Thursday Night Observations

Packers covered

So my home picking pool has been tied three weeks in a row, setting up an unprecedented quadruple week. Accordingly, it was important to get the W in the Thursday night game, and I had Packers +3.5, so I checked that box. I also had Jahmyr Gibbs in the Primetime — I need a monster week to make the playoffs, and he did okay. Finally, I had Xavier McKinney as my DB in the Steak League, and he got his seven tackles. Otherwise, I was mostly rooting against everyone, and no one did much except Josh Jacobs who scored three TDs, and even then, 66 yards and no catches.

• Jordan Love made some insane throws under pressure. He put up modest numbers, but played a great game against an aggressive defense. The TD pass to Tucker Kraft was absolutely perfect.

• The Packers stuffed the Lions running game, especially Gibbs. I’ve rarely seen the Lions bottled up like that.

• Christian Watson had a nice game except for the fumble. You never know with the Packers, even with Romeo Doubs out. Jayden Reed didn’t even have a catch. The Lions got a lot of pressure even with a banged up defensive line.

• The Lions defense gave up 31 points, but it played better than I would have expected given all the injuries. The scoring was partly due to a pick by Jared Goff, a turnover on downs in their own end and Love threading the needle on a couple plays. But the Packers had only 298 total yards.

• Goff had time to throw and was his typical efficient self. The one thing missing was an effective running game, but when you use all four downs, you’ll usually move the chains barring penalties and sacks, and he was sacked only once.

• I love that Tim Patrick who no one started caught, two of the TDs. Goff spread the ball around fairly evenly to his three receivers and TE.

• I hope the Lions get some of their defenders back. This is probably the best team in the NFL when fully healthy, and the playoffs are more fun when teams are close to full strength.