Editor: Joe Bryant. Game Recap Contributors: Mike Anderson, Michael Brown, Chris Burtt, J.D. Caldwell, David Dodds, Bobby Elder, Jim Enochs, Joel Faulhaber, Michael Flynn, Kevin Goldblum, Clayton Gray, Bob Harris, Fred Hebert, Jesse Hilsenrad, Drew Kendall, Jeff Lewis, Joey Matusek, Justin Oliver, Steve Prosapio, David Shick, Cody Smith, Scott Smith, Jeffrey Stout. Detroit 14 at Green Bay 40 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Detroit Lions: The Lions looked great... for exactly one play. After Joey Harrington tossed a beautiful 64 yard TD pass to Az-Zahir Hakim on the Lions very first play on offense, they promptly disappeared for the rest of the game. both on offense and on defense. Joey Harrington's numbers (20/44 for 236 yards, 2 TD's, 2 INT's) were decent considering how badly the Lions were dominated on both sides of the ball. Harrington didn't look that bad, and one of the INT's was a very catchable pass that Bill Schroeder let go through his hands and into the waiting hands of a Packer defender. The Lion defense was bad... very bad. They could not stop the Packer rush attack even though Ahman Green and Najeh Davenport both eventually left the game. The Lion secondary played like they weren't there and allowed Brett Favre to just pick them a part. James Stewart had a nice day despite the blow out, rushing for 122 yards on 15 carries (including a nice 56 yard rumble down the sidelines) for a 8.1 yards per carry average. Az-Zahir Hakim also had a decent game despite the dominance of the Packer defense, catching 7 passes for 143 yards and one TD. Hakim is Harrington's favorite receiver. Green Bay Packers: A well played game by both the Packer offense and defense. The Packers dominated the Lions the whole game... the only exceptions being the Lions first offensive play (a 64 yard TD pass) and a circus catch in the endzone by Lion TE Mikhael Ricks late in the fourth quarter. The Packer victory came at a price, as both RB Ahman Green and RB Najeh Davenport left with injuries. Greens took a nasty bump to his head on a tackle and left with neck problems and Davenport left the game after getting bent almost in half after a run and injuring his foot. Green and coach Mike Sherman say he'll be fine. Keep an eye on it though. Brett Favre showed no discomfort playing with his knee injury on his way to an impressive 26/39 for 351 yards, 2 TD, no interception performance. He was taken out of the game in the fourth quarter as a precaution so as not to risk further injury to his knee. Ryan Longwell had a good day kicking, hitting all four of his field goal attempts (with a 40 yarder his longest) and all four extra point attempts. WHAT YOU OUGHT TO KNOW Detroit Lions QB: Joey Harrington didn't have that bad of an outing (20/44, 236 yards, 2 TD's, 2 INT's) despite the Lions being blown out by the Packers. One of his interceptions was a catchable pass that Bill Schroeder let go through his hands and into the hands of a waiting Packer defender, who then took it in for a TD. Harrington's first pass of the game was a nice 64 yard toss to Az-Zahir Hakim for a TD. Harrington, who completed passes to seven different receivers in the game, did make some bad throws, but a bunch of his passes that were perfectly catchable were dropped by Lion receivers, including one in the endzone. RB: James Stewart had a nice day despite the Packer dominance on defense, rushing for 122 yards on just 15 carries... an 8.1 yards per carry average. Fifty six of those yards came on a nice run up the sideline. Stewart also added another 19 yards on two receptions. The Lions had planned on establishing a running game with Stewart to control the ball, but fell behind early and had to go to a passing game. Cory Schlesinger played but was not a factor in this game. WR: Az-Zahir Hakim was by far Joey Harrington's favorite target in the game, catching 7 passes for 143 yards and one TD. The TD came on the Lions very first offensive play... a beautiful 64 yard toss from Harrington. Germane Crowell played in the game and caught 3 passes for 32 yards... he was not a factor however. Scotty Anderson had only one catch for 15 yards and was also a non factor in the game. Bill Schroeder had an awful game, his first game against his former team. He dropped all passes that were intended for him, including one that was perfectly catchable that he let go right through his hands to a Packer defender who promptly ran the ball in for a Packer TD. Schroeder also dropped another pass in the endzone at the end of the game. Schroeder looked like he was concentrating on not getting hit rather than catching the ball. Despite this, he continues to get redzone looks from Harrington. TE: Mikhael Ricks continues to get a lot of looks from Joey Harrington both in and out of the red zone. Unfortunately, all passes thrown at him were either knocked away by Packer defenders or uncatchable. However, Ricks did make an amazing circus grab in the endzone for a TD. The play was upheld as a TD after official review. K: Jason Hanson missed his only FG attempt (50 yards) and made both extra point attempts. Pass Defense: Pass defense? What pass defense? The Lion secondary was almost non existent as they allowed Brett Favre to have his way with them. The pass rush wasn't particularly affective either as Favre had loads of time to go through his check down and find the open receiver. A horrible performance all together. Rush Defense: The run defense had a bit more success, but that was due to both Packer RB's Ahman Green and Najeh Davenport leaving the game with injuries. The Detroit defense was just terrible in this game. /**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/** Green Bay Packers QB: Brett Favre showed no discomfort from his knee injury, going 26/39 for 351 yards and 2 TD's. Favre looked very good while picking a part the hapless Lion secondary... He threw completions to seven different receivers on the day. Favre was taken out of the game in the fourth quarter as a precautionary measure against worse injury to his knee. Doug Pederson took over for Favre in the fourth quarter. He went 3/3 passing for 12 yards. Had the game been closer Pederson would not have come in. RB: Ahman Green (12/50, 3 rec for 20 yards) looked good, but left the game at half time after appearing to twist his neck getting tackled after a run late in the second quarter. Green and coach Mike Sherman say he'll be fine. Najeh Davenport took over for Ahman Green and ran for 73 yards on 10 carries, including a TD. He too left the game in the third quarter after a nasty looking tackle where he appeared to get bent almost in half. He had to have two trainers help him off the field. It appeared in the replay he injured his knee, but they were reporting that it was his foot that was injured. This situation also bears watching as Davenport is Green's primary backup. Tony Fisher finished the game at RB for the Packers. He rushed for 27 yards on 12 carries and added four receptions for 14 yards. William Henderson (FB) had no rushes, but caught 2 passes for 14 yards, one of which was a 9 yard TD toss from Brett Favre. WR: Donald Driver had a career day catching 11 passes for 130 yards. However, he was held out of the endzone despite several redzone targets from Favre. Driver was open all game long and was Favre's obvious target of choice in this game. Terry Glenn had a decent game, catching 3 passes for 82 yards. One was a nice pass over the middle that Glenn ran for 46 yards and appeared to get in the endzone with a dive as he was being tackled. The play was put under official review (less than two minutes before the end of the half) and the TD was reversed after the review (Glenn's elbow hit at the one yard line before the ball crossed the plane). The ball was then run in by Najeh Davenport. Glenn played very well and received a fair share of looks from Favre during the game, in and out of the redzone. Javon Walker caught 2 passes for 50 yards, one a nice 30 yard rope from Favre in traffic. Walker didn't get a lot of looks from Favre in the game though. TE: Bubba Franks caught 4 passes for 53 yards, including a four yard TD pass from Favre. Franks continues to see a lot of targets from Favre both in and out of the redzone. K: Ryan Longwell had a busy (and flawless) day, hitting 4 of 4 FGs (longest was 40 yards) and 4 of 4 extra points. Pass Defense: After giving up a 64 yard TD pass to Joey Harrington on the Lions very first offensive play, the Packer secondary settled down and performed well. They did let Az-Zahir Hakim get open quite a bit, but played very well whenever the Lions threatened to get into the red zone. The pass rush wasn't very good as Harrington seemed to have time in the pocket to find his receivers. A decent performance overall. Run Defense: The Packers had some trouble containing James Stewart and might have done worse if the Lions didn't fall behind early and go to the pass. The Packer defense let up yardage but got the job done in the redzone.