End of 1st half: Packers 14 - Lions 7

The Pack allowed the Lions to stay close by giving up a TD on a short fade pass to Calvin Johnson early in the second quarter.

This has been the Packers bug-a-boo -- or at least one of them -- most of this season: dominating a game but allowing the opponent to be within sniffing distance. The Pack should be up by more than 7 against this Lions team. But they aren't. And it gives the Lions hope.

Honestly, it also puts the Packers in the position they have been in so often this season: where one miscue on offense, defense or special teams puts the other team right back in the game with a chance to win. And, more often than not, when that has happened this season, the Packers have come up on the short end of things.

They cannot allow that to happen with this game. One would hope that coach McCarthy makes that clear at halftime.

One of the oddities at the end of the half was a free kick for a 69-yard field goal attempt by Mason Crosby. Will Blackmon had called a fair catch as time wound down to zero. After the head ref called both teams back onto the field -- they were all headed to the locker rooms -- the Pack lined up for the free kick. Crosby's attempt was just short of being a 3-pointer. He had it right on line, but probably came up about a yard shy of the crossbar.