After the first two games, the Packers weren't given much hope this season. Most observers will be cautiously optimistic in terms of their approach to Packers success, while others will have the Packers in the playoff picture again this morning. That's the way Packers fans are. In fact, that's the way good sports fans are in general.
But there are some positives here. The young offensive line, with two young rookie guards, did a bang up job, not allowing a quarterback sack. In fact, Brett Favre had all day to throw the ball. Yes, the Lions are an 0-3 team, but they do have one of the better lines in football, led by defensive tackle Shaun Rogers.
If nothing else, Sunday's win provided us with Mike McCarthy's first NFL head coaching win and it gave us Brett Favre's 400th, 401st and 402nd touchdown passes, making him just the second NFL quarterback to surpass 400 career touchdown passes. But on the positive side, the Packers performed well offensively and Favre was spectacular. He threw no interceptions and it would be hard for me to recall more than 1 or 2 forced throws. He dumped the ball off to backs and tight ends and the Packers offense was truly efficient. Yes, they need to run the ball more efficiently, but they ran it enough to keep the Lions defense off balance.
Can the Packers play like this next Monday night at Philadelphia? Well, the competition will be stiffer, and perhaps the outcome won't be the same. But yes, the Packers are capable of this kind of offensive play and should be expected to do so. Defense is another question. The Lions moved the ball up and down the field with relative ease yesterday. That's three straight sub par performances by the defense and that can't be encouraging. If there's ever an area of improvement that's necessary, it would be on that side of the ball.