Okay. Here’s what I wrote in real time while at Ford Field today during the Packers-Lions game, an upset by Detroit which can largely—if not entirely—be accounted for by the game-ending injury sustained by Packers Quarterback Aaron Rogers late in the first half. Although, who knows? It was a 0-0 game when he left. Today’s was the first win by Detroit since October, 1988 in which the Lions scored as few as 7 points.
(We post this now and not as it happened because. as I point out once again, Ford Field charges $30 for internet access and paying that much would seriously damage my game coverage profit margin.)
What a weekend. We got to see the Montreal Canadiens—the most storied of all NHL franchises—Friday night and now this afternoon we’ll see the most storied of all NFL franchises, the Green Bay Packers. That’s true, isn’t it? In terms of history and tradition it’s the Canadiens in hockey, the Packers in Football, the Yankees in Baseball and the Celtics in basketball, don’t you think? At any rate, with this as a backdrop, we say welcome to Ford Field on a snowy, wintery Sunday afternoon.
We always tell you: READ THE GAME NOTES! It is a Cardinal Rule of sportscasting. You learn so much when you do. To wit, here’s what we have come up with this afternoon to prepare you, pre-game, for today’s game. The information comes (indeed the information has been lifted, cut and pasted directly from) the Green Bay Packers Official Game Notes, which they call “The Dope Sheet.” For the record, they are the only team in the NFL to call their game notes that and there’s a story behind it. Green Bay’s first publicist may have invented the very concept of game notes and when he did, he called them, “The Dope Sheet.” In his honor, the Packers have retained that title for their notes. Anyway, here’s the pertinent “Dope” for today’s game:
- No other NFL teams have played every year since 1932, when the Packers and the Lions, then known as the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans, began their yearly home and home series. This is Game No. 163 in the all-time series. Green Bay leads 89-64-7 overall, trails 36-40-3 in Detroit and are 6-2 at Ford Field.
- The Packers’ 10-game winning streak against the Lions is tied for No. 2 among NFL series behind only New England’s 14-game winning streak against Buffalo. The Packers have won 18 of the last 20 against Detroit.
- Green Bay Head Coach Mike McCarthy is 9-0 against the Lions since taking over coaching duties in 2006.
- The Packers have a 20-8 (.714) mark against NFC North opponents under McCarthy, which ranks first among NFC North teams.
- QB Aaron Rodgers has a 109.1 passer rating in nine career starts in domes, with 2,599 passing yards, 18 TDs and just four INTs on 198-of- 296 passing (66.9 percent). His 109.1 passer rating indoors since 2008 ranks No. 1 in the league among NFL quarterbacks over that span. Rodgers has topped 300 yards passing in four of his five career starts against Detroit.
So, now that we have a firm grounding in the history and statistics surrounding this series we are ready to begin, which is a good thing as the (8-4) Packers have just been introduced. Now, the (2-10) Lions trot onto the field accompanied by the usual pyrotechnics: the fog machine, the cannon shots, the loud music and the rest.
The big pre-game news here at Ford Field, by the way, is the announcement that Ford Field will host the New York Giants at Minnesota Vikings game here tomorrow night. The roof of Mall of America Field (formerly the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome) collapsed overnight due to the weight of accumulating snow so the game there today was cancelled (it would have been even if the roof had not caved in because the Giants happen to be stuck in Kansas City, snowed in and unable to fly to Minneapolis) and has been re-scheduled for tomorrow night here at Ford Field. In a delicious irony, this means that the first Monday Night Football game ever to be played at Ford Field will NOT feature the Detroit Lions. There is a rumor that tickets will be free and will be available at the box office starting at 9 a.m. We’ll let you know as soon as we have a confirmation on that. I’d like to come myself, but I can’t. The Wings are hosting the Kings Monday night as I am expected there.
1:03pm: Kick-off. Logan returns, Detroit holds, and the Lions start at their own 8. Typical Lions, don’t you think? The Lions—in a remarkable turn of events, actually try to get the ball to Calvin Johnson, a.k.a. “The Best Receiver in the NFL” not once but twice on the opening series. The first is a bad throw by Drew Stanton, but the second one, on 3rd down, isn’t. The thing is, Johnson, who complained (and rightfully so) about the Lions inability to get him the ball in an interview earlier this week, naturally flat out drops it when the Lions do try to get him the ball and Detroit’s three and out. It’s Lions football in its purest form.
1:08pm: Landon Johnson forces a fumble after a 12-yard Aaron Rogers pass completion and the Lions recover at their own 28. How about that? Detroit stops a Green Bay drive and gets the ball back. The fans, many of whom have apparently stayed home due to the snow, are delighted. There are many, many Green Bay fans here today, but not quite as many as the number of Chicago fans who joined us here last week when the Bears fans actually outshouted the Detroit fans, especially in the second half.
1:15pm A stupid play by Stanton: The Lions had driven to the Green Bay 27 when Stanton, pressured, lobbed it into the end zone for an easy interception by Tramon Williams. This one has some hang time to it. When it was in the air you could tell—and I said out loud—“That is going to be picked off.” And it was. Had Stanton merely thrown the ball out of bounds, Detroit would have at least had a chance to try a field goal. Instead, 1st-and-10 Packers at the 20, still no score with about 9 minutes left in the first.
1:19pm: Turk McBride sacks Rogers on 3rd and one so Detroit winds up getting the ball back. It was a huge 62-yard punt by Tim Masthay of the Packers but Logan returns to the 29 before getting smacked down big time and the Lions have their 3rd possession of this first quarter. It goes nowhere—3-and-out—for the second time in those 3 possessions.
1:28pm: Three-and-out for the Packers, too with the big play a tackle for loss (5-yards) by Ndamukong Suh. This game has turned into a battle of the punters. Stefan Logan—Detroit’s presumptive MVP—picks up 11 on first down but that it. Stanton missed Johnson badly on third down which is too bad because Johnson had a step and if you get the ball to him in stride a step is maybe all he needs to take it to the house but the trow was way behind him and incomplete.
1:35pm: There are flags all over the field and nobody knows what the deal is. A long pass to Greg Jennings is bobbled by Jennings, plucked out of midair by Detroit’s Amari Spievey and he returns 37 yards out to midfield but a block in the back on the return moves the Lions back to the 35. Still, it’s the Lions second takeaway of the first quarter and as we move into the final minute of an turnover-filled quarter, the score remains 0-0. The Lions again fail to garner points off the turnover—another three and out for Detroit and the punt it away. End of the First Quarter: DETROIT 0, GREEN BAY 0.
1:46pm: Green Bay has to punt again. That makes 7 punts today for these two teams today combined and we are only a couple of minutes into the second quarter. Green Bay is playing an altogether mediocre game so far. It’s almost as though they realize a game consists of two halves and they’ve seen how the Lions have done in second halves this season.
1:49pm: The Lions use Calvin Johnson on a reverse and it gains 11. There’s a way to get him the ball. A play later Clay Matthews sacks Stanton for a loss of, get this, 19 yards. It’s 3rd and 25 and so Stanton, trying to pick it up, instead throws his second pick of the game. It’s almost as good as a punt into the end zone, though. Green Bay starts at their own 29.
1:57pm: Make it 8 punts today as Masthay boots it away again for Green Bay. We’ve got 6:43 to go before the half and there is still no score.
2:28pm: Sorry, we’ve been away for a few minutes as I’ve had to do a couple of live updates on Ron Cameron’s show on WDFN. The story is right now that we are at halftime and it remains scoreless. The big story though came late in the quarter when packers QB Rogers, tackled at the end of a long gainer, slammed his head against the Ford Field turf and sustained a concussion. We have been told that Rogers, who was standing on the sidelines wearing a baseball cap while his replacement Matt Flynn was in there for Green Bay’s final possession of the half, will not return. So, this is now a battle of a second-string QB, Flynn, against a third-string QB, Stanton. For the record, Stanton was 3/8 for a grand total of 21 yards through the air in the first half with 2 interceptions. The game has featured 12 punts so far. It has hard to imagine that any of the preceding 162 meetings of these two teams featured less actual football action than has the first half of this one. Halftime: DETROIT 0, GREEN BAY 0.
2:45pm: Detroit’s Landon Johnson is placed on a backboard and carted off the field. The good
news is that Johnson you could see Johnson move his left leg.
2:47pm: Green Bay is moving the ball to start the second half. They began at their own 29 and have it now first-and-ten at the Lions 31.
2:51pm: We have our first points of the game and they go to Green Bay. Mason Crosby kicks a 42-yard field goal. The way the Lions offense looks today, Detroit may now be hopelessly behind. Meanwhile, it is announced that Landon Johnson has sustained a neck injury but does have movement in his extremities. With 10:55 left in the 3rd: DETROIT 0, GREEN BAY 3.
2:56pm: Punt #7 for Detroit and now Stanton is 3-for-11 on the day. Meanwhile, we can see just a little sliver of outside from our press box seat and it looks like it is really coming down out there and it looks like it has really been coming down since an hour or so before this game started. I wonder how many inches will have fallen by the time we get out of here this afternoon.
3:07pm: DeAndre Levy intercepts Flynn in the end zone to end a Green Bay drive which had begun at the Packer 10 and which saw Green Bay move all the way to the Lions 9. In other words, just when it looked like Green Bay was going to go in and score and make it a ten-point ball game, Flynn throws a terrible ball and now Detroit has the ball at the 9.
3:11pm: With less than 3 minutes left in the 3rd, the Lions finally complete a pass to Calvin Johnson. And it’s a big one: 44 yards. Stanton had, up until that time, thrown for 24 yards in the game, total. The Detroit drive stalls three plays later so Dave Rayner comes on to attempt a 48-yard, game-tying field goal. He yanks it left, no good. We’re down to 1:17 left in the 3rd and that Green Bay field goal is holding up. End of the Third Quarter: DETROIT 0, GREEN BAY 3.
3:29pm: Stanton hits Will Heller with a 13-yard TD pass and for the first time today they can play the Lions fight song on the PA system. It’s an impressive Detroit drive—right on down the field: 80 yards in 12 plays, taking 6:37 off the clock. Stanton just dumped it off to Heller around the 20 yard line and the big TE ran over Packers and fell into the end zone for the first Detroit score of the day. The Lions lead. Can they hang on for the remaining 7:55? DETROIT 7. GREEN BAY 3.
3:39pm: I don’t know how to break this to you, but the Lions are going to win this game. There’s 5:27 left and the Lions still lead 7-3 after the Packers again couldn’t move it and Masthay had to punt for the 7th time in the game. Detroit is now in a position to run the clock out if they can pick up a first down or two. Or not. The Detroit punts comes with 4:06 left, so the Lions wound up burning less than 2 minutes off the game clock. The key miscue was Stanton’s incomplete pass to Calvin Johnson on third down. Johnson broke one way, Stanton threw it the other, and the Lions, once again, had to kick it away.
3:45pm: Green Bay took over at their own 9 with 3:58 to go and now, at the 2 Minute Warning, they are at midfield. You have to be thinking that the Lions failure to burn clock when they had the chance the last time they had the ball is going to wind up killing them. Again.
3:57pm: It doesn’t. Green Bay had 3rd and 1 at the Detroit 31 and Flynn tried to throw long. It was incomplete. On 4th and 1, same thing. Flynn tried to go long and again it was incomplete. When the Lions took over on downs there was under a minute to go and Detroit, with Stanton throwing an incomplete bomb on 4th down to burn the final 0:03 off the game clock, holds on for the win. Detroit’s ten-game losing streak to Green Bay ends. It was a win nobody saw coming as Detroit goes to 3-10 while the Packers fall to 8-5. Detroit plays their next 2 in Florida (at Tampa and at Miami) before closing it out (it being the 2010 season) here against Minnesota on January 2nd. Again, the Vikings-Giants game is here tomorrow (Monday) night and its free. I’ll be at the Wings-Kings game and we’ll talk to you then. FINAL: DETROIT 7, GREEN BAY 3.
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