When it's bad play from Flynn, yeah, it's pretty easy to rationalize. The game at least was close until the battle of attrition finally started sliding the Lions way.
The Packers drives went:
Punt, FG (after an out out of bounds KO), punt, punt, punt, punt, turnover, turnover, punt, punt, turnover. I'm pretty sure they could manage a little better than that under Rodgers.
Like every team in the NFL, the Packers do have flaws. But I think they have decidedly fewer than the rest of the division, and they have the QB to make up for them.
I agree that we have fewer flaws than anyone else in the division, and that we should win the division... but we are not an invincible juggernaut.
Our defense has been a disaster for 3 years running - one of the worst in the league... as "flaws" go, that's a pretty glaring one.
Did TT do enough to right the ship on that side of the ball?? We'll see... but in no way do I think we whistle a happy tune all the way to the division championship.
wist
I don't the defense will be top 10 this season. But I think there's enough in place to get up to the top half of the league which, combined with the offense, should be enough to bring Super Bowl contention into the conversation.
We were only sweating last season because of the Rodgers injury. Otherwise the team finishes in the 11-5/10-6 range and would not have been worried about the NFC North at all.