Four games remain on the regular season docket for the Green Bay Packers, two home games and two away affairs. Firmly in the mix for the playoffs with their 9-4 record, there are plenty of ways that the Packers can tackle the rest of their season in an attempt to prepare for their hopefully playoff berth.
Coming off their Week 14 loss to the Detroit Lions, that Thursday Night Football matchup was marred with questionable penalties and an inability for the defense to get off the field. In turn, the offense, while efficient with its plays, didn’t spend a ton of time on the field, making it tough to make headway against the high-powered scoring output from Detroit.
However, as tough of a divisional loss as that is, it helps provide reasons why this Green Bay roster is built to play with the top teams in the NFC, like Detroit. While winning the division seems incredibly unlikely, having to go the route of the wild card almost feels welcoming for the Packers.
Rest of Season
Two of the four remaining contests for Green Bay are divisional matchups, as they travel north to Minnesota to face the Vikings in Week 17 and host the Chicago Bears to end the season. While these two games are likely circled on their calendars, the Packers cannot overlook their two matchups before that.
Week 15
Lumen Field has been a house of horrors for the Packers, and they will have to face those horrors again as they travel west for their Week 15 Sunday Night Football matchup. Seattle, who is in a fight with the Arizona Cardinals to win the NFC West, is a tough place to play any day of the week, but playing there in primetime is even worse.
Their offensive attack will test the depleted secondary for the Packers, as the trio of DK Metcalf, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Tyler Lockett see a ton of work in the Ryan Grubb offense. Geno Smith is still chucking the rock to his wideouts, and Kenneth Walker III is toting the rock out of the backfield, and the defense has been strong as of late.
Week 16
Week 16 could be seen as a trap game, as the Packers welcome the New Orleans Saints up to Lambeau Field for a Monday Night Football matchup. This NFC matchup pits one team in playoff content against a visiting team that has its sights set on the offseason.
The Saints, who just lost Swiss Army Knife weapon Taysom Hill to a torn ACL in Week 13, have plenty of questions on both sides of the ball, with injuries knocking out key players everywhere. Alvin Kamara has pretty much been the only consistent contributor for the Saints this season, and he has burned the Packers defense plenty in the past.
The Saints defense has been like a sieve at times this season, which could give Jordan Love and company a great chance to let out some frustration and work through schemes and situations before gearing up for the final two games.
Week 17
The Week 17 matchup with the Vikings is likely going to be billed as the best game in the noon slate that week, and for good reason. With both teams currently vying for a playoff spot, positions that both teams will still likely be in when this game happens, everything will be on the line. Green Bay has only won in US Bank Stadium twice since 2020, and with the noise levels in that stadium likely at an all-season high, communication will be tough.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley will have his hands full handling Kevin O’Connell’s offense, especially with how efficient Justin Jefferson and TJ Hockenson have been lately. Plus, this matchup is the second since Aaron Jones defected north, so that always adds another layer to the rivalry onion.
Week 18
The final week of the season very well could have playoff implications for Green Bay, whether it be for actually clinching a spot or for seeding purposes. On the other side, our little brother, the Chicago Bears, will be looking to play spoiler in Lambeau Field for a coaching staff that likely will look very different next season.
After canning Shane Waldron and Matt Eberflus, Thomas Brown has climbed the ladder from passing game coordinator to offensive coordinator and now to interim head coach. While the offense has looked better in the brief time since Brown took on a bigger role, there are lots of questions still surrounding how to best handle the offense around Caleb Williams.
It will be Williams’ first appearance at Lambeau Field, where he most certainly will receive a warm welcome from the green and gold faithful. If this ends up being a snow game that means something for our playoff position, things could get very heated between the two squads, which wouldn’t be out of the norm.
This four-game stretch will test the Packers in every way imaginable, but rounding this team into shape for their (hopeful) postseason trip is overall helpful. Needing to polish up the edges of the offense while preparing the defense for how to overcome their shortcomings can turn this team from good into a 2010-esque team, and at this point, that is shaping up to be the path they will need to take.
Matt LaFleur has been down this path before, needing to help this team finish strong to lock in a playoff spot. But something about this year just feels different, it also feels like this team embodies being the underdog, and maybe that’s because of how undersold they were going into last year’s playoff drubbing in Dallas.
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Mike Johrendt has been an avid fan of the Packers ever since he can remember. He is now a writer at PackersTalk and you can follow him on Twitter at @MJohrendt23
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