Barry Alvarez said that Badgers fans are spoiled, which is nonsense, but maybe Packers fans are a little spoiled. We had an almost double digit win against an opponent with two of the ten best wide receivers in the league, we didn't have to watch the Vikings and the Lions lost by 13. Five years ago or ten years ago that would be a weekly occurrence. Now? This will probably be the only time all season that we gain 22 points in point differential against the Lions.
Lions
The Lions lost to the Chiefs, 30-17.
Game Notes
Goff had his typical pretty efficient game. Almost 80% completion percentage. Two TDs and no picks. Seven yards per attempt. Just didn't do enough. It was a rare down game from the Sun God (45 yards) but Jameson WIlliams and Sam LaPorta both had tuds. His average depth of target was just four yards downfield. You can have a fake good YPA when you complete 4/5 checkdowns to the Avengers and they get yards after catch. For comparison, Jordan Love's average depth of target against the Bengals was over nine yards.
He wasn't helped by the run game. David Montgomery had just four carries and Jahmyr Gibbs averaged fewer than four yards per carry. When you're playing from behind for most of the game and the run game isn't cutting it, you gotta push the ball down the field! They have $30mm per year and $27mm per year receivers to go with their $53mm QB and they averaged four yard passes all night. Of course, the Lions are still a leading team in the NFC and will, I'm sure, put 50 again soon. Gotta get the criticism in while we can.
Anyway, you'll never guess what the dirty duo (Lions' safeties Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph) were up to after the game. Branch, arguably the team's best defensive player, punched Juju Smith-Schuster in the helmet after the game for what seemed like no reason at all and has since been suspended one game. He is apparently appealing the suspension. Unclear what possible argument he could have. Kerby Joseph retweeted an alarming 12 posts about the officiating being bad. No word on when he'll be retweeting anything about his 32.6 PFF grade for the game.
One play that was officiated interestingly was when Jared Goff went in motion from an under-center position and caught a screen pass from the running back and scored. Turns out a QB going in motion form under center has to reestablish before the snap. Who knew? (All the NFL teams, because the NFL sent a video last week explaining the rule.)
Bears
The Bears squeaked by the Commanders, 25-24.
Game Notes
The Commanders aren't really the semi-juggernaut they were lat last season when they beat the Lions in the playoffs, but they're still a good team and, sadly, the Bears pulled this one off.
D'Andre Swift was the MVP for the Bears in the game, he averaged7.7 YPC on the way to 108 rush yards and, thanks to a long catch of 55 yards, also had 67 receiving yards. In fact, Swift had almost half of the Bears' 381 yards.
Caleb Williams looked fine, with a QB rating just under 100 and Rome Odunze almost had a good game with a TD called back.
The defense was also fine, maybe that's the best word for this game. They gave up 8.1 YPA and three tuds to Jayden Daniels, but also intercepted him once and held all his receivers under 50 yards.
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Mike Price is a lifelong Packers fan who recently moved from Utah to Stoughton (a Madison suberb). You can follow him on twitter at @themikeprice.
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