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The Lions moved the ball well on offense early. But good defense and dumb penalties forced them to punt often in the first half. They also missed on a field goal attempt. The Lions controlled the time of possession and kept the Packer offense off the field for much of the first half. When Aaron Rodgers was playing, the offense struggled to convert on third down. The Packers lone score in the first half came after a Matthew Stafford interception.
The Packers like to start the second half with the ball and they opened it with a long touchdown drive. Then Stafford threw two more interceptions that led to 10 points for the Packers. As the third quarter closed, the Packers had built a 24-0 lead. The Lions scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but in between them, the Packer offense moved down the field for a five minute field goal drive that put them up by three scores. The Lions just made the scoreboard look respectable.
It was another big game for Aaron Rodgers, who did most of his damage on passes to James Jones and Greg Jennings. On defense, Clay Matthews grabbed an interception on a tipped ball and made a great pass deflection on a third down screen pass attempt. Robert Francois was pressed into duty at middle linebacker, and he made a great grab for an interception in the middle of the field. Charles Woodson had an amazing interception when he dived over the receiver's shoulder and took the pass away from him.
As I hinted above with Francois, a number of players were forced out of the game with injuries. Josh Sitton and Desmond Bishop were limited in practice this week, and they appeared to re-aggravate their injuries. James Starks started the game, but his knee and ankle injuries he suffered last week were apparently too much for him. A.J. Hawk had a calf injury (he appeared OK standing on the sidelines) and Erik Walden hurt his knee. None of these injuries seem major, but we'll have to wait and see what McCarthy says about them tomorrow.