Lions vs Packers: 6 Things We Learned from Detroit's 41-45 Loss

Well, the game of the week was the one with perhaps the least at stake of existing playoff teams.

A track meet of a game that set a new NFL record for passing yards in a single season ended with a disappointing loss for the Detroit Lions and a continuation of the Lambeau losing streak.

It's embarrassing for the Lions, who were trying to lock up the fifth seed in the playoffs and prove themselves against the Packers, the gold standard of football excellence this year.

Not only could the Lions not beat the Packers at full strength at home, they also couldn't beat them down with an MVP quarterback at home.

Instead, they made the backup quarterback look like the MVP. And on that note, let's look at the takeaways from a disappointing game that, thankfully, does not end the Lions' season in Week 17.

Matt Flynn Will Be an NFL Starting Quarterback

We're not talking quarterback controversy here, but Matt Flynn played a fantastic game against the Detroit Lions, and it might be time to review his career credentials.

When Flynn was forced into action against the Detroit Lions last year, he scored the Packers' only points of the game in their 7-3 loss.

He turned up next week to very nearly led the Packers to a win over the New England Patriots in New England.

And today, in Flynn's second career start, he carved up the Detroit secondary for over 400 yards and six touchdowns.

After this performance, I would be extremely surprised to see Flynn in a Packers uniform next season. He's exactly the kind of quarterback who's given lots of money before he proves himself.

He just has to hope Kevin Kolb didn't ruin the "potential next big thing" market.

Titus Young Is Going to Be Amazing

By the time Titus Young had caught his second touchdown, he had basically caught four of them.

Two counted, one was ruled incomplete on a ridiculous call that couldn't be challenged because of previous ridiculous calls (more on that shortly) and one was pulled in on an incredible diving catch but dropped as he tumbled into the end zone.

Young had a slow start to the season, as a rookie receiver should, but he has been more consistent and more dangerous as the season has gone on, and this game was a culmination of that.

Don't be surprised to see Young emerge as the Lions' second receiver over Nate Burleson as soon as next season.

The Lions Aren't the Only Team with a Class Problem

Let me start off by saying I have a lot of respect for the Green Bay Packers, and I congratulate them on a fantastic performance by winning this game without their best players.

The Packers are fun to watch, don't take penalties and play with respect for the game. And they beat the Lions shorthanded. We'll hear about it all week, don't worry.

Let me continue by saying that I lost a lot of that respect today. And that's not to say that the Lions are angels out there on the field. They took some stupid penalties, just as they have most of the season.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that the Packers don't have a track record of running up a penalty tally or playing dirty football.

But after this game, I don't see how any reasonable Packers fan can act holier than thou when talking about the Lions.

This is a team that, in a situation eerily similar to the Thanksgiving game, earned a third-down stop on the Lions in the red zone, and gave them another shot at the end zone because of a cheap shot on a downed Matthew Stafford.

They bent Brandon Pettigrew over backwards after the play, took a shot at Alphonso Smith on the ground, got an excessive celebration penalty and clothes-lined Stafford on a dead ball play.

Now, a lot of chippy play is what I like to see in football, but what I've learned from watching the Detroit Lions this year is that tough, chippy play is classless, dirty, undisciplined and perhaps even evil, if you believe NFL.com.

And so the Packers, who matched the Lions step for step in stupid penalties, seemingly deserve the same labels, right?

I mean, at least the Lions didn't spear Matt Flynn's prone body, right?

You Know What? Maybe Stockpiling Receivers Can Work Sometimes

Don't get me wrong here, both these teams need to do some serious work on their offensive lines in the offseason.

But at the same time, both of these teams have a whole bunch of talent at wide receiver and tight end, and they combined to set a whole bunch of franchise and NFL records in this game.

Now, is that a function of fantastic offense or poor defense? I can't say, but I will say that if the Lions' rush up front was supposed to neutralize the passing game, well, it didn't.

Even without Greg Jennings, the Packers had a field day on offense, and the Lions did the same, almost exclusively because of the passing game.

In fact, neither of these teams did much of anything on the ground all day. This was a passing exhibition, the likes of which the league has literally never seen before, and it came from two teams that have had trouble running the ball and protecting the quarterback all season.

Oh, and on that note, Matthew Stafford fell about 50 yards short of Dan Marino's passing record. He has just completed the fifth-best season for passing yardage in NFL history.

So how can the fifth-best passing season in NFL history come from the sixth-best quarterback in the NFC, Pro Bowl voters?

Worst. Officiating. Ever.

I'm not typically one to whine about bad officiating, and at this point, it certainly sounds like sour grapes. I'm comfortable with that.

Because this was a game in which balls popping out from players while they were rolling over were ruled fumbles, offensive linemen flopping on cornerbacks after the tackle were not flagged and touchdowns were ruled incompletions.

Now, I'm not petty enough to call Packers bias, or say they handed the Packers the game, or anything to that effect.

This was just a really, really poorly-called game in which a lot of calls went the Packers' way.

But this wasn't even an average poorly-called game. This was among the worst I've ever seen, and it wasn't just the number of calls missed, it was the magnitude.

With all the talk of offenses and defenses being rusty after the lockout, I think officiating crews have been among the worst units on the field in a long time.

I have a lot of respect for referees. Even in this game, they made some calls that were impressively accurate. But they get paid to make those calls, and they're expected to be nearly perfect, or at least not affect game outcomes.

That didn't happen today.

This Game Mattered

Regardless of the outcome of this game, these two teams are in the playoffs. Aside from some seeding concerns, there wasn't much on the line for either team.

And yet, at least for me, this loss was crushing. This was a game that the Lions wanted to win, perhaps even expected to win.

They went out there with the intention of winning. And they lost.

That's not the note the Lions wanted to head into the playoffs on. And sure, they're still in the playoffs, so that's great.

But don't tell the sinking feeling in my gut that this didn't matter. Don't tell Matthew Stafford, who walked off the field looking like he'd just been eliminated from the playoffs.

This game mattered to the fans and players that participated in it. It mattered to me, and it probably mattered to you.

And it matters because the Lions are headed to the Superdome next week, where nobody leaves alive.