NFC Notes: Lions, Packers, Vikings

Lions

It’s been a nice start to the season for the Lions and QB Jared Goff, as Detroit is No. 2 in the NFL in scoring offense. Goff admitted he takes some satisfaction in that after he was written off last year and shipped to what at the time at least was the NFL equivalent of Siberia. He adds, however, that he tries not to make that his only source of motivation. 

“I really try to stay intrinsically motivated; that’s the easiest way to do it because of who I am,” Goff said via Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “I really don’t worry about what other people say. But yeah, sure, I think after last year, mostly just the losing, how many games we lost, that puts a chip on your shoulder and that puts the ‘O.K., I don’t ever want to go through this again’ on you. And I am the quarterback [of] this team. I am the leader, and it does fall on me.

Packers

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers was happy about the team’s win over Chicago on Sunday night, yet was certain that he needs to play better next week against a strong Buccaneers defense.

“Tonight was really about 28 and 33, getting them the football,” Rodgers told Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com.  “I didn’t play great. I feel like the stats look a little better than the game. The standard I set for myself is pretty high. I feel like it is attainable, and my definition of success, I feel like, rests gently on my shoulders and my ego. But I missed some throws that I should never miss. And there were some opportunities for more points out there.”

“I’ve got to play better moving forward,” Rodgers added. “This is going to be a really good football team in Tampa, and obviously, they’re going to be expecting to be playing in January. So, I’m going to keep improving and find a way to get those guys confident and get them the ball in certain spots, but if we can run the ball like we did today, it alleviates a lot of the stress that we could feel had we not had 200 yards rushing.”

Rodgers also noted that the team will need to change their offense now that there is no clear replacement for WR Davante Adams.

“I think we’re going to have to,” Rodgers said. “The days of one guy getting 15 and then next guy getting four or five are kind of over. We’re going to have to find ways to get different guys the football in different spots. There’s a lot of different plays for specific guys. We had a package for Christian [Watson]. We had a package for Romeo [Doubs]. Obviously, a lot of plays for Sammy and for Allen coming back, which was great. And then a couple wrinkles for [Cobb]; we had him in the backfield on a third down. That’s kind of the way it’s going to go. Obviously, we had a lot of plays for 33 and 28.”

• The Packers hosted rookie OL Blaise Andries for a workout on Tuesday. (Aaron Wilson)

Vikings

• Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell on S Harrison Smith sustaining a concussion: “The way he checked out we feel pretty strongly about where he’s at. But we’ll go through the phasing… It’s very important (that he) gets handled medically through the protocol. It is a short week. We’ll see how he is.” (Chris Tomasson)
• O’Connell also answered questions about fourth-round CB Akayleb Evans replacing starting CB Cameron Dantzler: “We had talked about maybe getting Akayleb some time here and there.” (Kevin Seifert)