When the 2020 Packers schedule was released last week, I started to look at the schedule in quarters. There was one quarter of the schedule that stood out to me that could define their season.
That is the second quarter of the season where they play three games on the road and one game at home. During this quarter of the season, the team will play 3 games in 11 days. It is a daunting task for any team. Here is their schedule breakdown by quarters.
First Quarter:
- Week 1 at Minnesota
- Week 2 vs Detroit
- Week 3 at New Orleans
- Week 4 vs Atlanta
Second Quarter:
- Week 6 at Tampa Bay
- Week 7 at Houston
- Week 8 vs Minnesota
- Week 9 at San Francisco
Third Quarter:
- Week 10 vs Jacksonville
- Week 11 at Indianapolis
- Week 12 vs Chicago
- Week 13 vs Philadelphia
Fourth Quarter:
- Week 14 at Detroit
- Week 15 vs Carolina
- Week 16 vs Tennessee
- Week 17 at Chicago
When you look at the schedule like this, you can see that the second quarter stands out as as the teams most challenging 4 game stretch of the season. They will be playing 3 playoff teams from last year and a team that has been revamped to include Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.
The positive is that have their bye week is in week 5 before this stretch starts. They travel to Tampa to kick off this stretch against a team that is vastly improved on paper and now includes Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. The NFL has been wanting a Rodgers vs Brady match up for some time and they finally got it. A Sunday afternoon tilt in mid-October during the 2020 season. There will be two weeks during the season to analyze this match-up.
Following that the team will travel to Houston to take on Wisconsin native JJ Watt and the Texans. Houton was the AFC South champions last season. The team then returns home to face the Minnesota Vikings. This could be a trap game as they will be preparing for the Vikings and the 49ers at the same time. Four days later the team will travel west to take on last season’s NFC Champions the San Francisco 49ers. The Packers need to come out of this stretch at least at 2-2. That would be an accomplishment in itself as it would set the team up well down the stretch, as the schedule gets a little easier in the second half of the season.
It should be an interesting 2020 season, as they are plenty of match ups to look forward to. As long as the team goes .500 or better in that second quarter of the season, fans, players and coaches will be feeling pretty confident at the mid point of the season.
This team could end up being better than the 2019 team. Time will tell.
Go Pack Go!
Anthony Haag is a writer for PackersTalk.com. He has been a Packers fan since the day he was born and truly bleeds green and gold. He makes annual visits to Lambeau Field and has attended his fair share of games. You can follow Anthony on Twitter at @anthony_haag
