The Green Bay Packers have lost a lot of games like the one they did in Detroit on Sunday afternoon.

They play just well enough to stay in the game, make a few big plays to help you realize their tantalizing potential but, ultimately, fall short at the end.

Why? Because they make too many silly mistakes and don’t put themselves in the best position to succeed.

Let’s dive right into the weekly report card from Green Bay’s 20-17 loss to the Lions.

Pass Offense

Drops. The story of Green Bay’s season. Jordan Love tried his best to erase some of the mistakes that the Packers made, as all great quarterbacks do.

An egregious intentional grounding could have been erased if Bo Melton had made a catch on a ball that hit him in both hands. Instead, it was dropped, forcing a third-and-21.

Following Keisean Nixon’s heroic fourth-down stop on defense, Love threw a dime to Josh Jacobs in the corner of the end zone that would have given the Packers a 23-17 lead late in the fourth quarter with the extra point pending.

Jacobs was unable to make the catch.

Love was essentially given the entire game by Matt LaFleur and asked to win it.

He was not perfect. His one interception was, in essence, an arm punt. He nearly threw another in the red zone on what was supposed to be a throwaway. Apart from those plays, however, Love has continued to rise to the occasion while those around him falter.

Love may never put up the gaudy numbers that some premier quarterbacks do. He’s someone you have to watch every week to appreciate how good he is.

He’s continued to roll with the punches behind a bad offensive line, the worst run game in football and a receiving corps that leads the NFL in drops.

As a result, he’s asked to play Superman more than the Packers would probably like him to.

Unfortunately for the Packers, they’ve asked their quarterback to play Superman for the better part of the last 15 years. Asking one man to carry the entire franchise often leads that franchise to crumble in the biggest moments.

That’s what happened to Green Bay on Sunday.

Grade: B-Plus.

Rush Offense

Josh Jacobs was back, albeit on a snap count. There was not much of a difference for Green Bay’s run game. Jacobs carried the ball 11 times for 36 yards. MarShawn Lloyd and Savion Williams were the only other ball-carriers, combining for 24 yards on eight carries. The longest run was a 10-yard burst from Jacobs that felt like it was a 30-yard-run in the moment simply because of how inept the Packers have been on the ground.

Perhaps things will get better as Jacobs gets more acclimated after his six-game absence and is able to handle a full workload.

It’s clear, however, he’s not going to save the Packers’ run game all by himself. The group in front of him needs to start figuring some things out.

Simply put, 19 carries for 60 yards wasn’t good enough – and won’t be good enough as the games get bigger down the stretch of the season.

Grade: D-Minus.

Pass Defense

Is Micah Parsons back yet?

Obviously, the answer is no, but the Packers’ four-man rush was unable to get anything generated against Jared Goff for most of the day. When Goff is comfortable in the pocket, he can dice up any defense. That’s what he did with relative ease for significant portions of the game.

He finished the day with 303 passing yards, 153 of which went to his top target, Amon-Ra St. Brown. Another 91 yards and two touchdowns went to Jameson Williams. They both had two catches of 24-plus yards.

Goff was sacked just once on a bit of an odd play where Anthony Campbell stripped Goff before he fell on the ball. He was pressured on only three of 33 dropbacks, according to PFF.

For the first time since the Packers played Atlanta, they did not record an interception. Brandon Cisse had one wiped out thanks to a pass interference penalty that was called on him. Evan Williams had one hit him in both hands, but he dropped it.

Goff gave the Packers opportunities, but they did not capitalize. They did do a good job situationally, specifically Cisse with a two-play sequence that included a pass breakup and shoving Williams out of bounds to secure a fourth-down stop.

To hold the Lions’ high-flying offense to just 20 points is impressive, which pulls the final grade up.

Grade: C-Minus.

Rush Defense

With Zaire Franklin and Edgerrin Cooper out of the lineup, it would have been easy to foresee Jahmyr Gibbs running wild against Green Bay’s run defense.

Quite the opposite took place. There were some instances when Gibbs got going, but he was largely held in check. He finished with 29 carries for 116 yards, but two of his biggest runs of the day came on at least one play in which the Packers were trying to let him score.

Against a back as good as Gibbs, any team will sign up for that.

The biggest play of the game for Green Bay’s defense came on the ground. With the Lions facing a fourth-and-1 from their 24 with about 5 minutes remaining, Keisean Nixon made what could have been the game-winning play with a TFL to give the Packers possession.

It did not turn out that way, but this group was solid as they’ve been for most of the season save for one nightmare against Bijan Robinson.

Grade: B.

Special Teams

For everything that went wrong, if the kicker simply would have made his kicks, the Packers would have won the game in regulation. If the kicker would have made one of the two kicks he shanked, the Packers would have had a shot to win in overtime.

Trey Smack has been up-and-down all season, but his performance against the Lions will be one to forget.

Smack missed field goals of 26 and 35 yards. One was officially blocked, but that cannot happen. Smack has missed five kicks in the last three weeks. The Packers are standing by him, but it’s going to be interesting to see how much tolerance there is for a rookie kicker for a team that cannot afford to leave points on the field in big games.

Smack is not the only person at fault for why the Packers lost, but he played a huge role in it. Missing two chip-shot field goals in a dome is inexcusable. In a league in which kickers are better than ever, it’s a wonder how the Packers have not figured out a way to replace the ever-reliable Mason Crosby since allowing him to leave following the 2022 season.

Grade: F.

Coaching

It’s not Travis Glover’s fault. He was asked to do something he never should have been asked to do.

Kevin Zeitler said on Friday that he was ready to play if the Packers called on him. Instead of starting him, the Packers made him a healthy scratch in favor of Glover, who has been the starter since Zeitler signed with the team in late September.

According to PFF’s initial charting, Glover gave up seven pressures against Alim McNeil and the Detroit interior defensive line. The most he’d given up in a game to date was three. He nearly doubled his output in just one performance.

The only way the Lions were going to be able to slow down the Packers’ offense was if their front wrecked the game for Green Bay.

It’s unclear who is in charge of the decision of who to start. Whether it’s Matt LaFleur, Adam Stenavich, Luke Butkus or some combination of the three, there needs to be a come-to-Jesus moment in regards to this offensive line.

In the biggest game of the season to date, the Packers did not put their best foot forward. They did not put their best players on the field. That’s inexcusable. The coaching staff has bungled so many decisions on the offensive line during their tenure to where they do not have the benefit of the doubt that perhaps their evaluation of Glover being a better option than Zeitler is correct.

If Zeitler is ready, he not only needs to be active on Thursday against Carolina but standing next to Anthony Belton as the team’s starting right guard.

Aside from that decision, LaFleur would not comment on the officials after the game. Whether or not he’s correct in that regard does not really matter. LaFleur said it best in that it will not change anything.

His aggressiveness early in the game was the correct decision in my estimation, the players just did not execute.

That has been a significant problem in a lot of the big games during LaFleur’s career. One minor thing here or there is the difference between winning and losing.

As a result, his team often loses in these spots.  

Grade: D.

In my 19 years covering the Packers on a daily basis, I've never written a blame-the-refs story. Yeah, I get it, the Packers beat themselves, too, but what happened at Ford Field was unaccepable, an embarrassment and, to quote Xavier McKinney, bullshit. ⬇️https://t.co/IJdIl1WAMe

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 26, 2026