Packers bye week blues

After the Packers beat the Cardinals last weekend, and after the potential short or long-term losses of Bryan Bulaga, Clay Matthews, Jordy Nelson and others, a certain malaise may have been felt among some Packer fans this week. I confess to falling into that category.

By winning the game last Sunday, head coach Mike McCarthy rewarded his players with an entire week off before getting back to work tomorrow to prepare for the game against the Lions, who just lost moments ago to the ViQueens. Well, I took that as a signal to also take the week off from blogging. Don't really want to obsess about the mounting injuries and their implications down the stretch for the team's playoff run. Yes, we can certainly discuss how the Pack closed out their first part of the season by winning four games in a row. It was a great run to get things back on track after the stolen game in Seattle and the blown game in Indianapolis. Players and coaches are to be commended for righting the ship.

But other than a game-by-game review -- which you can find elsewhere -- what more is there to say about it? The Packers came through their first part of the season where they need to be to challenge for the division lead in the remaining seven games. Recall that five of those seven games are against division opponents: two each against the Lions and ViQueens and one against Da Bearz, the latter possibly deciding the division title.

Let's take a brief look, though, at the game of interest tonight: Chicago vs. the Texans. And I mean a brief look; this is a Packers blog, after all. My good friend, Billy Da Bearz Fan, just gave me his prediction: 17-15 Da Bearz. As he noted, the weather forecast for the game will be dicey: rain, perhaps hard in the second half. Windy...it is Chicago, on the lakefront. And temperatures should also be dropping from a balmy 60-ish during the daytime into the 30s later this evening...how fast all this comes into play in Soldier Field may play a real factor in deciding the outcome. Billy noted that this will be a defensive battle. I'd tend to agree. Frankly, if Da Bearz don't score 7-10 points off defensive turnovers or special teams play, they will probably do well to score 7-10 points on offense. Chicago is listed as a 1-point favorite going against Houston. The over-under is 38.5 points. Like my friend, I think the game will be close. But I'm calling it 21-17 Texans. Will this prediction annoy my good friend? You bet. That's part of the point among friends of different team affiliations, isn't?

Stop back here this week as we begin looking at a game that really matters: the Packers and Lions.

Go Pack Go!!!