Winners and losers from ‘Monday Night Football’ in Week 9

Monday Night Football at Lambeau Field usually means good times for the Green Bay Packers. In Week 9, it was anything but as they hosted the Detroit Lions.

The road team dominated the action early, taking a 14-3 lead into halftime. Matthew Stafford and Co. poured it on in the second half, winning 30-17, and it was never that close.

These were the biggest winners and losers from Monday night’s game.

Winner: Matthew Stafford almost couldn’t miss

It was a banner night for Matthew Stafford, who brought his team back up to .500 with the big win over the Lions’ divisional rivals.

Stafford was unconscious. He ended up completing 26-of-33 passes for 361 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Now, it’s worth pointing out that Green Bay’s defense is about as formidable as a newborn puppy these days. But we cannot discount the pin-point accuracy Stafford displayed all night long. Nor can we discount what it means to his team that Stafford played his best game all year when the Lions absolutely had to win.

A loss would have dropped Detroit to 3-5. With Minnesota already at six wins, that would have been devastating. Especially given how vulnerable Green Bay is now. Now Detroit is 4-4 at the halfway point of its season, and the playoffs are very much in sight.

Loser: Davante Adams has to give better effort than that

It might seem unfair to harp on a guy for one play, but we’re going to do it anyway.

In the second quarter, Green Bay’s offense was stagnant. The Packers had yet to score in the game, and every single pass was a check-down. Nothing was happening.

Then finally, Brett Hundley unleashed a deep pass down the right sideline. It wasn’t a perfect pass, by any means, but it was very good. He put the ball only where Adams could get to it, well past any coverage.

Adams did manage to get a hand on the pass, too. But it was a weak attempt. He should have laid out for the ball, and he had a very real chance to come up with it if he had taken that course of action. Jon Gruden was disgusted at his effort. Frankly so were we, and people watching all over the place.

That could have sparked Green Bay’s offense in a big way. Instead, it took the air out of its sails completely.

Adams did finish with seven catches for 53 yards, but that lack of effort was exactly what the Packers have to avoid going forward. Without Aaron Rodgers, everyone else has to step up big. He didn’t do that.

Winner: Golden Tate and Marvin Jones had a magical night

One of the NFL’s most underrated, underappreciated receivers for nearly a decade, Golden Tate continues to amaze. He entered Monday’s game as the most elusive receiver in the NFL and had already caught 43 passes for 449 yards this year.

Tate took the game over early. Even though he only participated in 16 snaps (out of 30) in the first half, he hauled in four passes for 56 yards. The receptions were all so darn impressive, including an insane toe-tapping beauty on the sideline (watch here).

Tate went on to finish with seven catches for 113 yards. He wasn’t the only Detroit receiver to have a huge night, either. Marvin Jones, who’s been coming on like a runaway freight train the past month or so, was electric.

His first-half touchdown was magnificent. Jones beat his man down the right sideline, fighting him off until the last moment when he gained that extra bit of separation he needed. Then he made a heck of a catch to haul in the pass.

Jones would haul in a second touchdown in the second half that ultimately sealed the win for the Lions. He finished with seven receptions for 107 yards and the two scores.

Both of these receivers were on fire.

Loser: Packers field-goal unit crushed life-giving momentum following first drive of game

The Packers started out the game with a very nice drive on offense. Hundley wasn’t asked to do too much, but he did execute well, engineering a 15-play drive that went 56 yards and chewed up more than half the time off the first-quarter clock.

Not surprisingly, the drive stalled in Lions territory. But it did set up kicker Mason Crosby for what should have been a chip-shot, 37-yard field goal from the 20-yard line. Instead, the long-snapper got the ball to the holder too low before the entire offensive line collapsed. Instead of going up 3-0, Crosby’s kick was blocked.

Detroit had no trouble taking the momentum Green Bay lost, going nine plays to go up 7-0 a few minutes later.

We will give the special-teams unit a bit of a reprieve (but only a bit) for redeeming itself at the end of the first half. Following an ill-advised decision to throw to the middle of the field by Hundley, who had no timeouts left, the field-goal unit rushed onto the field just in time for Crosby to make his second attempt.

https://twitter.com/_MarcusD2_/status/927727993681739778

That was great. But it was the only halfway decent thing that the Packers did in that first half.

Winner: Detroit’s defense executed the game plan to perfection

Any time you can shut down the run early, forcing your opponent into a one-dimensional approach, you’re doing well. When you’re facing a quarterback like Brett Hundley and you force him to pass, you’re going to win.

That’s exactly what the Lions did Monday night. Green Bay did get a bit of a running game going late, but by then the game was out of hand. Green Bay did execute two long drives in the first half but came away with just three points and averaged just 3.85 yards per play. The Lions kept Hundley from running outside the pocket much and forced him to make quick decisions with the ball.

In total, Green Bay managed to gain 311 yards and scored 17 points, 14 of which occurred in garbage time. That’ll win you most games, and it certainly was enough for the Lions on this night.

Loser: Ameer Abdullah benched after two fumbles

One of the players that has been touted as the next big thing who never really materialized as such is Abdullah. Blessed with tremendous talent, he’s never lived up to the hype with consistent shows of excellence.

He got off to a great start Monday night and even rushed in his second touchdown of the year.

Then he was stripped on a short run in the third quarter and lost a fumble. A while later, down at the goal line, he coughed up another ball, but this time it was recovered by Detroit. That was pretty much all she wrote for the former Nebraska star.

He was replaced by Dwayne Washington and Theo Riddick, who had a key 63-yard reception later in the game.