The Green Bay Packers know that the NFC North has run through Detroit the past few seasons and after losing six of their last seven to the Lions, they need to play cleaner football to best them.
Coach Matt LaFleur won his first five games against the Lions after taking over the Packers in 2019, but Detroit’s rise under coach Dan Campbell has caught Green Bay in a tough stretch of performances between Ford Field and Lambeau Field.
If Green Bay wants to make a move up in the NFC North, getting past the Lions in Sunday’s season opener would be a strong start.
“It always starts with your division. It’s not just Detroit, but certainly they’ve been the standard the last two seasons in this league and I’ve got a lot of respect for what they’ve been able to accomplish,” LaFleur said Wednesday. “Got a lot of respect for Dan, what he’s been able to establish. It’s going to be a great challenge, but one I think that, you know, we’re just going to prepare to the best of our ability each and every day to give us the best chance to go out there and have some success."
No team wants to dwell on past defeats, but the Packers can still look to their losses against Detroit last season as prime examples of how things can go poorly for one of the stronger rosters in the NFL.
“With specifically Detroit in both games that we played them, we got behind way too early and that’s hard to do against a really good football team,” LaFleur said. “We had a couple costly turnovers, really in both games that ended up being critical plays.”
Green Bay learned well last season that beating good teams requires excellent play from the beginning. Despite earning 11 wins, the Packers were 0-6 during the season against NFC team that had better records at the end of the year.
The Packers defeats to Detroit followed somewhat similar scripts where they allowed the Lions to score a touchdown on their opening drive and turned the ball over in the first half that led directly to points.
In both games, the Lions had a multi-score lead at halftime and required comeback attempts that both fell short.
The Packers proved to be a better team in the second halves of games in 2024, scoring 0.3 more points and allowing two fewer points per game following halftime.
With their eyes on downing the Lions this time around, the Packers are focused on not getting caught slacking in the first half so they can try to earn a key early division matchup.
“We’ve got to do a great job really offensively and in our return units hanging on to that football,” LaFleur said. “Defensively, we’ve got to make a game-changing play in some facet to be able to get the ball out...Getting off to a fast start I think is critical when you’re playing against a really good football team.”
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our [User Agreement](https://www.advancelocal.com/advancelocalUserAgreement/user-agreement.html) and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our [Privacy Policy.](https://www.advancelocal.com/advancelocalUserAgreement/privacy-policy.html)