Green Bay Packers' offensive line has no answer for Detroit Lions' defensive front 
BY KAREEM COPELAND KCOPELAND@GREENBAYPRESSGAZETTE.COM DECEMBER 12, 2010

[img_r]http://cmsimg.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=U0&Date=20101212&Category=PKR01&ArtNo=101212069&Ref=AR&MaxW=318&Border=0[/img_r]DETROIT Its no secret the Detroit Lions defensive line is the strongest unit on that team. But who expected the Green Bay Packers offensive line to be completely dominated in a 7-3 loss at Ford Field on Sunday?

On a day where little went right for the Packers, the offensive line was simply a sieve.

No disrespect to our offensive line, but we knew they had some big guys up front and they were going to come to play, running back Brandon Jackson said. Their defensive line has most of their sacks, so we knew going into the game that if we defeated their defensive line, we would win the game.

The Lions, seemingly, played the entire game in the Packers backfield. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was forced to leave the pocket regularly and was knocked out of the game with a concussion on an 18-yard scramble. Matt Flynn was brought in and was also forced to move his feet and he doesnt possess the athleticism of Rodgers.

The Lions posted four sacks, six tackles for loss and eight quarterback hurries. Both Rodgers and Flynn threw an interception.

And the word out of the locker room was the Lions didnt do anything special.

They were giving the same looks they give everybody else, center Scott Wells said. It wasnt anything they hadnt shown on film.

Bottom line today was we didnt execute across the board. They played a good game, but at the same time we hurt ourselves a lot of the time.

The Packers played most of the game without starting left guard Daryn Colledge, who suffered a knee injury on the first series of the teams first series of the game. Tight end Andrew Quarless was stripped of the ball by Landon Johnson and it was recovered by Brandon McDonald. Colledge was injured making the tackle.

Jason Spitz replaced Colledge, but was yanked for T.J. Lang after halftime because of what coach Mike McCarthy said was "performance."

Pass blocking wasnt the only issue for the line. Jackson and James Starks were held to a combined 27 yards on 13 carries. The entire team totaled 66 yards on 20 carries with 35 yards coming from the quarterbacks on five attempts.

Theyre a penetrating front, offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said. They crowd the ball. They do things that theyve done well throughout the course of the year. Theyve got two good defensive tackles. They got some penetration in the run game. Im sure we could say we should have done some things better, but the fact of the matter is they got penetration and some pressure on the quarterback.

Ill be surprised if we watch the film and tomorrow have a different opinion that it was a lot of different techniques or fronts or defensive calls.

The shock of the discombobulated play was magnified by the fact the line had played fairly well this season. The unit gave up four sacks last week in a 34-16 win against the San Francisco 49ers, but that was thought to be an aberration as opposed to a significant issue.

The unit will surely be questioned this week with a trip to 11-2 New England on the schedule.

They didnt do anything we hadnt seen 100 times, right guard Josh Sitton said. Very frustrating. Playing the way wed been playing its tough.

Real frustrating.