Packers look to right ship

What's wrong with Aaron Rodgers? Doesn't he care anymore?

And what's wrong with the Green Bay Packers? Aren't they any good anymore?

These questions were endlessly asked this past week, especially in Wisconsin, following the Packers' hollow 38-3 loss last Sunday to the New Orleans Saints.

Until the Packers prove otherwise, the above questions will linger. So what better way for Green Bay to flip those narratives than to bounce back with an impressive win in their home opener against the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football?

It had been seven years since Rodgers and the Packers lost their NFL season opener. It has been 15 years since the club started 0-2.

And although the Lions, as a division rival, annually play at Lambeau Field, they have won just twice there (2015, 2018) over the past 30 years.

The odds, then, and history and just about everything else scream that the Packers will defeat the Lions, probably comfortably. But after that awful, unpromising opener, who can say for sure?

“We had a clunker and we gotta play better,” Rodgers said this past week. “And I expect that we will, on both sides of the ball.”

First-year Lions head coach Dan Campbell this past week sure sounded like he's expecting as much.

“They've been kind of the gold standard in (the NFC North) for a long time, rightfully so,” Campbell said.

In their opener last Sunday, the Lions were getting blown out in every way to the degree the Packers were by the Saints, until new Lions QB Jared Goff caught fire and led a furious comeback from a 38-10 deficit, which came up short in a 41-33 loss.

Probably Detroit's best chance is to control the ball and keep Rodgers and the Packers' offence on the sideline. That means running the ball successfully.

Ah, but last week the Lions averaged 4.8 yards per carry and amassed 116 yards on the ground against the San Francisco 49ers; former Packer Jamaal Williams had 54, and second-year D'andre Swift 39.

That Campbell was a longtime offensive assistant in New Orleans, the team that just crushed the Packers, should prove helpful to Detroit. But repeating the Saints' success might prove 10 times as difficult for the Lions.

“New Orleans kicked the hornets' nest,” Campbell said, “so we're going to get everything they've got.”

And that could sting.