Detroit used a 12-play drive to strike first. Only one play went for 10 yards or more and the drive ended with a Matthew Stafford touchdown of four yards on 4th-and-1. Green Bay responded by driving into the red zone, but Aaron Rodgers was sacked on second down and fumbled and Detroit pounced on the loose ball.
The Motor City Kitties used an 11-play drive to put the ball in the end zone again. Stafford found Tony Scheffler for the score and the underdog Lions already had a 14-0 advantage. The biggest play was a Stafford pass to Kris Durham for 27 yards down to the Packers 6.
But the Packers came back with points on the following drive, as a Greg Jennings 27-yard gain set up a Mason Crosby field goal of 49 yards to put Green Bay on the board, but it was still trailing 14-3.
The turning point in the game came on the following possession. Detroit had just picked up a first down in Packers territory and was trying to put the game away early. Stafford took the 1st-and-10 snap and tried to throw a wide receiver screen, but the ball slipped out of the quarterback’s hands and squirted away when he tried to dive on the football to recover it. Rookie defensive lineman Mike Daniels picked it up for the Packers and broke a tackle attempt by one of the Lions offensive linemen and he strolled his way 43 yards for the score and suddenly, Green Bay had life, trailing only 14-10. It would stay that way until halftime.
Green Bay took the lead on the first drive of the second half. Aided by a big roughing the passer penalty on the third down on Ndamukong Suh, the Packers were able to drive down to the Lions 27. On a third down from there, Rodgers broke loose from the pocket and rolled out to the right. There were no Lions defenders around, so he tucked it and ran all the way into the end zone to give Green Bay its first lead of the game with just under 12 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
On the next drive, it was Detroit who was aided by a penalty. After a first down reception by Calvin Johnson, an unnecessary roughness penalty on Morgan Burnett set the ball at the Packers 36, which helped Detroit get in range for a Jason Hanson field goal. The 46-yard attempt split the uprights and game was tied at 17.
Throughout the 2012 season, the Packers had a revolving door at the running back position. On this day, it was the former car salesman, DuJuan Harris’ turn. He made the most of his opportunity. Early in the fourth quarter, with the score still tied at 17, the Troy product blasted through a hole and galloped into the end zone from 14 yards out to give the Packers the 24-17 lead. He had 31 yards on seven carries and that touchdown on the night.
Green Bay would add a field goal from Crosby on its next drive with four minutes to play to essentially seal the deal. The Motor City Kitties would add a field goal with less than 15 seconds left to cut the deficit to seven, but the game was over at that point and the Packers improved to 9-4 on the season and were one win away from clinching the NFC North for the second consecutive season.
The Packers would go onto finish 11-5 and win in the Wild Card Round against Minnesota before falling to Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers the following week.
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