Lately, though, he has been off the mark.
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Center Corey Linsley (ankle), who missed the Thanksgiving game, has returned to practice on a limited basis, but right tackle Bryan Bulaga (ankle), who exited last Thursday in favor of Don Barclay, has not yet practiced this week. Rodgers completing 60.5 percent of passes, lowest percentage in eight years as starter, and has lowest rating (97.4) since 2008…. “That’s cut and dry, and that’s a staple of how we play here”, McCarthy said. Trust Rodgers and play him. If you watched the Thanksgiving game, you got a pretty good idea of how dominant a pass-rusher Ansah is and how much of a headache he can be. “He makes that team go”. You chop off the head, the rest of the body will follow. But after a 1-7 start, the jury is still out on whether or not this Lions team has found a way to improve, or if they’ve just been playing teams at the right time. Stafford is going to have some work cut out for him, as the Green Bay Packers’ secondary has been decent this season.
Recently, though, he has been on a roll and the Lions have been, too.
Detroit has seen Matthew Stafford step up and play an impressive brand of football recently.
On the other side of the ball, the Lions have benefitted with Jim Bob Cooter taking over as offensive co-ordinator. “I think he kind of likes some of the formations we’re using, some of the alignments we’re using and just the way we’re going about business”. “I mean, you can’t do the same thing over and over in this league”, Johnson said. Ameer Abdullah looks way more like the player we saw in the preseason and Calvin Johnson was a monster Thursday. Last week, against the Philadelphia Eagles, Johnson erupted for 93 yards and three touchdowns in a 45-14 victory. This offense is seriously missing a deep threat and neither James Jones or Davante Adams can fill that gap that Jordy Nelson filled.
They come in with an offense that has sputtered massively in this month, with a defense that has not had its normal pass rush – sacks in just two of their last five games, seven in total. A season sweep over the Vikings could be enough to win the division, given that it would give the Packers the head-to-head tiebreaker.
“I’m hoping we can go in there and play our best defensive game of the year”.
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“The nice part is, I definitely feel a lot more confidently about Eddie Lacy and the running game, but I don’t think anybody can come away from the last few weeks and say ‘This passing game is really in rhythm and looking sharp.’ I think they need to figure out some way to be more effective passing the football, which just sounds insane to even say out loud with the talent this team has”.
