This Thanksgiving will be different.
This Thanksgiving, traditions may carry on for the average family’s feast—but not the Lions’ feast. As an average family, go ahead and enjoy that double serving of gravy-soaked turkey and, more importantly, that four-quarter serving of turf-stained football. For the first time in 13 years, the matchup holds high chances that the annual eye feast of pigskin will have the Lions not getting skinned; by the looks of it, they’ll be shredding Wisconsin cheese.
An identity-searching Green Bay Packers pack (5-5-1, though accustomed to being 8-3 at this point) travels to Ford Field to butt heads with an identity-found Detroit Lions pack (6-5, though two losses were each by three).
These Packers hobble into the week 13 matchup more damaged than an anger management room’s drywall. They have had five Pro Bowl players from last year either hurt or off the team this season, along with tackle Chad Clifton, a near pro bowl selection, also hurt. They’re like fatigued Acme packers from the ’30s, most of all their top workers off duty and deprived of their back pills. Their interns, their deep-into-the-sideline players, have been pulled into the rigorous trenches to work the big show.
Whether it’s receiver Jarrett Boykin replacing James Jones for a couple games, tight end Andrew Quarless replacing Jermichael Finley for the season, a considerate handful of young guns have played up to their demanding potential at the skill position. Randall Cobb, arguably their best receiver, has been out all season, forcing Jordy Nelson to move into his spot and have younger guys step into Jordy’s old spot.
But the inevitable spotlight magnet is the replacement under center, the backup quarterback. With Packers head coach Mike McCarthy, along with Cheesehead Nation, so comfortably adapted to Aaron Rodgers playing things infant-carrier safe, Rodgers’ first major injury of his career—high school, college, or NFL—came as a shell-shock.
How could the guy ESPN ranked at the start of the season as the #1 player in the NFL—who always slid cautiously after short scampers and precariously navigated his offense in a crafty, never-get-hurt fashion—suddenly get hurt? A fractured collar bone? Packer morale couldn’t believe it, but they can’t say they didn’t see it coming; Rodgers’ offensive line allowed him to get sacked more than anybody else was last year.
The injury gave in return a true storyline of football. Such a reoccurring devastation finally clobbered the team’s offensive catalyst, the team’s glimmer of hope for a solid place in the NFC North. Without that catalyst, they’re 0-3-1 and have dropped to third in the division.
Detroit can relate. The Lions have roared more in pain than in victorious pride for various seasons throughout this past half of the decade. In that aspect, this season, Detroit and Green Bay have flipped the norm across Lake Michigan in complete opposite.
Detroit now thrives off the overall health of the core group; even Nate Burleson is back and ready to play. Green Bay, on the other hand, has had everybody and their cousin gone. This is not to dismiss that the players currently back, like Pro Bowl linebacker Clay Matthews and last year’s touchdown reception leader James Jones, have been contributors since their returns. But their absence has been the greater effect on the team. Jones has missed two games with a knee injury and, for the most part, hasn’t been even a sliver of his old self since.
The fact of the matter is that the Green Bay Packers have been banged up. Bad. Detroit? Quarterback Matthew Stafford, who has been plagued with shoulder and knee injuries up until 2011, now has been playing injury-free since week four of last season. His running back, Reggie Bush, who has played in only two full seasons through his first seven seasons, has only sat once in the first 11 games this season.
The side stories—strung through characters on the sideline—are all bandaged on the opposite side of the field now. So that’s the case of weapons this matchup will have flying around the field. The most intriguing outlook on Thanksgiving is how these weapons on the field will be used. Aaron Rodgers, presuming he’ll be sidelined again, is going to have to watch Matt Flynn start over Scott Tolzien. Remember: the last time Flynn played against the Lions with a yellow helmet on, he threw for six touchdowns on nearly 500 yards.
That’s the same performance that landed him contracts with the Seahawks, Raiders, and Bills, all of which ending unsuccessfully. And here he is, back in a scheme he’s familiar with, the stage all his again. The wheel is Flynn’s, and he’ll be asked to navigate a sinking ship.
Of course their play as of late is going to reflect their current reputation facing a stellar Lions team, but the plain truth is that this week for the Packers will be a new look yet again. No more uneasy backup in Tolzien. No more touchdown-to-interception ratio of one-to-five. No more heavy burden thrust on their rookie running back, Lacy, to carry not only the ball, but the team.
To throw another element to the vice versa flip of Detroit and Green Bay this year, consider this: the best receiver in the world, Calvin Johnson, was sidelined against the Packers eight weeks prior, and Rodgers played. Green Bay creamed them, 22-9. This week, both teams’ best player’s health status is the opposite from that game.
Now if Rodgers hadn’t have gone down on the first drive of that game in Chicago four weeks ago, we’d be witnessing a surefire shootout. This guy means the world of a difference to Green Bay’s offense. And not even just offense! The defense’s decreased time on the field is directly affected from how long their offense can keep drives alive on the field. Alive… Heck, when Rodgers is on his game, he’s oxygen to this offense when it comes to keeping them alive.
It’s evident Green Bay’s defense has some issues, though. They let the 2-8-1 Vikings rush for 232 yards in a 26-26 tie last week. At 21st in the league against the pass, their group of secondary players is certainly not even close to their 2010 championship-caliber group of cornerbacks and safeties. It was bound to deteriorate eventually.
Stafford and his Lions plan to take full advantage of that. They happen to be third in the league in passing yards and second in passing attempts. As the record-holder for most passing attempts in a season (last year), Stafford is surely going to bring last year’s approach on Thursday.
Green Bay has no chance of stopping Calvin Johnson, regardless of the coverage they swarm at him. Let’s not forget that a now-healthy Burleson will be another receiver to account for on the opposite side of Johnson. All the Packers can hope to do is outscore Detroit, plain and simple; it’ll have to be a shootout. Have fun, Flynn.
If this were Rodgers we were talking about, we’d see him storm down the field in his patented hurry-up offense, throw six plays in a row, and finally let Lacy burst out of a halfback delay for some seven-yard pickup. If not mirrored, it’s still almost certain to see the Lions do exactly this themselves.
To parallel the high-powered offense, Flynn has to bring the swagger. He’ll have to look to exploit Detroit’s 30th ranked defense against the pass. We saw shades of confidence with targeting Jones for seven catches on 80 yards total. If he can use the plethora of receivers he’s got handy, it’ll only make Lacy’s job easier against Detroit’s fifth-best defense against the run.
It’s going to come down to countering the landed punch, overcoming the sideline injuries, battling all odds. With the NFC North hanging in the balance between them, along with Chicago, it’s imperative for the Green Bay Packers that they make a ‘We’re still here’ statement to stay in the hunt. With the same goal but different perspective, it’s imperative for the Lions that they win to stay even with the Bears or take the lead in the division.
Turkey or no turkey, the real prey of the hunt is the same for all: the playoffs. (“Playoffs?!”)