I wonder what the Vegas line will be on Suh's time out. I think he has to get at least 3 games.
Prior actions, shoving EDS head in the ground.
Stomping on his arm and then lying will make it more than 1 game.

With this victory, the Packers

• Win an impressive 3 games in 10 days
• Equal their best regular-season record of the Rodgers era (11)
• Set a team record for single-season winning streak (11)
• Extend the team record for consecutive wins, including postseason (17)
• Extend the league record for consecutive wins without trailing in the 4th quarter (17)
• Cement their hold on the No. 1 seed for at least three more weeks, regardless of what happens with the rest of the league
• Clinch a playoff berth with a Falcons loss anda Giants loss
  

Aaron Rodgers also

• Ties the league record for most games in a single season with a passer rating of at least 110 (11)
• Extends his league record for most consecutive regular-season games with a passer rating of at least 110 (11)
• Extends his streak of most consecutive games, including playoffs, with a passer rating of at least 110 (12)

All in all, not bad for a day's work.

(By the way, Aaron Rodgers' passer rating has exceeded 110 in 14 of his previous 15 games, the only exception being the NFC Championship Game against the Chicago Bears.)

This comment over on the ESPN blog made me chuckle:

trekmanagainThe Packers have now won 17 games in a row:

And the Lions are now part of this incredible streak - the only NFCN team excluded from the list until now.

The Packers are kind to all.

Another interesting comment by the same guy:

trekmanagainLions had the ball on "O" 11 times in the game and field position was a problem for the entire game.

Started drives on their own:

20 / 15 / 16 / 20 / 21 / 29 / 19 / 27 / 28 / 16 / 21

Never started a drive further than their own 29 yard line - Packers special teams had a great game. Maybe the best game of the year.

And I read this in the USA Today this morning.

But first comes a break, akin to a second bye week. Coach Mike McCarthy, who trumpeted Thursdays' outing as "a good character win," is giving players off until Tuesday.
He hopes they will return rested for the stretch run.

McCarthy was asked if the days off were meant as incentive.

"I was going to do that anyway," McCarthy said, "and the selfish son of guns tried to talk me into giving them until Wednesday."

Nice to see the head coach has a sense of humor.

Of course, no discussion would be complete without Skip Bayless' take:

RealSkipBaylessI love Suh but immature temper, ejection cost Det the game. Pack would've been held to FG, 10-0. ARodg struggling. Then roof fell in. Suh me

RealSkipBaylessKevin Smith lost early, more DB injuries, Hanson missed easy FG, Suh self-destructs - this season meant-to-be for Green Bay. More breaks!

RealSkipBaylessA lot of us in media have "enabled" Suh by defending him, glorifying him, saying he's intimidating, not dirty. Man-CHILD. Spoiled brat. Sad.

RealSkipBaylessSo alarming Suh took no responsibility, offered no apology to fans or teammates, in dangerous denial. Will increase his punishment from NFL.

RealSkipBaylessSuh deserves a 2-game suspension. He didn't go Haynesworth and stomp a man w/o helmet in the face. But he stomped an arm. Repeat offender.

In other words, the Packers aren't actually playing all that great this year.
They're just lucky.
They're
getting all the breaks because, y'know, the NFL wants them to have a magical year.

Another quote from the ESPN blog that made me laugh.

bpalton911Typically, when I walk, I lean really far to one side and then shoot my leg downward in the direction opposite from which I am moving. Its a very natural and way utilitarian to move from one space to another.

gabes22I also find the need that when I get up off of the ground that it is completely natural to smash someone's head into the turf 3-4 times.

There are a lot of creative guys over there. I wish we could recruit some of them to this site.

Perhaps the most interesting thing from the win, aside from DJ Smith emerging as Desmond Bishop-light and Robert Francois showing something with his play, was our defensive play-calling.

(Almost) Exclusively nickel and dime. Rarely did we see Capers go to base 3-4. Capers' philosophy isn't hard to predict: shut down run, make team 1 dimensional, and attack like no tomorrow. In part due to this philosophy, we have seen teams come out and own the D early this year by establishing the pass game from the word "go".

Yesterday seemed to be a complete departure from this philosophy. While in nickel, Capers seemed content to let the Lions get their running yards, and to have check downs. Minimal rush, zone in the middle, corners in man, 2 deep safety with Burnett usually rotating towards Megatron.

Usually with this style of D, you have to have players be sure tacklers. In other words, you play to minimize the damage, making the offense work to get down the field; limit big plays. Go for the fumble, but not at the expense of making the sure tackle in other words.

No doubt it worked, but our players are aggressive, often wanting to make big plays at the expense of making the sure plays; try to cause a fumble instead of making the tackle first. Yet the players (for the most part) seemed to play within what yesterday's game plan required. They got big plays, no doubt. But they did not seem to force the issue.

I just find it very interesting that for a group of players that can fairly be criticized for wanting to make splash plays at the expense of sure plays, our defenders played as disciplined as they did. I find it even more interesting that Capers had the confidence in his players to game plan this way. I'm not sure what exactly it says overall about our D, but I honestly feel much, much better coming out of this game about our D than I have at any point since the start of the season. We don't need to have a "blitz like no tomorrow or we're gonna get our asses toast" mentality. Props to Capers for realizing that, and to our players for showing that.

Nonstopdrivel;199038Another quote from the ESPN blog that made me laugh.




There are a lot of creative guys over there. I wish we could recruit some of them to this site.

I'm not telling you not to.

AADP,

You know, as long as our offense is scoring pretty frequently, that's not a bad way to play D.
Score quick, get up a couple scores, and make the offense methodically drive the length of the field on every drive.
Even if they score, hopefully it takes several minutes.
Of course, this style of defense relies as much on our offense as defense to either A) continue to score or B) take lots of time off the clock.
Eventually, most teams will simply run out of time to catch up.
Of course, all this relies on our defense actually being able to get a few stops and us getting ahead by 10 or so.
It's an interesting concept of allowing the offense to be as much of a defense as the actual defense.
Or better said, our offense almost dictates how our defense schemes/plays.
I'm not exactly sure if that's a good thing, but I could see it working . . . as long as our offense is clicking.

EDIT:
I'm convinced that Capers is absolutely focusing on winning the game with such a scheme.
Obviously, that's the main goal, but I mean to say that he could care less about sacks, yards, and even scoring in some cases.
As long as the opponent remains a couple of scores down and the scoring drive takes ~4+ minutes.
To hell with yards and points given up, just make sure you give up less points than the offense has scored.

all_about_da_packers;199039Perhaps the most interesting thing from the win, aside from DJ Smith emerging as Desmond Bishop-light and Robert Francois showing something with his play, was our defensive play-calling.

(Almost) Exclusively nickel and dime. Rarely did we see Capers go to base 3-4. Capers' philosophy isn't hard to predict: shut down run, make team 1 dimensional, and attack like no tomorrow. In part due to this philosophy, we have seen teams come out and own the D early this year by establishing the pass game from the word "go".

Yesterday seemed to be a complete departure from this philosophy. While in nickel, Capers seemed content to let the Lions get their running yards, and to have check downs. Minimal rush, zone in the middle, corners in man, 2 deep safety with Burnett usually rotating towards Megatron.

Usually with this style of D, you have to have players be sure tacklers. In other words, you play to minimize the damage, making the offense work to get down the field; limit big plays. Go for the fumble, but not at the expense of making the sure tackle in other words.

No doubt it worked, but our players are aggressive, often wanting to make big plays at the expense of making the sure plays; try to cause a fumble instead of making the tackle first. Yet the players (for the most part) seemed to play within what yesterday's game plan required. They got big plays, no doubt. But they did not seem to force the issue.

I just find it very interesting that for a group of players that can fairly be criticized for wanting to make splash plays at the expense of sure plays, our defenders played as disciplined as they did. I find it even more interesting that Capers had the confidence in his players to game plan this way. I'm not sure what exactly it says overall about our D, but I honestly feel much, much better coming out of this game about our D than I have at any point since the start of the season. We don't need to have a "blitz like no tomorrow or we're gonna get our asses toast" mentality. Props to Capers for realizing that, and to our players for showing that.

I think they played that defense against detroit because of their offense.
They are a big play offense throwing deep to Johnson.
Against minnesota they were blitz happy because they have a rookie quarterback and not much for receivers.
I like seeing that Capers and the Pack can play different styles and be successful.
Of course with the Packers' offense being successful is a lot easier.