Man Up Player Of The Week: Packers Over Lions

Three starters were taken out of the game by the Green Bay Packers due to injury. While James Starks was on the field to start the game, Ryan Grant was still the named starter. Neither he or Brandon Saine did too much after Starks suffered an ankle injury, but the Packers were pass heavy once again this week. However, the players who replaced Josh Sitton, Desmond Bishop, and A.J. Hawk all played a part in the victory.

RG Evan Dietrich-Smith. I expected Ndamukong Suh to have a big impact in this game, and Suh only recorded one tackle. After Sitton came out, he didn't fare any better against Dietrich-Smith, who also drew the head stomp and kick that led to Suh's ejection. The ejection aside, Dietrich-Smith did a great job of filling in at a critical position.

LB D.J. Smith. The rookie replaced Bishop and he finished second for the game with 6 tackles. He's a player who's always around the ball.

LB Robert Francois. After Hawk went down, not only did they lose both linebackers who had speakers in their helmets, which forced the defense to rely on hand signals from the sidelines, it also forced the defense to rely on another inside linebacker who rarely plays. If he did nothing else in the game, he made a great play to intercept a pass as he was backpedaling into coverage.