MichiganCardinal

Thursday Night games suck. They all suck. I expect a low scoring sloppy game, as players on both teams have not had satisfactory chance to rest and recover from Sunday. I think the Lions are the better team and will come out on top, but it won’t be pretty. Lions 20 Packers 12

Good on him for the correction and owning it. This makes much more sense.

Decker is going to give it a go and I’d be really surprised if Jackson doesn’t. Decker-Jackson-Ragnow-Glasgow-Sewell puts the offensive line at practically 100%, even if not the opening week offensive line. Stay healthy tomorrow and have ten days to get right before Carolina. Compare that to Green Bay, definitely missing two starting offensive linemen and possibly a third, and I’ll take our injury situation.

Philly knows what they've got, they barely used him until Gainwell went down.

This is definitely part of the case, but I think Dantonio deserves some amount of credit for 2013-2015.

MSU has never recruited on the level of Michigan and Ohio State, but they have managed to beat them and compete with them before. With Dantonio, it was because he was a damn good recruiter and coach (for a while). He could find and recruit the best 3*s in the area and in the country, and coach them to beat UM and OSU's 4* and 5* athletes. With Tucker, it was because he quickly learned how to take advantage of COVID rules and got good players to transfer to MSU (mostly just Kenneth Walker). And then everyone else caught on and he was rendered to mediocrity because he isn't actually that good of a recruiter or a coach. If you're not going to be the first to re-invent the wheel like Tucker was able to do in a global pandemic, you have to find (1) a damn good coach, (2) that is a damn good evaluator of mid-tier high school talent in the Midwest, (3) that is willing to go to MSU, with the knowledge that you're C-tier in the Midwest and B-tier in your own state... Right now, you can add in (4) that is willing to clean up this massive s*** show left by Tucker. There are a lot more John L. Smith's out there than there are Mark Dantonio's. Ultimately though, you don't have to hate Michigan, you just have to beat them. And that's not an easy task when they're on the ups.

Opens the 30-day transfer portal window. I have to imagine there will be a lot of departures. Also allows for any player who hasn't already redshirted to sit out the rest of the season and not burn this year of eligibility.

Probably because he's always going to be compared to Favre and Rodgers. Either he's one of them (an MVP) or he's not and the fans will demand him (and Gutekunst) get driven out of town with torches and pitchforks. Hard to see the in-between playing out where he's David Carr or Ryan Tannehill and the Packers fanbase just gets behind having a mediocre QB.

We all knew Jalen Carter could ball, I don't think it's surprising he's doing well. Three games into their rookie seasons is outrageously too early to make a call on whether Gibbs+LaPorta > Carter though. I tend to think Carter will show why the Lions weren't interested when he gets a full offseason with a rookie salary to play with, but maybe he'll prove me and them wrong. I'm perfectly happy with Gibbs+LaPorta so far.

I think it's way too early to judge if Love is any good in the context of Favre and Rodgers. At this point though, I don't think Love is the type of QB in his 5th career start who is going to put the team on his back and lead them to victory (like Favre and Rodgers could do), so I think that's what you need to make him try to do. Shut down the run (again), jump to a lead on offense, and force Love to try stretching the field. Pretty similar to what we did with Ridder and the Falcons. Too bad Kerby can't pickup where he left off.

I think we may include Stafford in this evaluation after this season.

Always thought he deserved another gig. He was a lot like Campbell, but he was plain reckless at times. Like throwing a challenge flag and costing us a touchdown. And not having control over the team enough to preach discipline. Ten years may have done him wonders in settling him down just enough.

Since making that comment the Vikings are 7-7 and the Lions are 10-3.

His ship has sailed. Pun intended.

I remember Holmes saying something in the off-season to the nature of “it’s a lot easier to get worse at the quarterback position than get better”. The Browns and Broncos show what can happen when you get attracted by the devil you don’t know. And the devils they knew at the time were definitely worse than Goff is now.

I think Campbell has just as much if not more to do with Goff’s success in this system as Ben Johnson…. I also think Goff is… dare I say…. a good quarterback by his own right. The more he plays the more the falling out in LA seems to be an outlier to his abilities, not the norm. And the more it seems there was more than met the eye there, particularly as it relates to McVay’s role in the falling out.

Honestly better than expected.

Love has started only four games in his career. I think it’s probably too early to say either way whether he’s any good. That said, the Packers FO strategically refusing to get Rodgers any weapons through the years on the basis that he’s Rodgers and doesn’t need weapons probably won’t fare as well with Love. Watson, Doubs, and Musgrave doesn’t frighten me.

I doubt that they would have sat the starting left side of their offensive line if they could have possibly played. That's asking to get your QB killed. I do think it's likely one or both of Watson or Jones returns for Thursday though. Hopefully we can respond with one or both of Decker and Monty.

The Packers are as banged up as the Lions are. Christian Watson and Aaron Jones were both inactive yesterday, so were their starting LT (David Bakhtiari) and LG (Elgton Jenkins). In addition to a starting corner (Jaire Alexander) and two of their safeties. They also lost their RT, a starting linebacker, and a corner yesterday too. The last time we played a team without their starting tackles we couldn't generate pressure if our lives depended on it. Hopefully this time is different.

Through three weeks, I think the Packers are roughly what I expected they would be (maybe a little better), while the Bears and Vikings are worse. The Packers really should be 1-2, the Saints lost that game yesterday more than the Packers won it. The division is absolutely for the Lions' taking. This is a big game. We can't grab defeat from the jaws of victory like we did against the Vikings early last year. The Packers will be hungry for payback after Week 18 last year. Win this game on the road in Lambeau and you're solidly in the driver's seat moving forward, you'll almost certainly be favored in the remaining five games against the North, and I think the Packers will struggle to catch up as the season goes on.