The Packers improved to a flawless 11-0 Thanksgiving Day in Detroit in a game that saw its fair share of things to build on, things, to learn from, and things no one should have been subjected to in the first place.

Unfortunately for the purposes of this column, most of those three elements came from the Packers opponent on Thursday, as the Lions committed mistake after mistake and may have seen a season that began with so much promise start to fritter away.

It is still hard to fathom the Packers running the table during the regular season, but seemingly good teams have been wilting in the presence of the defending Super Bowl Champions. As has been said time and time again, the goal is not to finish the season 16-0, the goal is to be hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy on the evening of Feb. 5 at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis.

As each week goes on, the possibility of another championship appears closer and closer.

With that, it's time for this week's edition of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:

The Green Bay Packers are historically the most successful franchise in NFL history. With 13 championships including four Super Bowl victories since their 1921 founding, they have enjoyed more success than any other franchise in football. The Packers record books are littered with names that are nothing less than NFL royalty: Starr, Nitschke, Hutson, Lombardi, Favre, White, and Hornung are just a few of the players that have called tiny Green Bay, Wis. home.

But until Thursday, the Green Bay Packers had never begun a season 11-0 before.

On Tuesday, Milwaukee Brewers leftfielder Ryan Braun won the National League MVP Award. After calling his family and his agent, his next call was to Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, whom Braun described as someone who "has become one of my best friends."

Braun also said that he fully expected Rodgers to return the favor when he wins the NFL MVP Award. After Thursday's performance, Rodgers is another step closer to that honor.

Rodgers finished the day 22 of 32 for 307 yards passing with two touchdowns. It could have easily been 27 of 32 with three scores had his receivers not had a case of the dropsy's throughout the contest.

Nevertheless, the true measure of greatness is grace under fire, and Rodgers was under the gun all afternoon. As part of the Lions rise to prominence they have taken on a new, tougher mentality. However, the Lions have taken "tough" to mean "dirty." More on that coming up.

The Packers third quarter was the one that put the Lions out for good.

After a somewhat sluggish first half, Rodgers marched the Packers right down the field to open up the second half.

Entering Thursday's game,one of Green Bay's biggest concerns was how to stop Detroit wide receiver Calvin Johnson. Mission accomplished. Cornerback Tramon Williams made up for a pair of dropped interceptions by blanketing one of the best receivers in football, allowing him a mere four catches. One of those catches was for a score as time was winding down, but since no one at Ford Field stuck around to see it, it is barely worth mentioning.

The injuries to linebackers A.J. Hawk (calf) and Desmond Bishop (calf) as well as right guard Josh Sitton (knee sprain) forced Robert Francois, D.J. Smith and Evan Dietrich-Smith into the game, respectively, and all three played well. The three injured players will be re-evaluated Friday and then again next week.

The final 'good' is that the Packers emerged unscathed from their daunting three-games-in-eleven-days gauntlet. After the game, coach Mike McCarthy said that h considered the next 10 days the Packer's "second bye week."

The Bad:

The first half was brutal for both teams. With a combined 12 penalties and officiating mistakes all over the field, some fans were actually looking forward to Nickelback at halftime.

Tight end Jermichael Finley, who wasn't even targeted last Sunday against Minnesota, was an early target of Rodgers, but dropped two key passes that would have kept drives alive.

The Packers were unable to convert a third down in the first half, and seemed to be rattled by the own frantic, aggressive pace they had set for themselves. In the first half, Rodgers was harassed by Detroit's defensive line in part because of Finley's struggles as a blocker. By inserting Andrew Quarless on Finley's other side, Rodgers was able to play his style of game better and the evidence was on the scoreboard.

McCarthy knew that by running a two tight end set that Detroit would keep safety Amari Spievey on Finley, the better receiver, and have a linebacker shadow Quarless, thus effectively taking away the linebacker blitz. The move paid immediate dividends as the the Packers marched down the field 77 yards for a score. Twenty-six of those yards came on a pass to Finley.

The Packers running game was a mere afterthought, only trying to gain yardage on the ground five times in the first half and 13 times after the intermission.

Detroit's first touchdown drive made the Green Bay defense look like Swiss cheese. Late in the third quarter, Maurice Morris cut through the Packers defense for 14 yards. Two plays later, Matthew Stafford found Morris out of the backfield for another 15. After a pair of short gainers, Stafford found Johnson for 18 yards down to the Green Bay 16. From there, Keiland Williams rumbled right through to the end zone for a very quick score.

Fortunately, that was the only time the Packers defense really faltered, as the Lions final score was pure Maybelline. As in cosmetic.

Also 'bad' were the officials, particularly in the first half. They were equally bad for both teams, so perhaps everyone was high on turkey and gravy. Because it was a first half to forget.

The Ugly:

Does the NFL have it in their broadcast contracts that the only performers allowed to sing the national anthem have to be from a reality television program?

First, it was Christina Aguilera ('The Voice') brutalizing the song at Super Bowl XLV.

Yesterday, it was last season's 'American Idol' runner-up Lauren Alaina who just flat-out forgot the lyrics.

First of all, Lauren is a lovely girl and a fine singer. But she's still in high school. Why the NFL cannot seem to get singers to understand that clobbering the Star Spangled Banner in front of an international audience is unacceptable is beyond me. I propose a novel idea: instead of celebrities trying to sing the song how about they use a military choir? The NFL loves displays of patriotism; what is better than soldiers singing their national anthem.

It might not have the star power of another American Idol winner, but I'll bet they don't mess up the lyrics.

Detroit All-Pro defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell earlier this year because Suh has been labeled as a dirty player with the fines to prove it. He has also earned the reputation around the league as one of the NFL's dirtiest players, never shying away from stepping on an opponent's body part

Apparently that meeting didn't do any good as Suh was ejected in the third quarter for stomping on guard Evan Dietrich-Smith's arm. On third and goal after the Lions had the Packers stopped.

I don't know if that is 'ugly' or just plain old stupid, because that was the turning point of the contest. Considering this was just after Suh had driven Dietrich-Smith's helmet into the ground twice, I'll just go with the latter as opposed to the former. However, since the name of this column isn't 'Good, bad, and stupid' for our purposes 'ugly' will suffice.

What might earn him a suspension, however, was his ludicrous explanation after the game was over.

Suh began by saying that he only would "apologize to my teammates, my coaches, and my true fans for allowing the refs to have the opportunity to take me out of this game."

From that defiance grew absurdity.

"My intentions were not to kick anybody, as I did not," Suh continued, remarkably with a straight face. "As you can see, I'm walking away from the situation."

"I was on top of a guy being pulled down," according to Suh. "I was trying to get up off the ground. You see me pushing his helmet down because I was trying to remove myself from the situation. As I'm getting up, I'm being pushed, so I'm getting myself in balance and getting away from the situation. I know what I did and the man upstairs knows what I did. Not by any means did I mean to step on him."

Uh-huh.

It is possible that Suh lives in an alternate universe where everyone is to believe everything another says, as nonsensical as it may be.

"I don't do bad things," Suh opined, apparently forgetting the $42,500 in fines he has racked up so far this season with certainly more to come after Thursday's events. "If I want to hurt him (Dietrich-Smith) I'm going to hit his quarterback, as I did throughout the game."

One other thing that can be labeled as 'ugly' has to be the NFL's record keeping. Because my official box score shows Suh had exactly one tackle, with zero quarterback hurries, sacks, or hits.

Most Packers players shied away from the controversy, but leave it to Charles Woodson to speak the truth. "That's a dirty play," Woodson said with his characteristic breath of fresh air honesty that is in woeful short supply in the NFL nowadays. "I would imagine he thought he was provoked. I can't imagine what somebody did to provoke him to kick, but that's definitely dirty."

Next week: at New York Giants (3:15 kickoff)