Packers Versus Lions Preview | Ticket King Green Bay

The Green Bay Packers are coming off back to back losses for the first time since 2010. Eddie Lacy is having a nightmare 2015 season, and this offense is a mess right now. Last Sunday against Carolina, the Packers failed to pick up a first down for a period of time that lasted for over 20 minutes in the first half. Both of these losses were on the road, and the Packers return home this week to play the Lions.

How will James Starks do, and can Eddie Lacy be productive at all? As stated above, Eddie Lacy is having a nightmare 2015 season. We are halfway through the season and Lacy has just 308 yards rushing. Well, his nightmare season just got worse this week. Lacy has officially been benched. James Starks is now number one on the depth chart. That doesn't mean Lacy won't play, it just means Starks will open the game as the starter. Starks is a good solid running back, and we think he will play well. As far as Lacy is concerned, the Packers have said his weight is not an issue. Well that is their official statement on the matter. Unofficially, Lacy is really overweight, even for his standards, and it is effecting his play.

Can Aaron Rodgers shake off this bad stretch of play and return to form? Aaron Rodgers is not used to this little production personally, at all. After having two nightmare games in a row, Rodgers starting out  bad in Carolina last week. He picked it up in the second half, although some of that can be attributed to inflated stats that are often picked up in comeback situations like that. We can say this, the Packers are not paying Aaron Rodgers to throw for 150 yards and a touchdown or two every game., they could get that from Ryan Fitzpatrick for 10 times less cost than they are paying Rodgers.

Can someone please get vertical in the passing game? This is a problem that masked itself the first six weeks of the season. However, over the last couple of weeks, this problem has really been brought into light. As we all know, Jordy Nelson tore his ACL in the preseason. As a result, the Packers offense lost it's vertical passing ability. At this moment, opponents are literally daring Aaron Rodgers to go vertical which is kind of funny, because up until Nelson's torn ACL, daring Aaron Rodgers to go vertical was a quick way to lose your job. Now, it is the defense of choice against the Packers. A potential solution could be to finally put Jeff Janis into the lineup and let him play. At 6'3”, 220 pounds, and a 4.42 40 time, Janis has measurables that don't grow on trees and could put him into play as dangerous deep threat, if they would just play him.

We usually do this in question format, but for this last part, we will simply say please don't blame the defense for these losses. Right now, this is all on the offense. Yes, the Packers defense did get run over in the second and third quarters last week, but that was after they were worn out, from being on the field so much. When the offense can't get a first down for over a 20-minute stretch of game time, the defense will get tired. So please, don't blame the defense, this isn't their fault, this falls squarely at the feet of the offense.

If this were another game against a good team on the road, we would say the Packers are headed for another loss. But this isn't a good team on the road, this is against the Lions at Lambeau Field. Final Score: 34-20 Packers.