Packers Winners and Losers: Trey Smack Leads Negative List After Loss to Lions

The Green Bay Packers trailed the Detroit Lions 17-14 in the fourth quarter after a wild first half somehow saw the scoreboard only read 10-7 in Detroit’s favor.

The fourth quarter was going to decide Green Bay’s fate. As has been the case too often in big games for the Packers, missed opportunities sealed their fate.

An offsides penalty on Karl Brooks allowed the Lions to run the clock all the way down to kick a field goal as time expired in what was just the final missed opportunity.

More on that in our weekly winners and losers, starting with the biggest culprit.

Loser: K Trey Smack

Missing a 26-yard field goal is almost impossible for an NFL kicker, but Smack found a way to do so on Sunday, and it may have affected the rest of the game considering how aggressive Matt LaFleur was on fourth downs in field-goal range.

Smack has been excellent from beyond 50 yards this season. He’s struggled on kicks that are traditionally called chip shots.

He is similar to that of Ronnie Bass from the movie Remember the Titans.

Trey Smack can't hit the 26-yard field goal 😬 pic.twitter.com/k1GbPnpxrz
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) October 25, 2026

He can throw it a mile, but he can’t pitch it 3 yards.

Smack made a 43-yard field goal with 7:10 left in the game.

As further proof of his ability to ride the roller coaster, Smack missed a 35-yard field goal following a huge defensive stand from Green Bay’s defense. Officially, it was ruled a block, but a kick from that range should never be blocked. Instead of taking a 20-17 lead, the Packers lost 20-17.

Coach Matt LaFleur, who said he did not realize the kick was blocked, will move forward with Smack as the kicker.

In big games, points cannot be left on the field. One of the reasons the Packers drafted Smack is to stabilize the kicker position. They’ve missed a kick or had one blocked in every postseason game they’ve played in since 2021.

Smack left at least six points on the field today, and who knows how to account for the points that LaFleur may have left on the field due to lack of trust in his kicker. The broadcast showed a graphic that said Smack has two misses of 35 yards or less this season. The rest of the NFL has one.

That’s not going to cut it.

Losers: DL Karl Brooks/Lukas Van Ness

Sometimes all it takes is one bad play to end up on this list. That’s exactly what happened for these two players. The Lions were facing third-and-5 on the other side of the two minute warning.

A first down meant that the Lions could essentially run the clock down to kick a short field goal to end the game.

Jared Goff went to his hard count. Brooks and Van Ness both jumped offsides.

The game was essentially over from there. It was just another play in a long line of undisciplined plays from Green Bay’s team on Sunday.

Loser: Second-Half Offense

When Green Bay got the ball back with 13:37 left in the fourth quarter, they had only been able to muster 57 yards of offense to that point. They’d scored a touchdown, but that was largely on the backs of a fumbled snap from Cade Mays that was kicked around before getting recovered by Isaiah McDuffie.

The offense, if they’re not hitting big shots down the field struggles to put games together. There were long stretches of the game where Tucker Kraft and Christian Watson became afterthoughts on offense.

They were only able to muster three points in the fourth quarter. They couldn’t pick up a first down after Keisean Nixon gave them the ball in scoring range.

They were a mess for most of the second half. Whether it was drops, penalties, or uninspired play. Ultimately the lack of offense cost them the game.

Loser: Red-Zone Offense

Green Bay’s first possession of the game stalled in the red zone when Jordan Love threw incomplete for Matthew Golden.

The Packers took a delay of game penalty to turn a 21-yard field goal into a 26-yard field goal. No big deal, right?

Wrong. Trey Smack made the initial kick at 21 yards, but missed the kick following the five-yard penalty.

That wasn’t the end of Green Bay’s red zone struggles. They failed on a fourth down in the first half where Golden was tackled short of the line to gain by DJ Reed.

Throwing the ball in the red zone is hard enough. It’s more difficult when a team is unable to run the football, which describes the Packers for the duration of this season.

That’s how the Packers continued to pile up yards in the first half, but only had seven points to show for it.

Maybe Josh Jacobs returning to the offense and becoming more acclimated will cure what ails them, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday as the Packers failed to score touchdowns against one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

Loser: Anyone Covering Amon-Ra St. Brown

Detroit’s best receiver is named Amon-Ra St. Brown. You may not have known that if you just watched the way the Packers covered him on Sunday.

There were a few plays during the course of the game where Javon Bullard proved to be a worthy adversary to St. Brown.

He was the only one. There were too many instances where St. Brown was running three into oceans of open zones in the middle of the field. He was Detroit’s go-to target all game.

He finished the day with nine catches for 153 yards. He accounted for more than half of Jared Goff’s passing yards on the day.

Loser: RG Travis Glover

The Travis Glover experiment is over. Or at least it should be. Credit to Glover, he stepped in during an hour of desperation and proved to be a valuable piece of the offensive line while they were searching for answers on the interior.

Early numbers from PFF showed him giving up four pressures in the first half alone.

Kevin Zeitler, his presumed replacement, was a healthy scratch on Sunday. Zeitler said he was ready to play if the team needed him earlier in the week. Do the coaches disagree? Do they think Zeitler is an old player who has lost a step? Is it just plain mismanagement?

Either way, the Packers need to figure out the answer. If they want to put their best five players on the field, it’s hard to believe the Glover is better than a decorated veteran like Zeitler.

Winner: DT Anthony Campbell

On a day where Green Bay’s pass rush was mostly non-existent, former undrafted free agent Anthony Campbell made his presence known.

Campbell had a TFL in the second half on Jahmyr Gibbs, which was combined with a sack-fumble of Jared Goff in the first half.

With Devonte Wyatt hobbled and largely non-existent, the Packers need someone to step up on their defensive line. Sunday, Campbell was the answer to that question.

Winner: CB Keisean Nixon

Games like Sundays often come down to the final few minutes of the game.

The Lions faced a fourth-and-1 from their own 22 yard line with 4:50 left in the game.

Dan Campbell kept his offense on the field to go for it. The FOX broadcast was in disbelief that Campbell was actually going to go for it, but he did.

Keisean Nixon and the Packers force a turnover on downs!

GBvsDET on FOX/FOX One
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/XrT82gvFEh
— NFL (@NFL) October 25, 2026

They ran a slow developing run play to the left side, but Keisean Nixon did not have a receiver to account for on his side of the formation. Nixon triggered immediately into the backfield and threw Gibbs for a loss on the play, giving the Packers the ball with a chance to take the lead.

The Packers went three-and-out on the ensuing position, which led to a Trey Smack field goal attempt. The kick was missed, but Nixon put his team in a position to take the lead.

How should the Packers operate on offense now that running back Josh Jacobs is officially back? My 2 cents. ⬇️https://t.co/MzdtgPoXk4
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 25, 2026

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY PACKERS NEWSLETTER

Add us as a preferred source on Google