The Green Bay Packers come off a win at Lambeau Field on Sunday. It wasn't the romp that many expected, largely due to Washington's young QB (and Brett Favre and Packers fan as a youngster), Taylor Heinicke, using his legs to extend plays. But he also had a few major errors at the goal line that, had he converted even one, would have put this win for the Pack in significant jeopardy.
But while the Packers offense still wasn't firing on all cylinders, the defense once again came up big. In fact, so big that it did something it hadn't done all season: prevent the opposing offense from scoring a touchdown when in the red zone. Amazing. So, a good win if not necessarily an impressive one. Any win that puts you at 6-1 on the season and up 2-1/2 games in the NFC North Division is a good win.
Unfortunately, it's now followed up on a short week with a game tonight on the road against the 7-0 Arizona Cardinals and the uber-QB of the moment, Kyler Murray. How will things play out?
The Preview
Let's start with the fact that the Packers will be without wide receivers Davante Adams and Allen Lazard due to Covid-19 protocols and Marquez Valdes-Scantling with hamstring issues. That takes away QB Aaron Rodgers' top three wideouts. Not great when there will likely be a need to put up a lot of points throughout the game.
Still, these seem to be the types of games Rodgers thrives on, with challenges to be overcome. He'll have to rely on running backs Aaron Rodgers and A.J. Dillon to pick up some of the slack, along with Randall Cobb getting more grabs and the younger receivers stepping up when they have the opportunity to do so. TE Robert Tonyan should also feature more prominently in the mix.
Arizona doesn't seem to have a great D-line, and especially so now with DE J.J. Watt out for perhaps the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. So if the Packers can get its running game going and keep Murray off the field for long stretches that would be a real plus. Time of possession needs to be in Green Bay's favor tonight.
The Cardinals also don't have a particularly great O-line, so if the Packers defense can do what the 49ers did when they played Arizona — keep rush lanes solid and also prevent Murray from breaking the pocket and getting outside to either run or throw to his bevy of very fine receivers — the Packers can certainly stay in the game. And did we mention that the Pack will be without its defensive coordinator for this game? He also tested positive for Covid.
Everyone was expecting a real shootout for this game before all the Covid viruses and injuries took its tool on Packers players availability. With Rodgers at the helm for the Packers, it's never a gimmee for the other team, regardless of the tools he has around him. It will be more of a challenge, certainly. But having said that, what's our prediction?
The Prediction
This is a tough one. It would take a lot of things to go right for the Packers tonight to come away with the win, and only a few things to go wrong to come away in defeat.
The Packers are 6-1/2 point underdogs at the time of this writing, with the over-under at 50-1/2 points.
Either the Packers win a squeaker late or the Cardinals win and beat the spread, perhaps rather easily. This is a toss-up game for us because of the circumstances.
We're calling this one Cardinals 34 - Packers 27. And hope we are wrong.
Looking back at our pre-season prediction, if the Pack does lose this evening they will be right where we thought they'd be, 6-2, through 8 games of the season. But we sure would prefer to see the team come home with a 7-1 record and an extra few days to get ready before taking on the Chiefs in Kansas City on November 7. It doesn't get any easier.
Go Pack Go!!!
