"A quarter of the way through the 2010 schedule, the Green Bay Packers are hardly blowing off anybody's doors. So, what does it mean for their championship aspirations that as a 14½-point favorite they had to hold off the winless Detroit Lions in the final 6½ minutes for a tense 28-26 win at Lambeau Field? In purely practical terms, it means they're 3-1 and tied for the lead in the NFC North Division after Chicago's 17-3 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday night. The Packers surely haven't looked like a champion through four games and have been nothing like the offensive juggernaut their talent suggests, even while dispatching the Lions to their 23rd straight road loss. Then again, there's no apologizing for winning in the NFL. So does it really matter how they've played through four games as long as their record has held up? "No, it doesn't," linebacker Nick Barnett said. "I don't think we started out super great last year on defense, but we started to kick it up around this time." The season will tell whether Barnett is right, and the Packers are hitting the part of their schedule where they'll pay a stiffer price if their play doesn't pick up. Over the next six games, the Packers are at Washington, at home against Miami and Minnesota, at home against Dallas and then at Minnesota and Atlanta. There's a danger in overanalyzing a surprisingly close win against the luckless Lions, but the Packers must be concerned with their early-season struggles trying to compensate for their lack of a run game without injured Ryan Grant, who won't be back this year. They also watched Lions backup quarterback Shaun Hill, starting in place of injured Matthew Stafford, throw for 331 yards and coax defensive coordinator Dom Capers to back off his zone-blitz repertoire. Hill did that by gashing blitzes with several hot reads and screens to convert long third downs. That said, Capers' defense helped save the win by keeping Detroit out of the end zone in the second half, leaving the Lions with only four Jason Hanson field goals in their comeback from a 28-14 deficit. "It's not a great start, but it's a good start," safety Nick Collins said. "Anybody in the NFL would want to be where we are, 3-1. But in order to be a great team, like the end of last year we went 7-1, we had a lot of great things going on. We want to get back to that." The Packers had their chances to win this game convincingly but didn't have the offensive punch (261 yards in total offense) or care with the ball to put the game away. In the second half, Jordy Nelson had a crucial fumble on a kickoff return, and quarterback Aaron Rodgers had two passes to receiver Greg Jennings intercepted." Read more: http://packersnews.greenbaypressgaz...great-start-but-still-tied-for-NFC-North-lead
