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Monday Night Observations

That was a frustrating non-cover if you had the Packers. After the two early big plays to Kenny Golladay and Marvin Hall, the Lions offense did nothing the rest of the game. But the Packers had two problems -- terrible punt/kick returning, including a fumble and receivers who until the last five minutes simply could not make plays to save their lives.

There was a short ball to Jimmy Graham on third and long from deep in their own end. Graham caught it in space, and any athletic player would have at least made the fight for the first-down yardage interesting. Instead, Graham went down easily as soon as the defender contacted him. Geronimo Allison dropped passes, Darrius Shepperd, who fumbled the punt, had a ball bounce off his facemask at the one-yard line that got intercepted and returned to midfield. Davante Adams is no superstar, but if ever a team missed a receiver, it's him.

Aaron Rodgers had all day to throw, and he's still the same superstar, greatest-of-all-time-conversation-worthy player. He's healthy, moved well, rarely made negative plays and put the ball on the money all day. The Packers offensive line was excellent, both pass and run-blocking.

Jamaal Williams was better than Aaron Jones Monday night -- unlike Jones, he didn't drop a perfectly thrown wide-open TD or lose a fumble -- and he ran for more yards, was more productive as a receiver and scored a receiving TD. Jones still has more burst, but this is back to being a timeshare.

Allen Lazard was the hero with the lucky TD that he nearly dropped at the end, but the second leading receiver was blocking TE Marcedes Lewis. The Packers need to trade for a receiver badly, even after they get Adams back.

I watched the 40-minute edited version of the game, so I didn't see the replays of "illegal hands to the face" calls on Trey Flowers, but checking Twitter this morning, I'm assuming they were very bad, and they essentially sealed the win for the Packers.

Matthew Stafford looked great early on the accurate deep throws, but was under pressure and settled for short stuff the rest of the game. The Lions running game couldn't get going at all.

The other reason the Lions covered was Matt Prater -- he was money, going 5-for-5 on field goals including two from 50-plus.

Finally, the Packers nearly covered on the final series as the Lions smartly tried to let Jamaal Williams score the TD to get the ball back. But Williams himself was too aware and did the right thing by going down at the two.