Coming into the Thanksgiving matchup, everyone knew the Green Bay Packers (5-6) were going to have its hands full with an aggressive Detroit Lions (8-3) coaching staff.
Dan Campbell has become infamous for his 4th down decisions and strategy. He’s notorious when it comes to going for it on the key down and it’s become a staple of the team’s winning record.
“He’s got big balls, and he showed it there,” Lions quarterback Goff said a couple weeks ago when he was asked about Campbell’s decision to go for it late in the game instead of kicking a go-ahead field goal against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Well, as Michael Scott would say, “Snip, snap.”
It had been working well, too. Coming into the game, the Lions ranked 13th in 4th down conversion rate at 54.5%. The key there is the fact that out of the 15 teams with at least 15 attempts, the Lions were just one of four teams to convert at least 12 of their attempts.
But on Thursday, the Packers shut down Campbell and the Lions’ 4th down prowess. And it wasn’t from a lack of trying on the Lions side of things: They went 0-for-5 on 4th down.
A few of the failed attempts were simply bad decisions, like Campbell’s decision to fake a punt on a 4th and 5 at his own 22-yard line. That call essentially nuked any chance of a Lions comeback, but hats off to the Packers for sniffing the play out and shutting it down.
In fact, that was the case on every 4th down attempt. Joe Barry and co. had a plan for every play and it played a huge role in Thursday’s win. The Lions gave up nine potential points deciding to go for it and they lost by seven.
“We knew exactly what type of game it was going to be,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love said after the game. “We know what happened the first time we played them. So you know, we had their number. We’ve been waiting for this game for a while. So just being out there and going through the performance that we had today was something that we were definitely looking forward to.”
The Packers defense came to play
Week 4 was an awful night for the Packers defense, as the Lions offense just ran through the unit like an undercooked cheeseburger at 3AM. But, on this Thursday, the defense routinely stopped the Lions and kept applying pressure.
In fact, it was a reverse performance on both sides of the ball. The offense had an awful night in Week 4, itself, but both units were clicking on Thanksgiving. As a result, the Packers’ season has as much optimism -if not more- than it had after the Week 1 road win over the Chicago Bears.
A big issue this year has been the Packers’ inability to play complementary football. Week 12 showed what this team is capable of when both sides help each other out.
“We talked about complementary football [and] we did a good job of getting a stop defensively, then special teams comes through and makes a big-time play and that translated into a touchdown,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said when talking about the failed fake punt. “So, obviously, [it was] just a very important sequence in the game.”
There is still a long way to go, but the Packers will be in very good shape if they keep growing like they have over the last three weeks. That’s the next step in turning the 2023 season around.