The Green Bay Packers locker room is in a somber mood, and understandably so. Coming into their Week 4 game against the Detroit Lions, they were hopeful of starting the season off with a 3-1 record, given their solid ability to withstand adversity and opponents' physicality. However, the Lions ramped up the aggression on Thursday night, and it showed in their complete dominance over the Packers in the first-half, taking a 27-3 lead during intermission en route to a 33-20 victory.
The Lions' aggression manifested itself in the form of their complete control of the rushing game on both ends of the field. The Packers mustered a mere 27 yards to the Lions' 211, and the Packers simply had no answers for the Lions' brute force on the night.
Simply put, Matt LaFleur and the rest of the Packers' coaching staff must go back to the drawing board so they could configure a defensive setup that won't be as leaky as it was against the Lions on Thursday night.
“We’re gonna have to do something different because it's insane to do the same things over and over again and expect different results. … You should be able to take one phase away if you want to commit to that,” LaFleur said, per Rob Demovsky of ESPN.
The Packers, indeed, were unable to take anything away from the Lions during their nightmare of a first half. The Lions got their way over and over, chipping away at the Packers' half of the field thanks in large part to the threat their running game posed.
Fortunately for the Packers, they'll have 10 days to get their act together so they could return to winning ways when they take on the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 5.