Good afternoon, everyone. On Thursday night, the Green Bay Packers will open the fourth week of the 2023 NFL season at Lambeau Field against the Detroit Lions. Entering this game, both teams are 2-1 and are looking to take the lead in the NFC North. It’s important that the Packers win this game on their home field and take the division lead. Let’s get into detail on how they can get this done on all sides of the ball.
On offense, the key is to have a balanced attack. Running the ball is crucial for the Packers to keep Jordan Love from throwing nearly 50 passes again. After missing the last two games, it looks like Aaron Jones will be back for Thursday night against the Lions (hopefully I’m right this time). Jones is needed because the running game has been mostly nonexistent without him. Jones has the speed and agility to get past the Lions defenders as long as the offensive linemen create the holes for him (and the other backs) to run through. The offensive line has a problem right now: David Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins and Zach Tom are on the injury report for Green Bay. Any one of those three players on the field can help protect Jordan Love from a Lions defensive front that is tough to play against. Whoever plays on Thursday night on the O-Line (plus any running back on blitz plays) needs to protect Love from any sacks or pressures. As long as they can do that well, Love can have plenty of time to throw to a number of receivers. One of those receivers should include Christian Watson, who has missed the first three games of the season with a hamstring injury. I hope that he is able to be on the field for the first time in the 2023 season. In addition to Watson, Love has plenty of weapons that he can trust to catch the ball, including Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed, Samori Toure, Dontayvion Wicks, Luke Musgrave, and the running backs. The throws need to be accurate and every ball needs to be caught (other than throwaways). The receivers that need to win their battles against the Lions’ defensive backs (including rookie Brian Branch) in order to get open for each catch. For the Packers, the most important thing that they need to do on offense is win the time of possession battle. Avoiding turnovers and silly penalties can help the Packers achieve this goal in addition to getting consistent yards per play. When they get into the red zone, the Packers offense needs to continue scoring touchdowns to put more pressure on the Lions to answer back. I do hope that at some point in this game, the offense pulls off a play-action deep pass that results in a touchdown to any of the receivers. Whether or not the scores are big in terms of yards doesn’t matter. As long as they score the touchdowns, that’s all that matters. What bummed me out last week was that the Packers didn’t do a Lambeau Leap on either of the touchdowns. Hopefully they make up for that on Thursday night. That celebration is the best in all of football and I enjoy it each time. It strengthens that connection between the team and the fans that is already strong. I have confidence that Matt LaFleur and his coaching staff will get the players on offense ready for Thursday night.
On defense, the key for the Packers is to make the Lions a one-dimensional team on offense. To do that, the defensive front, which includes Kenny Clark, Rashan Gary (extend him already, Green Bay), Lukas Van Ness, Devonte Wyatt, and Preston Smith, needs to make sure that any ball carrier for Detroit is tackled for minimum gain. In addition to regular run plays, the defense has to watch out for any trick plays that the Lions come up with. If the running game is kept in check, then the pass rush is able to pin their ears back and get after Jared Goff all night long. Goff is not a quarterback that scrambles a lot. If he is given some time, then he can do some damage to a defense. The pass rushers should be able to get past the blockers and either sack Goff or force him to throw errant passes that could be intercepted by anyone on defense. Jaire Alexander (who I hope comes back), Rasul Douglas, Quay Walker, Darnell Savage, or anyone else (even Kenny Clark) needs to capitalize on the opportunity for an interception and catch it. Another type of turnover that the Packers need to capitalize on is when a fumble occurs. Guys like Rashan Gary can strip the ball out of Jared Goff’s hands and a defender should land on that ball or scoop it up for a touchdown. Most importantly, the Packers need to stop the Lions on third downs to keep Detroit from winning the time of possession battle. Not allowing easy catches and tackling the ball carrier for minimum yards can help the Packers do this. Turnovers can help with this too, as well as stopping the Lions from scoring touchdowns in the red zone. This defense needs to be ready for anything that the Lions do on Thursday night. Hopefully the crowd noise at Lambeau Field will help the defense as well.
On Special Teams, the Packers cannot afford to make any big mistakes. Last week against New Orleans, the Packers punt coverage unit allowed a 76-yard touchdown return to the Saints in the first half. Stuff like that can’t happen again for the rest of the season, regardless of the opponent. The punt coverage unit needs to make sure that the returner is tackled by wrapping him up and not diving at his feet. What can also help the Packers during punts is for Daniel Whelon to punt each ball deep in Lions territory and out of bounds. For Whelon to be able to do this without any issues, the long snapper needs to snap the ball accurately and the line needs to keep any defenders from blocking the punt. The same goes for field goal and PAT attempts, where Whelon is the holder for kicker Anders Carlson. Carlson needs to make every single kick, which hasn’t been a problem so far this season (*knocks on wood*). On kickoffs, the coverage unit needs to tackle the returner before he gets a chance to turn it into a big gain. What can help with that is kicking each ball out of the end zone for a touchback, which should be possible if there’s not a lot of wind. On the other side, I again hope that Keisean Nixon takes a kickoff back for a touchdown to make the crowd go wild. Whether it’s Nixon or Jayden Reed on punt returns (and kick returns in general), he needs to make smart decisions with the ball and not fumble. Any fair catch needs to be caught cleanly if there isn’t room to run. The return men need to follow the blockers and evade defenders to get some good yardage on any return opportunity. I have no doubt that Rich Bisaccia will get his guys ready for anything and make sure that those players don’t do anything silly.
Overall, it should be a fun game to watch on Thursday night. Hopefully some key players come back to help the Packers get the win against the Lions and take the division lead. It will be the Packers or the Lions that will win the NFC North in the end, and the two games against each other (Thursday night at Lambeau Field and on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit) will decide the winner of the division. As long as the Packers limit the mistakes to a minimum, they should win in front of their home fans. I pray that nobody on either team gets seriously injured on Thursday night regardless of the outcome. I’ll be back on Friday for the recap of the game. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great rest of your week. Go Pack Go!
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