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The Detroit Lions are in Lambeau ready to face the Green Bay Packers in their first divisional game. Wearing white pants for the first time since at least 1950, the Lions are hoping to achieve the biggest upset of Week 1. Green Bay is a roughly 11.5-point favorite despite having their teeth kicked last week against the Saints of New Orleans.
But as we saw on Sunday, week 1 can be a bit of a lie. The Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints collapsed in reality. While the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens have shown that they are not the team they appear to be after Game 1 of the season.
Of course, maybe the Lions aren’t exactly the team we saw in Week 1, either. The defense was horrible, but maybe it was just a bad game against the 49ers or the players were shaking a bit of rust. The racing game was promising, but after falling behind quickly, they had to give it up. If the Lions can stay the course, maybe they can play whatever game they want to play and give themselves a chance in the end.
Or maybe it becomes the rash everyone’s been waiting for. Who knows?
But we’ll be providing live updates here as the game progresses. So come back around 8:15 p.m. ET during kickoff and hit that refresh button.
First shift
The Detroit Lions won the toss and wanted the ball first. It turned out to be a wise move. In the third regulation game, Jared Goff had a ton of time to find someone, and Quintez Cephus made a deep escape. Goff gave him a perfect pass for a big gain of 46 yards:
It only took a few more games for the Lions to find the end zone, and it was again Cephus who was left open. 7-0 Lions.
The Packers responded quickly with their first touchdown of the season. On their 11-game drive, they ran the ball eight times, gaining 34 yards. Aaron Rodgers finished the run with a tactile pass to Aaron Jones for an easy 4-yard score. 7-7 tie.
The Lions offense picked up again, but had to overcome some penalties. A false start and a hold penalty put Detroit behind as the game moved into the second quarter.
Second quarter
The Lions found themselves in a manageable third down situation (9 yards to go), but Goff was immediately under pressure after Matt Nelson left Preston Smith right next to him. Goff had to throw it away, but was also called up for an intentional penalty on the ground, ending a Detroit punt.
Green Bay’s offensive would also slow down. After Ifeatu Melifonwu interrupted a pass with the back of his helmet, Nick Williams took the defense out of the field with a third cover sack.
The Detroit offense seemed unfazed from their previous training. A well-balanced attack moved the team around the field methodically. A face mask penalty helped, but Detroit rushed for 21 yards and Goff passed for 22 yards, including that magnificent 8-yard touchdown to TJ Hockenson. 14-7 Lions.
The Packers returned the ensuing kickoff for 41 yards, putting themselves in an excellent position on the field to try to tie the game. As the Lions continued to play two deep safeties, the Packers continued to take advantage of them by notching them with the running play. With 27 rushing yards, the Packers rolled easily into the red zone and Rodgers found Aaron Jones for his second touchdown of the game. 14-14 tie.
Detroit’s two-minute drill got off to a good start with a big 33-yard kickback return from Godwin Igwebuike. A 12-yard run from D’Andre Swift and a 20-yard catch from TJ Hockenson put Detroit in a field goal position with 24 seconds left and two timeouts in the pocket. Goff couldn’t connect with Amon-Ra St. Brown or Cephus for one touchdown shots, so the Lions settled for three with an Austin Seibert 43-yard field goal with three seconds left. 17-14 Lions.
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