Good morning II, it’s gonna be a much brighter Inbox today! No question, just want your thoughts on MarShawn Lloyd‘s first rushing TD. The way he put his head down and barreled over Jaylon Johnson, that was a much-needed and great TD run. I believe that set the tone for us. Dude was not going to be denied and literally blew him up. Great game by the Pack but those missed kicks are a glaring concern, we left six points out there! Big SIGH of relief though!

Seven points actually including the missed PAT. The rookie kicker just got hit with a sizable dose of adversity. It’s less important that it happened than how he responds to it now. As for Lloyd, that first TD was his best run as a pro in my view. More to the point, he was the most decisive he’s been. There’s still a long way to go with the ground game, as mentioned, but it was great to see Lloyd run with conviction.

Were you more impressed with the Packers’ offensive line play or the defense shutting down the run yesterday?

The run defense deserves props. I know the Bears didn’t have Monangai, but other than the one long drive in the second quarter, Swift couldn’t get much going. Ben Johnson likes to control games on the ground to set up everything else for his offense – which is an even greater imperative with a backup QB – and the Packers didn’t let that happen.

Gary from Bear Valley, WI

Was sun bathing at Lambeau today. Great game. I was impressed with No. 44, what a great communicator. How long is Zaire Franklin under contract?

Through next season. Franklin is the embodiment of leadership. He just exudes it in everything he does. He’s right in the middle of all the action and provides a stabilizing force for a unit that unfortunately keeps losing key players to rough injuries. I’m sure he’s not happy about that third-down holding penalty on Chicago’s TD drive, but he’ll own it and use it as a tool to show accountability in the film room with his teammates.

Great all-round game yesterday. Offense put it all together, great to see the long balls to our WRs and Lloyd seems to have taken a big step. The defense really played well and the turnovers were great. But what I really want to draw attention to was the play of rookie Dani Dennis-Sutton. That guy was everywhere. I think he’s learning fast and is going to be quite the player. I would like to hear your thoughts on a guy we haven’t heard much about.

DDS is a very active player out there who’s still learning on the fly. He got sucked in twice by play fakes and lost contain on his edge for the QB to just run for easy yards, so he’s got to square that away. But his effort is all out, all the time, and he looks like he belongs.

Good morning, Mike. What did you think of the OPI call against J. Michael Sturdivant?

Maybe the worst OPI call I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something after the one on Watson last week. Just a totally ridiculous call. Officiating remains a big problem in this league, and it’s not going away. All teams can do is just play through the muck. To the Packers’ credit, they did on the very next snap.

After watching how Jordan Love played, don’t you feel an urge to tell (some of) us, “See, I told you so!”?

I try to be nice, and I’ve tried to say in as many nice ways as possible that anyone who believes Love’s play was holding this team back doesn’t know football. He’s attempted 61 passes the last two games and made exactly one bad throw. He deserves more credit than most are willing to give him for standing in there the first three weeks and delivering the ball while getting clobbered.

Susan from Santa Cruz, CA

Coach said, “That is the essence of team.” I hope all the Jordan haters recognize what a difference it makes when players hold on to passes, the defense creates turnovers, etc. Jordan is a great QB, and the team rose to meet him this week.

I can’t wait to see what he can do with a legitimate running game.

John from Los Angeles, CA

Still lots to clean up, but I thought it was huge for the Packers to win the momentum game. They didn’t let mistakes compound and snowball.

The entire second half, somebody was there with a pick-me-up whenever something went wrong. That’s also the “essence of team.”

Great win, good postgame locker room speech by LaFleur. No mention of the opponent at all. There are levels to this coaching game.

LaFleur said at the beginning of the week he was keeping the game about the players, and he followed through. In that spirit, I want to hand out one more game ball – to Nick Niemann. His tackle on the long kickoff return saved a touchdown and a lot of potential angst at crunch time.