Lions-Packers Q&A: How Green Bay can exploit Detroit’s weaknesses

On Monday, the Green Bay Packers return to Lambeau Field for a prime-time matchup with the Detroit Lions. Mike Payton of Pride of Detroit kindly volunteered to answer our questions about the Lions and provide some insight into their strengths and weaknesses.

APC: If you were devising a game plan to take on the Lions, how would you attack them on offense? On defense?

On offense this team runs through Matthew Stafford. You have to find a way to get him off his game. But you can’t blitz him. Much like Aaron Rodgers, if you blitz him, he will make you pay. What the Packers can do is collapse the pocket on Stafford and give him nowhere to go. They can also stick on a group of receivers that still has some trouble creating separation. The Packers secondary is definitely going to have to show up for this game to help stop Stafford. This is a group that’s definitely capable of that too.

On defense, you gotta attack this team right in the middle. Their secondary is currently allowing a completion percentage of 55.4%. That’s against Carson Wentz, Phillip Rivers and Patrick Mahomes. This team can stop the pass in the secondary. But they sure have trouble with tight ends over the middle. There’s a good chance Jimmy Graham or Jace Sternberger could have a really good game against the Lions on Monday against a pretty week linebacking corps. I might not be the sexiest way to win a game. But I would dink and dunk over the middle on this team all night.

We’d like to thank Mike. Be sure to check out the rest of our Q&A session with Pride of Detroit over the course of the week as well as our Q&A session over there. As always, keep your internet machines tuned to Acme Packing Company this Monday for our comprehensive game-day coverage of Lions versus Packers.