Green Bay Packers Have Reason to Be Thankful

On Thanksgiving morning, the Packers were away from their families in Detroit. By evening, they had many reasons to be thankful.

Not only had they soundly beaten the hapless Lions again, but with the New York Giants loss to the Broncos, the team was guaranteed to enter the last month of this season as one of the six teams in the playoff picture.

Here are the top five things I am thankful for as a Packers fan:

1. That Aaron Rodgers has 30 TDs and only one pick in the red zone for his career. I am sure there has never been a quarterback who had that ratio through his first 27 games started.
2. Thanks to that and the defense's ability to go after the ball, the Packers lead the league with a turnover ratio of +17.
3. Above their ball-hawking, this defense ranks SECOND in the league in yards allowed...sorry, Mark, but no mediocre defense ranks in the 97th percentile in yards and 100th in turnovers.
4. Donald Driver and Charles Woodson, great guys and great players who are proof that old guys can get it done on the field as well as provide leadership to the youngest roster in football (the reason our future is brighter than any other team's).
5. That with four more days to prepare than the Ravens have for a game in Green Bay, the Packers have a great chance to win their fourth straight.

Now we can take a look at the Packers report card for the Michigan Massacre...

Quarterback: B+

Even Rodgers' lone fumble came on a fourth-down play and thus did not hurt the team (the only Detroit sack, for a loss of six). He was 28-of-39 (.718) for 348 yards (8.9 per ATTEMPT) and three touchdowns without a pick, earning a passer rating of 124.7. He ran just once for five yards.

So with those stats, why did he get just a B+? For one thing, he was facing the league's worst defense and worst passing defense: Rodgers needed a perfect game (157 passer rating) to get an A. Also, his accuracy was off in the first half, lending to the close score going into the break.

Running Backs: D

Ryan Grant ran 20 times for just 61 yards (3.1 average) and was tackled for a safety. True, by that time the Lions were focused on stopping the run, and he had a few good runs in the first three quarters, but you need your top runner to do better than that. Brandon Jackson was less effective, with six carries for 14 yards (2.3).

The unit was effective in the passing game: Grant and fullback Korey Hall combined for five catches for 52 yards. However, this totals just 127 yards on 31 touches for 4.1 yards per touch with no touchdowns.

Receivers: B+

Again, they were up against the Lions, so I am hard-pressed to give out an A. However, the Lions have a pretty good linebacking corps and the Packers still got production out of both tight ends.

Donald Lee lept (how come everyone insists on using leaped and dived instead of lept and dove, anyway?) over the defense for his one score, and combined with Jermichael Finley for seven catches and 47 yards.

Of course, the other Donald was the unit's Driver, with seven catches, 142 yards (20.3), and a score. Greg Jennings had four catches for 53 yards and James Jones had four for 35 with a touchdown. Jordy Nelson had just one catch, but it was for 19 yards, giving the corps 23 catches for 296 yards (12.9 average).

Offensive Line: B

Sure, this unit was up against the same bad defense, but this same team got five sacks in the last matchup and just the one today.

On Rodgers' 68-yard completion to Driver, he had time to prepare the Thanksgiving turkey complete with stuffing. He was rarely even hit on the day, making this a nearly flawless performance in the passing game.

However, they struggled in the running game against a decent run defense. The one area the line actually ranks near the top of the league is not giving up negative plays, but twice the Lions were there to get the safety, and only Grant's effort kept it from happening the first time.

Much of the problem in the running game can be attributed to them not providing any holes in the second half.

Defensive Line: B

The line's stats are poorer than usual for a 3-4 defense, with just three tackles and five assists between them.

However, they deserve most of the credit for holding Kevin Smith to just 43 yards on 18 carries (2.4 average); even with Stafford's scrambles, the Lions only managed 73 yards on 23 carries (3.2). Detroit may be 26th in the NFL in rushing yards, but that is a solid performance.

Moreover, while they generated no sacks and the team had only two, Stafford was under pretty consistent pressure. That led to a couple bad decisions that enabled the defense to generate five turnovers.

Linebackers: D+

The linebacking corps combined for 16 tackles, 10 assists, and a sack (again by Clay Matthews), and deserve a lot of credit for applying pressure on Stafford, as well.

However, nearly all the passing yards yielded went to the running backs (six catches, 62 yards is entirely on the linebackers) and tight ends (nine for 73 is primarily on them).

Defensive Backs: A

Charles Woodson once again shined, and if he is not the defensive player of the year, it will be the biggest injustice since a Minnesota judge got to overrule the entire league about the suspensions issued to its own players.

Sure, he gave up the lone touchdown to Calvin Johnson, but he also scored one of his own from Stafford. In fact, he had as many picks as Johnson had catches, plus a fumble forced that he then recovered on a sack.

The rest of the backfield may not have been playing elite talent like Johnson, but outside of one 47-yard catch by Dennis Northcutt (a pretty good receiver), they gave up just two catches for 21 yards.

Nick Collins and Tramon Williams added interceptions, and the backfield accounted for 16 tackles, an assist, a sack, four picks, and the fumble forced and recovered.

The one blemish was Jarrett Bush, who once again proved he was athletic enough to be there to make a play but lacking in the ability to do it.

He missed on two interceptions, including the big play to Northcutt; were it not for those failings, the unit grade would have been an A+.

Special Teams: D-

Same tune, different note. This time, the Packers did not give up any exceptionally long returns, but did have two pretty long ones of 34 yards. And of course, Jordy Nelson's fumble on the opening kick led to the only Lions touchdown and lead.

Finally, Mason Crosby missed a 43-yard field goal, making two others from just 22 and 25 yards and getting only one kick into the end zone in a dome.

In all, the Packers averaged a mediocre 20 yards per kick return besides fumbling, and just two yards per punt return.

The Lions averaged under 20 yards per kick return because they muffed one kick and had to cover it, but they did get 14 yards on their one punt return.

Jeremy Kapinos had just over a 32-yard net despite having only one of three punts returned and not having one land inside the 20.