Green Bay, Wis. — When it rains, it pours.
And for now, what we’ve learned about the Lions after two games this season is exactly what the forecast predicted. Frankly, it’s what Dan Campbell warned everyone about, too. Because while the Lions’ new head coach is as positive as they come, he’s also honest to a fault.
Simply put, the Lions aren’t good enough yet to weather storms like the one that came rumbling into Lambeau Field on Monday night. They aren’t good enough to withstand the sort of stumbles and fumbles that came with it, either. The roster depth is too shallow, the young talent too raw, the defense too fragile.
All of that was on display in Monday’s 35-17 loss in Green Bay, as Aaron Rodgers and the Packers turned a halftime deficit into a fourth-quarter rout just as the skies opened up.
What followed an impressive start for the double-digit underdogs from Detroit was everything the Lions couldn’t afford. A failed fourth-down try. Another injury in the secondary. Critical penalties on defense. And then a fumbled snap that left quarterback Jared Goff face down in the wet turf, as the Packers’ defense took the turnover and paraded it into the end zone, posing like the trophy hunters their fans have come to expect in this self-proclaimed Titletown.
“We’re not allowed to make those mistakes,” Campbell said.
He’s right, of course. But that razor-thin margin of error leaves almost no room for this team to win right now, at least against a team this talented and motivated. Rodgers and the Packers have been to the last two NFC championship games, and after getting embarrassed by New Orleans in their season opener a week ago, the Lions knew what they were up against here.
“I think we maybe tried to show that we cared a little bit more tonight,” said Rodgers, who has never started a season 0-2 in his 14 years as a starter. “There’s so many overreactions that happen on a week-to-week basis. But it’s nice to come out, have a good performance and get the trolls off our back for at least a week.”
He made sure of that by doing what he’s done often in his career, picking apart the Lions’ defense in the second half as Green Bay scored 21 unanswered points.
Still, if you ask Campbell — and really, he offered this up unsolicited — it wasn’t Detroit’s defense that let him down.
“I put this on our offense,” he said. “Offensively, we have to be able to outscore a team like this. That’s just how I see it. Why? Because it turned into that type of game again.”
And when it did, the Lions faltered. Badly.
The trouble started with a failed fourth-and-1 play at the Packers’ 25-yard line, where the Lions got aggressive — another good sign from Campbell — but maybe too aggressive with the play call. A shotgun formation took away some of the run threat, and a dwindling play clock might’ve kept Goff from checking to a run. (Goff was grumbling about some “weird play-clock things” on the road afterward, too.) Whatever the case, his throw to Quintez Cephus — tight end T.J. Hockenson was the first option on the play — was slightly off-target and fell incomplete.
The Packers’ ensuing drive was aided by two Lions’ penalties — one on rookie Jerry Jacobs and another on veteran Alex Anzalone — that immediately followed flags that had put Green Bay in first-and-20 situations. And when Rodgers hit Aaron Jones for an 11-yard score to make it 28-17, the Lambeau crowd was rollicking in the rain.
The Lions were on the brink, and then promptly ended any suspense about the final outcome. Goff, who’d played nearly flawless football in the first half, fumbled the first-down snap from center Frank Ragnow and the Packers recovered at Detroit’s 23. He’d fumble again on a third-down pass attempt on the Lions’ next possession as well, and asked late if the rain-slicked football was an issue, Goff shrugged.
“It shouldn’t be,” he said. “It gave us issues. It gave me issues, specifically. But it shouldn’t be.”
And it’s too bad it was, because for the first half of this game the Lions showed what they could be offensively. They scored on three of their four first-half possession Monday, and might’ve on the fourth as well, if not for a series of penalties that stalled that drive when they reached midfield.
The offensive line, which is living up to the offseason hype even with Taylor Decker on injured reserve, was opening holes in the run game and gave Goff all the time he needed when he dropped back to pass. He hit Cephus for a deep shot early — something that was missing in Week 1 against the 49ers — and Hockenson again showed what a weapon he is becoming with eight more catches Monday, including a toe-tap TD grab on a gem from Goff midway through the second quarter.
But as good as things looked then, the dark clouds were looming.
“I felt like we were really rolling in that first half,” Ragnow said. “But we’ve got to play a full game. If you’ve got to keep scoring, you’ve got to keep scoring. It is on us.”
It is, because the defense clearly has a long way to go. Monday night, the Lions followed the same blueprint the Saints used in Week 1 to try to limit Rodgers, with two-high safety looks and only a handful of blitzes from Aaron Glenn’s unit in this game.
Eventually, though, Rodgers started to exploit the middle of the Lions’ defense — and the linebackers in particular — by utilizing Aaron Jones out of the backfield and hitting tight end Robert Tonyan down the seam. (It might be time to give rookie Derrick Barnes some Jamie Collins’ snaps. Or Anzalone’s, for that matter.) Jones and Tonyan accounted for all five of the Packers’ touchdowns Monday, and Rodgers, the reigning NFL MVP, finished the night 22-of-27 for 255 yards and four touchdowns without an interception.
Green Bay converted on all five of its third-down plays in those three touchdown drives to start the second half, and the average yards to gain on those plays (10.2) was both a sign of progress (I guess?) and a reminder of just how far the Lions have to go to be competitive defensively.
“We just gotta find a way to stop the bleeding,” said cornerback Amani Oruwariye, who lost another starter opposite him Monday when rookie Ifeatu Melifonwu went down with a thigh injury that could be serious. “We’re gonna get there. I feel like we got better today. We got better in different ways. But we still gotta clean it all up.”
And that was essentially Campbell’s message in the postgame locker room. He knows how low the expectations are for this year’s team, given all the losing that preceded him and the youth movement that played out this offseason. He’s also aware of the same-old-Lions talk that’ll linger around this franchise until it wins something substantial or can claim something other than moral victories.
“But I just told ’em, ‘I don’t want to see that (expletive),” Campbell said. “I’m not a negative person. I’m all about going to work. I want guys that are resilient. … Those are the guys I’m looking for, man.
“I want guys who are looking for solutions. People who are (saying). ‘We’re gonna fix our mess.’ Because we put ourselves in this mess.”
That last part is debatable, I suppose. But for now, the rest is absolutely true. And make no mistake, the forecast won’t change until the Lions are ready to do just that.
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JohnNiyo