Turkey Day Game: Scumbags 40, Packers 10.

     Just when you think this team's down for the count, they go and put on a performance like Thursday's. 

     And make no mistake, this was a statement the Lions desperately needed to make.

     But early on, it didn't look as though they would. The turnover-happy offense from the Tampa Bay game held over into the first half of this week, with Reggie Bush fumbling the ball inside the Green Bay 10 on the Lions' first drive of the game. After a pair of field goals tied the game at 3, Green Bay' Nick Perry strips the ball from Matt Stafford on the opening play of the next drive to put the Pack up 10-3. On the next drive, Stafford gets picked off for the first of two times in this game, but the Packers failed to score on the ensuing drive. 

     At this point, one could certainly be forgiven for thinking the Lions had learned nothing from the last two weeks. But that would be overlooking an absolutely dominant performance by a D-line that has been greatly helped by the return of Ziggy Ansah, and the fact that Detroit had outgained the Packers 340-43 at the half, which would seem to indicate a team that was suffering from dumb luck, and maybe the lack of a competent kicker. But we'll get to that later.

     Sure enough, luck would finally swing the Lions' way in the second half, as Green Bay wouldn't score another point. After the first Stafford interception, the Detroit D-line wouldn't allow the Packers to move the chains on their next five drives, while the offense continued putting a show of their own. This was as good of a performance as this offensive line has put together in a long time; Stafford was only sacked once, and the run offense put up its best numbers in almost a decade, 241 yards on 43 carries. To put that in perspective, the Lions haven't gained over 200 rushing yards in a game since 2004. Despite the early fumble, Bush averaged 5.9 yards per carry on Thursday's game, with 117 yards over 20 carries.

     Even the secondary, which has drawn the ire of many over the last few weeks, looks to have greatly improved, particularly Darius Slay, who looked damn solid today. Yes, I'm aware of the garbage-time pickoff by James Jones. But Slay still put himself in good position to pick it off, and it's more a credit to Jones' aggressiveness than a slight on Slay's playmaking.

     And you really can't say enough about that defensive line. The Dirtbags came up with 7 sacks and two fumble recoveries, allowing a grand total of 24 rushing yards on 15 carries, not to mention Ndamukong Suh dragging Matt Flynn down in his own endzone for the safety which, if it didn't put the nail in the coffin, it certainly signified the point at which the Packers stopped trying. Nothing "dirty" about any of that. And who can honestly say that, even without the time missed to injury, that rookie Ansah would already have 7 sacks to his credit this year, considering the guy he replaced at his position, Kyle VandenBosch, had all of 3.5 last year?

     Somewhere in Green Bay, Josh Sitton is no doubt wishing he'd never opened his mouth. 

     For all that, though, there's still some issues to be addressed here. I've gone on about the turnovers and interceptions these last few weeks, and at the half, it really seemed like this was going to be another game blown by Detroit's inability to hold on to the ball. But in the second half, save for a pickoff in the endzone by Sam Shields in the third quarter, those fears were mostly unfounded.

     Also, can we admit that signing David Akers may not have been a good idea? Missing a 31-yarder Thursday, making him 8-for-13 on the year in the 30-49 yard range, is not making a strong case for his continued presence on this team. And while I'm not entirely sold on the "bring back Kickalicious" bandwagon just yet, I'd rather take the relatively inexperienced guy over the past-his-prime guy who can't get it done. You can at least make the case that the young guy will eventually improve, but does anyone really think that an older, declining kicker is really going to suddenly turn it around, given that Akers has been on this slide since his days in San Francisco?

     All that aside, this is the statement game the Detroit Lions needed. If they'd lost Thursday, it's hard to envision a scenario in which the Lions pull out of the tailspin and salvage things before Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler return from their respective injuries. But now, without a single win in their last 5 games, that might not be enough to stop the bleeding for Green Bay. 

     I said earlier this week that this game would tell us a lot about how this season would shake out. That a loss would have sealed the fate of this season and this coaching staff. And while I'm still not a huge fan of retaining the entire staff with anything less than a 10-6 record, Thursday showed us again that there's a lot of talent here, and if they keep it together without making so many mistakes, this team can be a legitimate threat. And at the risk of looking like an idiot come the end of this season, it's bold prediction time: The Detroit Lions will be your 2013 NFC North champs.