Studs and Duds, Lions I, 2025:

[George Cumby]

Stud:

Half'

The new D-line coach.

[Joemailman]

Stud:

Defensive line - Got consistent pressure on Goff and helped hold Lions to 46 yards rushing.

Walker and Cooper - Jahmyr Gibbs couldn't get outside on them.

[MadScientist]

Studs:
Run defense - Even turkeys shouldn't be stuffed as much as Detroit's runners.
Pass rush - Forced Goff to go with short passes or be planted.
Pass blocking - Love had time and no sacks.
Special teams - Kicking was excellent and the coverage was great. Haven't seen the Packers STs look this good since Desmond was around.

Duds:
Run blocking - Jacobs was bottled up most of the game.
Pass defense between the 20's - The only thing Detroit could do was throw short passes, yet they had multiple long drives and had the ball for 35 minutes.
Second half play calling - They got conservative and lost their edge.

[MadtownPacker]

Stud -

MP - I was a critic about doing the trade for him before it happened but Parsons is definitely the real deal and changed the whole attitude of the defensive line. Great move Gute!

Kicking - FG or punt neither are a worry like past years and cannot be taken for granted like normal .

[Teamcheez1]

Stud - Darian Kennard at right tackle.
Dud - 3rd down conversions, 4-10 overall, 0-6 in the second half.

[Fritz]

Stud:

Defensive line - Got consistent pressure on Goff and helped hold Lions to 46 yards rushing.

Walker and Cooper - Jahmyr Gibbs couldn't get outside on them.

I wanted to note that I thought Quay Walker played a superb game - the best I've seen from him. He was fast, he was everywhere, and he hit people. He played the way we thought Edgerrin Cooper was going to play.

People have hit on the studs of the day - those were clear, to me. But for the duds section, I'd like to add . . . Romo and Nantz, for harping on the idea that the Lions were more relieved that Kenny Clark was gone than they were concerned about Micah Parsons coming to Green Bay. They must've harped on that for the entire first quarter or so, it seemed.

I like Kenny Clark. He's a good player. He was a really good player. He's a stand-up guy. He's a player, for sure. But to pretend the Lions were that relieved about Kenny Clark leaving - just so, so relieved! - was a crock.

On the "I'm not sure" side of things, how about Colby Wooden? He seemed to make some plays, but I watched him pretty often, and he also seemed to get pushed back a lot. Granted, he was often double-teamed, I think. But how would others assess his play as the starting NT?

And Devonte Wyatt - I'm not sure what I think. He got a sack. But was he effective? He must've been, to some degree, because the Loins couldn't get much going rushing-wise.

The Packers' second-half play calling was also a dud, for me. Very meh. As was Love's second-half play. Missed seeing some open guys trying to go long to guys who were covered. Almost threw a game-changing pick.

[Joemailman]

I wanted to note that I thought Quay Walker played a superb game - the best I've seen from him. He was fast, he was everywhere, and he hit people. He played the way we thought Edgerrin Cooper was going to play.

People have hit on the studs of the day - those were clear, to me. But for the duds section, I'd like to add . . . Romo and Nantz, for harping on the idea that the Lions were more relieved that Kenny Clark was gone than they were concerned about Micah Parsons coming to Green Bay. They must've harped on that for the entire first quarter or so, it seemed.

I like Kenny Clark. He's a good player. He was a really good player. He's a stand-up guy. He's a player, for sure. But to pretend the Lions were that relieved about Kenny Clark leaving - just so, so relieved! - was a crock.

On the "I'm not sure" side of things, how about Colby Wooden? He seemed to make some plays, but I watched him pretty often, and he also seemed to get pushed back a lot. Granted, he was often double-teamed, I think. But how would others assess his play as the starting NT?

And Devonte Wyatt - I'm not sure what I think. He got a sack. But was he effective? He must've been, to some degree, because the Loins couldn't get much going rushing-wise.

The Packers' second-half play calling was also a dud, for me. Very meh. As was Love's second-half play. Missed seeing some open guys trying to go long to guys who were covered. Almost threw a game-changing pick.

I didn't focus on Wooden much, but the run defense wouldn't have been that good if he wasn't doing a good job. He's likely not going to push people back the way Slaton sometimes could. He's a different player, probably 30 pounds lighter. But his game is more quickness, which may be more what Hafley is looking for. He had 6 tackles (3 solo), 2 TFL's and 1 QB hit, which are fine numbers for a nose tackle.

Walker and Cooper were everything I had hoped for. Last year there were only 4 games where both played a majority of snaps. Yesterday they both played 100%, and it showed.

The offense always seems to have a good portion of the game where they struggle. At least when it happened yesterday, they already had a 2 TD lead because they had gotten off to a fast start.

[texaspackerbacker]

It was a good overall performance. A lot of things didn't seem as good as they should be, but quality of the Lions probably had a lot to do with that.

We couldn't run inside all game. When we did run in the second half, it was mostly outside. I'm fairly sure the Lions halftime D switched from all out run stopping to more pass coverage. LaFleur getting too cautious was response to that. Maybe he overdid the caution, but the bottom line is winning, and as will McCarthy before him, sometimes you just play it that way.

Love was excellent - a stud for sure, even though he was basically just what I for one expected from him. And probably not worthy of mention, but on that interception that didn't count, he made a nifty maybe TD-saving tackle. The WRs were damn good - also as expected. Wicks deserves mention, as he looked more like he did his first year. Reed was excellent also, not showing effect of that injury and not dropping the ball as sometimes happened in the past. Craft is one of the very top TEs in the NFL. Commentators were bragging up Brock Bowers; Well, Craft is every bit as good. Golden didn't do much, but his time will come, maybe sooner rather than later. And Doubs was a good WR1.

The brand new OT, Kinnard deserves mention, as our running game seemed to get better when Tom got hurt and he came in. Maybe that was just Detroit concentrating less on him than they did on Tom, though. I usually don't have much good to say about the O Line, and I don't have even for this game in the run game. But the pass blocking was good - surprisingly good especially early in the game IMO. Detroit thought they could get away with rushing four, and our O Line did a good job protecting Love.

Great job also by the D. It should have been 27-6, no TDs except for that fluke TD at the end. As was said, the maligned Wooden did fine, and Stackhouse looked good a few times also. Edgerin Cooper did the job superbly and should get the recognition even though he doesn't get the mention the pass rushers do. I bet we will see him in a pass rushing role also at some point. Quay Walker was ok against the run, but I saw him mess up I think more than once in pass coverage. Apparently Dr. Hafley diagnosed that a fairly vanilla D was what was needed against the Lions, and it worked damn well. I think he has a helluva lot more tools available for other kinds of teams. We may see more of that on Thursday and beyond. Evan Williams deserves mention, not just for the pick. I didn't see McKinney do much, but the fact that there wasn't much deep passing says both he and Williams were doing the job. I thought Valentine looked good too, Bullard and Nixon not so much, but in a dominating win with dominating D, I'd hesitate to call anybody a dud.

Also, if a punter can be a stud, Whelan was one.

[smuggler]

Wooden got penetration a few times and wasn't beat up too much on in the run game. I'll take it.

[run pMc]

Went back and rewatched the game, Wooden played pretty good. Wyatt had his moments as well. Brooks was meh. Van Ness was good, and Gary was having a really good game.

The Lions really looked like they miss Frank Ragnow. They are still a very good team and should get better as the season goes on, but that interior OL might be a problem. The Lions were a 15-2 team last year, they still have a LOT of talent.

I think any dogging on Bullard is overrated, he had maybe 2-3 bad-ish plays but otherwise was physical and tackled. Amon-Ra St. Brown is a tough matchup; he beat Nixon as well. Some of the completions charged against Bullard were because he was the closest player in zone coverage, and he (and the rest of the defense) kept the YAC to a minimum. Actually, go back and watch how the GB defense swarmed to the ball. It's really something. Quay and Cooper played well. The Lions couldn't really get anything going downfield, it was all checkdowns, and they couldn't run the ball either.

The run game was tough sledding because the Lions focused on stopping Jacobs. They were run-blitzing and sending 5-6 guys a lot in the first half and backed off after MLF and Love dialed up some plays to beat pressure.
Big Kudos to Jacobs and Brooks for their blitz pickups -- there were a couple that made a huge difference. OL did well in pass blocking too. Jordan Love was pressured 6 times, zero sacks.

Really impressive game for GB. Week 1 games are usually fluky and sometimes meaningless (GB has a habit of looking bad in Wk 1 games under MLF) but this sure felt like a good win. Let's hope they keep this train rolling.

[bobblehead]

Guys who impressed me. Van Ness, Wooden, Quay. Others were impressive, but I expected it.

guys who disappointed me. Bullard, Banks. Thats about it. Not many others played poorly imo.

[Fritz]

Bullard tackled hard and well. But he just doesn't cover people very well. And that's a problem if you're a safety/slot corner.