff said. “The guy actually covered it pretty well, I went behind him, he made a great catch and his celebration was pretty good too.”

After starting its second drive with a 37-yard run up the middle by Jacobs, Green Bay suffered a brutal fumble penalty before third-and-3 from the Detroit 32, forcing the Packers to punt a pass that fell incomplete and drove. to a point.

Lions safety Brian Branch was ejected with 6:18 left in the second quarter for a head-to-head hit on Packers wide receiver Bo Melton. Branch was clearly not thrilled with the decision and received an additional unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for appearing to flip his middle fingers on the Green Bay sideline, resulting in a 30-yard penalty. The Packers couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity, however, and McManus missed a 46-yard field goal to end the drive.

“They just said it was coming from (the league office in) New York,” Campbell said. “That’s all I got. It’s the first time I’ve been a part of something like this, since I’ve been a head coach, that somebody’s been ejected. So I haven’t seen that. No I don’t know.”

Detroit extended its lead with 58 seconds left in the half with a 10-play, pass-happy drive. Detroit got to Green Bay’s 9-yard line before Goff threw his first incompletion of the game (he went 11-of-11 for 86 yards) on third down, and the Lions settled for a 27-yard field goal yards from Bates. up 10-3.

“We trust (Goff) and it’s worked out well for us,” Campbell said.

The Lions then built a 17-3 halftime lead on Joseph’s first career pick-six and sixth interception of the season. Joseph’s pick-six was the Green Bay Lions’ first since 1979.

Green Bay went on a 38-yard field goal by McManus with 48 seconds left in the third quarter to cut Green Bay’s deficit to 24-6.

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