The Green Bay Packers finally ended their losing streak, just not quite in the manner in which they would have hoped. A 26-26 tie with the Vikings did allow them to pick up a half-game in the standings with the Lions and Bears getting beat Sunday. And the bottom line is win five and win the division. Kind of hard to think that when they haven’t won since October, but it is what it is.
Matt Flynn. Are you kidding me? Here’s a guy who has been traded once and cut twice this year and he comes back to Green Bay and nearly pulls out an incredible win. With any help at all from the Packers’ defense he would have. It was an impressive performance in relief of Scott Tolzien, who took a major step backwards after two somewhat promising performances. Clearly Tolzien was worried about throwing an interception and didn’t show the confidence and poise he did in his previous two outings.
Just like that we may have seen the last of Tolzien as one would think Flynn will be happy to stay here and backup Aaron Rodgers for the rest of his career. He tried being a starter and it didn’t work out. He sure knows and seems to like this offense and that was evident from the second he entered the game yesterday. Even with little practice he knew where guys were and generally found the open man.
And it should be no surprise that with an improved passing game Eddie Lacy was able to get untracked again. Lacy ran for 110 yards running his season total to 806, closing in on the 1000-yard mark in his rookie year. His rushing total ranks 8th in the league. Lacy also proved to be an excellent option catching the ball out of the backfield, grabbing six balls for 48 more yards.
With the offense showing signs of life, the defense is pretty much dead and bloated. They simply can’t make a big play when one is needed. The secondary very seldom gets their hands on the ball and when they do they usually drop it like Davon House did yesterday. Something is seriously wrong with the defense and I can’t see it getting better anytime soon.
There just seems to be no life on the defensive side of the ball. You never see anybody get fired up and rally the troops. Is the scheme so complicated they are thinking too much instead of having fun out there? And why can’t they make adjustments like other teams do? Are the players that bad or is it the coaching? Sadly, those are questions likely to be answered in the offseason, for now the Packers’ offense better get back to it’s high-scoring ways starting Thursday at Detroit.
I expect Rodgers to be back for Atlanta on December 8 so a win Thursday would be huge. It’s the Lions for crying out loud. Get it done!