The Green Bay Packers have done enough through six games to sit in a decent spot, but the pressure is about to climb fast.
This was never an easy run. Green Bay came into the season with one of the league’s toughest schedules, and even after the early bumps, the team has held up fairly well. The problem is what comes next: the cushion is getting smaller, and the second half leaves almost no room to waste chances.
That point showed up in the schedule numbers, too. A few weeks ago, Justis Mosqueda broke down the Packers’ remaining slate and noted that ESPN’s Football Power Index had them facing the league’s second-toughest remaining schedule after Week 4. By the time Week 7 arrived, a more recent remaining strength-of-schedule ranking had Green Bay sitting with the third-hardest path ahead.
Sunday in Detroit is the next big checkpoint. The Lions have had their defense exposed at times, but they remain a solid, well-coached team with plenty of punch on offense.
For Green Bay, this is the kind of road division game that can mean something in the playoff chase. Win it, and the Packers bank a useful result.
Lose it, and the cracks get harder to ignore.
And the grind doesn’t stop there. The Patriots, Vikings, and Bills are still waiting down the line, which means Green Bay is going to keep getting tested if the question is whether this team can belong in the NFC contender conversation.
There’s a version of this schedule that actually helps them. A brutal stretch can force a team to confront its weak spots before January, and that may matter here. The offensive line is the obvious problem, but the bigger NFC picture is messy enough that a team can still find room to surge if it catches fire at the right time.
For now, that’s the best-case path for the Packers. A 4-2 start is useful, but the tougher part of the season is here, and Sunday night should tell us a lot more about what this team really is.
In Other News...
Packers Defense Faces A Bigger Test Than Just Beating Detroit
The Packers and Lions are set to run it back after their Thanksgiving meeting, and this version of the matchup looks a lot different on both sides of the ball. Injuries have reshaped the defensive outlook for each team, which puts even more pressure on the pass rush to show up against quarterbacks Jared Goff and Jordan Love, two players who have helped drive this rivalry into one of the NFCs more interesting weekly measuring sticks.
Green Bays challenge goes beyond simply trying to beat Detroit again. The Packers are trying to keep their front intact while dealing with health issues up and down the roster, and the strain at defensive tackle has become impossible to ignore. In the middle of all that, the urgency around fortifying the defensive line has grown, because if the Packers cannot generate disruption up front, the rest of the matchup gets a lot tougher in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Love Is Giving Packers Fans A Wild New Debate
Jordan Love has spent much of this season taking a beating behind a Packers line that has already allowed 13 sacks and left him getting hit 30 times, but he has kept Green Bay afloat anyway. Even with the physical toll, Love has stayed near the top of the league in passing yards and touchdowns, which has helped fuel a 4-2 start and turned him into one of the biggest reasons the Packers have been able to navigate the early part of the schedule.
The bigger question now is how long he can keep balancing production with punishment. Love is doing enough to make people around the league take notice, and the case for him as one of the NFLs more intriguing quarterbacks has only grown louder as the wins pile up. For Packers fans, the debate is no longer whether he can lead this team, but how high his ceiling really is if the protection in front of him does not improve. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Must Deal With Detroit's Most Dangerous Weapon Sunday
Ahead of Sundays Week 7 matchup, Matt LaFleur had plenty of praise for one of Detroits biggest problems for opposing defenses: Jahmyr Gibbs. The Packers coach pointed to Gibbs change of direction and all-around versatility, a nod to the kind of stress he can put on a defense whether the Lions use him as a runner or as a receiver out of the backfield.
That versatility is exactly why Green Bay has spent the week thinking about how to slow him down while also getting its own ground game on track. Gibbs has already emerged as a central piece of Detroits offense, and if the Packers are going to control the matchup, theyll need a cleaner plan against a weapon who can affect the game in more than one way. [Read more 🡒]