I’m not exactly sure if we’ll know when the Pack has hit rock bottom. Was it last week when they scored a grand total of nine points in a loss to the Detroit Lions? Will it be this Sunday if Mike McCarthy’s Dallas Cowboys trounce the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau before a national audience? Will it be the next Thursday night if Derrick Henry runs up and down the field in dealing Green Bay a seventh straight loss?
That’s the only mystery with this team. When will rock meet bottom?
This was supposed to be the biggest game of the season. Cowboys and Packers. America’s Team vs. America’s (Real) Team. Mike McCarthy returns to Lambeau. Two all-time great rivals vying for NFC superiority. Yeah, about that…
And as bad as the Pack has been, Fox was still promoting it heavily as early as Week 8 as the game of the year. It’s hardly that. In Green Bay, the season is circling the drain, mathematically alive for a playoff spot, but more realistically, just a few weeks away from the next great debate: when they’re eliminated, should Jordan Love start the rest of the way?
For those still clinging to hope that the Pack can turn things around, know this: After stumbling against the likes of the Washington Commanders and Lions the last two weeks, the next three opponents are a combined 19-5. They’d need to go no worse than 3-1 over the next month to head into the bye week at 6-7. That means three wins in these four matchups: Cowboys and Tennessee Titans at home, and the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears on the road. Impossible? Of course not. Likely? Of course not.
As ugly as it’s been on the field, particularly on offense, this week’s injury report is even more unsightly, with 17 players on the list. The headline is that they lost ascending star Rashan Gary for the season and beyond with a torn ACL. Beyond brutal. It’s believed Eric Stokes is also done for the year, but we’ve yet to hear what he’s dealing with beyond knee/ankle. De’Vondre Campbell will also miss another game with his knee injury. So that’s three defensive starters definitely out. The hope was maybe the defense could bail out the offense while Rodgers and Co. try to figure things out. Instead, they’re going to need guys like Isaiah McDuffie and Kingsley Enagbare to step up a year or two ahead of schedule.
We’ll see how the Stokes injury changes things up for Joe Barry’s defense. Rasul Douglas will move to the outside, where he’s better suited, so the drop off will come at nickel corner, where Keisean Nixon will likely get the first shot, though there are rumblings that they may move Darnell Savage there to see if he can make more of an impact at corner. If they go that route, Rudy Ford slides in at safety, with new addition Johnathan Abram waiting in the wings.
An aside: I don’t hate the Abrams signing, but I have very low expectations. He talks a good game, brimming with confidence and brashness, but the former first-round pick has been a complete bust in Vegas, consistently missing tackles and earning a below-average grade from PFF every year. He’ll be a free agent, so it’s a cheap look at a guy who has talent and who maybe will realize his career is at a crossroads. With college teammates Elgton Jenkins and Kylin Hill around, maybe he finds a home and gives the Pack reason to keep him around.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys are healthy and well-rested coming off their bye. When we last saw them, against the Bears, they put up 49 points on a day Zeke was injured, and Tony Pollard ran for 143 yards on nearly ten yards a pop. The Pack can expect a steady diet of Pollard on Sunday, though Zeke might be healthy enough to spell him on a few series. He’s listed as questionable.
If the Pack is going to keep up with the Cowboys on the scoreboard, they’ll have to lean on the running game. The Cowboys are 24th in the league against the run, giving up 135 per game on the ground and the sole bit of good injury news coming out of the Lions game is that Aaron Jones is back practicing and should be good to go on Sunday. If they can move the chains on the ground, maybe Rodgers and the passing attack can get into some kind of rhythm and see if they can avoid disaster in the red zone.
The loss of Romeo Doubs, likely through the Week 14 bye, means a thin unit gets even skinnier. When the Packers removed Christian Watson from the game early last week, there were fears he had suffered another concussion. Turns out it was precautionary, so Watson has a chance to step into a bigger role on Sunday. The team desperately needs him, with Randall Cobb still out, Amari Rodgers questionable with a quad, and the rotting corpse of Sammy Watkins just wasting everyone’s time out there. Samori Toure will also audition to take the spot opposite Allen Lazard. Beyond him and Watson, the team is pretty much out of options.
I don’t really know what to expect on Sunday. I could see the Cowboys embracing the McCarthy revenge game subplot and blowing the Packers off the field. I could see the Packers, the biggest home underdogs they’ve ever been, with Rodgers under center, hanging with the Cowboys for 60 minutes. Rodgers likes this spot: he’s 5-1 against the spread as a home dog in his career.
Ultimately, I have a hard time seeing this offense stringing drives together all afternoon without shooting themselves in the foot. The Cowboys lead the league with 33 sacks, and Micah Parsons will be a problem all afternoon, especially if David Bakhtiari (questionable) shares time with rookie Zach Tom. And I could see Dak, playing his first road game of the season, finding CeeDee Lamb and Dalton Schultz wide open in the middle of the field all day when he needs to convert a third down.
I’m not real optimistic, but I’m going to the game anyway, and yes, I will stand up and cheer for Mike McCarthy when he’s announced. And then I’ll spend three hours either watching a proud, veteran team, finally home after three weeks on the road, defend its home turf and pull off a resounding, unexpected upset win — or I’ll watch a broken team drop its sixth straight and second in a row at Lambeau, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide in what has turned into a lost season.
My gut tells me it will be the latter.
Cowboys 23
Packers 20
