By Todd McMahon
News-Chronicle
DETROIT - The Green Bay Packers opened more eyes with their bread-and-butter ground game Thursday.
Rather than roll up a fourth 200-yard performance in five games, however, the league's top-ranked rushing offense ground to a staggering halt in Detroit's 22-14 win at Ford Field.
The Lions limited the Packers to season lows of 16 carries and 52 yards. The same Packers who came in averaging 32 carries and 173.5 yards per game. Head coach Mike Sherman summed up the devastation created this time on the other side of the line of scrimmage with a scientific reference.
"They did a great job of blasting the back-side lanes and squeezing the football," Sherman said of the Lions. "They just seemed to compress us."
Perhaps that time-honored law rooted in physics also caught up to the Packers' vaunted attack - what had been going up indeed came down.
At the start of play, the Packers were on a running tear rarely seen in the NFL, particularly in this era of parity. They accumulated rushing totals of 261, 241, 190 and 243 yards in the past four games - three ending in victory.
Added up, that's 935 yards for a per-game average of 234. Nevertheless, halfback Ahman Green, who accounted for 592 of those yards, found the going to be as tough as he did when the Packers lost indoors at St. Louis on Oct. 19.
A Lions defense that ranked 18th allowing 116.8 rushing yards per game hemmed in and corralled Green, holding him to 57 yards in 13 carries. It was only his fourth sub-100-yard game of the season and the worst since he mustered 35 yards in 20 attempts against the Rams.
"(The Lions) were determined to come in and stop the run," said Packers quarterback Brett Favre, whose broken right thumb had been spared from throwing the past four games because of the prolific gains on the ground. His passing totals during that stretch were 194, 109, 92 and 138 yards. On Thursday, though, Favre was compelled to throw 37 times for a season-high 296 yards.
"Blame it on us," asserted fullback Nick Luchey, referring to the blockers' struggles.
"We didn't have our (usual) intensity; we were off page sometimes," he elaborated.
"(The Lions) played really, really hard today. (But) I know we screwed up on some things, too," said left guard Mike Wahle, speaking for the offensive line. "I don't know if we just mentally screwed up on a short week.
"I know there were a couple times we got back to the sideline (following a failed drive), and we hadn't done the right thing as a line."
Wahle labeled the game the poorest by the exemplary line this season. Green had only one run for at least 10 yards - a 21-yard pickup late in the first half.
Favre was sacked four times after he had been taken down on only 12 occasions in the first 11 games.
Tackles Chad Clifton (two) and Mark Tauscher (one) combined for three false-start penalties.
Still, the horrendous rushing total reflected the most on the offensive line, which was pushed around and abused by the Lions' quicker, more aggressive pursuers.
"What they were doing extremely well was kind of firing their guys upfield on the corners and making it tough for us to reach that corner and make our guy cut back early," Wahle explained. "And, there were three, four or five guys waiting there (to make the tackle)."
Ten of Green's 13 carries went for gains less than his season average of 5.3 yards. Twice, he was held to 1 yard. Three times, he gained nothing.
In so many words, Sherman conceded his stout linemen were overrun by the Lions.
"We didn't get the cutback lanes we've gotten in the past or be able to shut down our gap schemes - lock the door on the inside pursuit and create a gap in order for us to secure that gap long enough to allow our backs to get through," Sherman said.
Further hurting matters was the fact the Packers spotted Detroit a 10-0 lead in the first quarter and had to play catch-up for all but about five minutes in the second half.
Najeh Davenport, after producing 70 and 62 yards in the last two games, had only 2 yards in two carries. Third halfback Tony Fisher didn't have a rushing attempt. Wide receiver Donald Driver was dropped for a 7-yard loss on an end-around play.
Though he was more than happy to finally throw a number of passes, Favre wondered aloud afterward whether Sherman and offensive coordinator Tom Rossley abandoned the running game prematurely. The Packers were held to 49 yards at halftime.
"They did a good job when we ran the ball, but it's no reason to stop running it," Favre implied. "We made some plays in the passing game. But, there's still plays out there to be made."
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