The Packers win the ugliest shutout in history!

Although the Packers won with a convincing score of 26-0, I was very disappointed with the way they played. I’ve basically come to the conclusion that they’re not going to get much better as the season goes on. In fact, I don’t think they can get a wild card playing like this.

The problems the Packers had against the Lions are the same problems they’ve had all season. My posts start to sound like broken records. The Packers had a staggering number of penalties, sacks, turnovers and dropped passes that stopped the scoring drive in its tracks. As much talent and potential as there is on the offensive side of the ball, that’s also where most of our problems lie. The only bright spot in the game was our defense. The Lions are pretty pathetic and the Packers should have scored more touchdowns.
 
Bigby’s return was actually the only bright spot for the Packers. The impact was immediately apparent.

Having two starting-caliber safeties really allows the defensive coordinator to open up his entire playbook. Capers was able to do a lot of different things with the corners that he couldn’t do when Bigby wasn’t there. When Bigby left, Capers had to keep Woodson and Harris in cover because backup security was so shaky. But Bigby’s presence allows Capers to bring in either or both of them in confusing blitz packages. This is essential to the 3-4 defensive scheme the Packers are trying to execute.
 
But that’s where the encouraging things stop. Detroit entered the game with just five defensive linemen and three of its starters were out. Given Clifton’s return and Detroit’s lack of personnel, Rodgers should have had great protection throughout the game. But that just didn’t happen. Rodgers was sacked five times and four times in the first half. A couple of those were wasted blocking assignments and a couple of those were definitely Aaron Rodgers’ fault.

The offensive line has been horrible this year, but Rodgers needs to do a better job of feeling the pressure and moving away from it or throwing the ball. A couple of times he just moved right into the pressure. He’s done a good job of not throwing interceptions, but he really needs to spend a lot of time working on throwing the ball.
 
To make matters worse, Clifton got hurt again. I don’t know for sure how serious he is, but it seemed like he wouldn’t be available for the all-important rematch against the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 1. It doesn’t look good anymore. There’s almost no way we can win that game without Clifton there. It will be very difficult even if he plays.
 
The Packers’ running game is also very, very poor. They couldn’t run the ball at all until the fourth quarter. And that’s only because Detroit’s defensive line couldn’t get any breaks the entire game, and they didn’t even start! I don’t know which is worse, the run block or the pass block.

Either way, Thompson had better be aggressive about getting some more decent linemen to wear Green Bay uniforms in the offseason. Thompson has had very good drafts and has put a lot of good players on the Packers’ roster in a short period of time. However, if he doesn’t do everything in his power to get better linemen this offseason, I’ll definitely jump on the anti-Thompson bandwagon.
 
Among all these negative aspects, which is the worst of all? You’ll have to go to PackerAuthority.com to find out…