DETROIT - When a team willfully promotes itself as the league's youngest as a means to establish an identity, what better way to experience all sides of that personality early on than have them compressed into the erratic momentum shifts that typically accompany a 40-point fourth quarter?

One way would be to lose a sizable lead, as the Green Bay Packers did Sunday within an extraordinarily loud building, made that way by exasperated fans whose volatile mood swings - the "Fire Matt Millen" chants turned quickly into a wall of cadence-obliterating noise - are influenced by the likes of the Detroit Lions.

Another is to have the talent and youthful audacity not just to win, but to win really, really big when the outcome was in question.

And then there was Charles Woodson, one of the old guys at 31. Wearing a brown pinstriped suit and a walking boot on his right leg, Woodson was one of the last players out of the winning locker room. The Michigan grad was savoring the homecoming, as well as his two late interceptions that helped make the 48-25 victory possible, when someone asked about the Packers' ability to keep on keeping on.

"A great group of guys, a great head coach, a great organization that knows how to treat people," Woodson said. "When you're winning, everybody looks good."

It also helps when it starts to fulfill a general manager and coach's shared vision.

The Packers played the youth card last year with Brett Favre's counterbalance, and now they're 2-0 with an equally young lineup with an inexperienced quarterback at the fore. Sure, it's only two weeks into a grind that continues with Dallas but man, oh man, is Aaron Rodgers ever making the Green Bay brass look like the smartest people in the room.

Once again, he was quick with his decisions, smart with his feet, remarkably efficient on third down, off the charts with Favreian numbers and, most important, downright confident and composed when things got all sideways in the fourth quarter. Just before Rodgers hooked up with rising superstar Greg Jennings on the 60-yard catch-and-run that turned the game inside the final 6 minutes, he looked around the huddle and said:

"We're going to see what we're made of."

He saw two of the veterans, Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher, confidently nod as the Ford Field clatter threatened to invade their 11-man universe. And then everything was calm and fine, because here's the thing about pro football:

The Lions, no matter their problems, were going to make a run. That was a given. It was how the Packers handled it that might help determine their course for the Cowboys and beyond. The Packers have experienced the Favre circus, some injuries and a short week, and already they are the better for it.

"The summer only made our character stronger," Rodgers said. "It's been a big learning process for me and a time of growth."

Not that there was much question about the confidence Rodgers has inspired after his debut against Minnesota, but Sunday reinforced that he is the man. After the Lions took the lead, Mike McCarthy, who chooses all the plays, kept going to No. 12.

"The play-calling reaffirmed it," McCarthy said. "We kept pushing the envelope. We were staying with Aaron and staying aggressive. It's part of the growing process of a play-caller and a quarterback."

McCarthy, who came of age last season as a head coach, continues on that arc. Rodgers, of whom little was known outside perceived fragility, has been lights out. A pro like Woodson makes plays on a bad foot. And the Packers, defined by their youth, have been unshakable.

Early, yes, but such trends are developing.