Being swept by the Detroit Lions isn’t something many Green Bay Packers fans would have predicted to happen this season, despite the former being a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
These NFC North matchups are just different, and fans would have expected the Packers to have won at least one out of two. But, Week 14 came and went for this squad as they dropped their second matchup to the Lions on Thursday Night Football.
Now, the only hope for revenge is in the postseason.
Speaking of revenge, one former Packer relished the thought of exactly that in Detroit’s win over Green Bay. Pass-rusher Za’Darius Smith, who recently signed with Detroit, has notched 3.0 sacks in his first four games with the team and was feeling pretty mighty after the Lions’ victory Thursday night.
Sideline reporter Stacey Dales caught up with Smith after the game and decided to poke the bear a little bit, telling him this:
“Za’Darius, you told me this week, kind of a little bit of a revenge game because you gave that franchise, for three years, your everything.”
Smith emphatically agreed with Dales’ sentiments.
“Two years I gave it to them, and once I got hurt, they sent me down like I wasn’t nothing. But, I’m glad to be on the other side now. You know I had a chance to go to the Vikings and get my revenge. And I came to Detroit and got my revenge again,” he said.
Za’Darius Smith doesn’t have much of a reason to exact revenge against Green Bay
The excitement, from Smith, makes sense. He and the Lions clinched a playoff berth over his former team, so of course emotions are on high. But, the fact that this was actually dubbed a “revenge game” for Smith doesn’t quite make sense.
Smith had arguably his two best seasons as a pro while with Green Bay. Then, he got hurt. Those types of things happen. He would miss almost the entire 2021 season due to injury and, in order to save a huge sum of cap space, the Packers released him.
It was strictly a business decision based on the fact that the Packers could save a chunk of money not having to pay a pass-rusher coming off a season-ending injury. It made sense then, and it still makes sense now.
After all, Smith hasn’t had nearly the type of seasons he had in Green Bay since leaving the Packers. In Minnesota, he did notch another double-digit sack season. But other than that, things have gone downhill for him as a whole.
