My Thoughts from the Green Bay Packers at the Detroit Lions (10/25/2026)

 Here are my thoughts from today's Green Bay Packers' 20-17 loss at the Detroit Lions:

The offensive line injuries are starting to reach ridiculous levels. A team that has had to patch all season lost both their starting and backup centers on the first drive of the game. Hopefully Sean Rhyan and/or Jacob Monk aren't seriously injured.

A shout out to John Williams though. For someone who has probably gotten few, if any, reps at that position, I thought he held up pretty well. He wasn't perfect but also wasn't as much of a disaster as he could have been.

I love Daniel Whelan as a punter but after seeing Trey Smack miss a chip shot field goal in what seems to be a continuation of ongoing problems with the kicking game, I am starting to question if he, as the holder, is a big part of the issue. He is the one constant as the Packers have made multiple changes at the kicking position the past few years.

If Matt LaFleur loses his job after this season, his decision not to try for a field goal when the team was down 10-7 in the second quarter can be used as an example of some of his questionable decision making. It's one thing to be aggressive but that just seemed reckless, even with Smack's miss on the previous field goal try and was a factor late in the game.

I also found myself questioning his decision to call a run play on the final play of the first half instead of just having Jordan Love take a knee. There was a whole lot that could have gone wrong with that decision, and he got lucky Marshawn Lloyd was just tackled.

All-in-all, I think the defense held up well. They are missing key players and lost Devonte Wyatt for a short while but, despite allowing yards, kept the Lions' potent offense from putting up a lot of points, recovered two fumbles and were the reason Green Bay stayed in the game even as the Packers offense left points off the board.

I've said this before, I'll say it again, penalties need to be reviewable. The roughing the passer penalties were judgment calls, but I truly believe at least the first personal foul and the intentional grounding penalties would have been overturned with a second look. Allow coaches to use their challenge flags to overturn the clearly bad ones.

That said, did LaFleur do or say something to turn the refs against the Packers? Bad calls happen but they sure do seem to be happening a lot more against the Packers than their opponents, especially the iffy RTP calls.

The run game is still missing but Josh Jacobs' return did give some reason for hope. He clearly was on a pitch count today, which makes sense, but still showed flashes of what the team has been missing, especially when it came to making defenders miss. If they can get the offensive line healthy enough to block for him, they might be able to finally find some run/pass balance.