On Sunday night, the Green Bay Packers took a step toward securing their playoff future with an impressive 30-13 drubbing of the Seattle Seahawks. An encouraging performance should have the team and fans excited for the final three tune-up games, which will prepare them for what will undoubtedly be a tough playoff road with teams like the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles in the way.
But first, they need to officially clinch their playoff berth, which can happen next Monday night against the visiting New Orleans Saints at Lambeau Field. Even though the Saints have fallen to 5-9, the Packers shouldn’t take them lightly. They need to build off their Sunday night victory in Seattle.
It probably doesn’t need to be said, but I will anyway: The Saints are not a very good football team. You don’t have to look much further for evidence than that they fired head coach Dennis Allen in early November after losing their seventh consecutive game. After a 2-0 start to the season, which included blowout wins over the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys, Allen lost the locker room, and a change was needed.
After firing Allen, the Saints made one-time Packers special teams coach target Darren Rizzi their interim head coach, and they’ve performed much better. Under Rizzi, they are 3-2 and easily could be 4-1 after nearly completing a comeback on Sunday against the playoff-hopeful Washington Commanders.
Rizzi decided to go for two and the win after scoring the tying touchdown with no time left, a sign of a team playing with nothing to lose but eager to spoil another team’s playoff hopes. In his bid for the full-time job, they’ve been playing much harder under Rizzi than Allen.
At the time of writing, it’s unclear who will be under center for the Saints, making preparations slightly more challenging for LaFleur and Co. New Orleans is a much different team with Derek Carr than with Spencer Rattler, the presumptive starter if Carr can’t go due to a broken left hand. They are 0-4 without Carr under center, but that doesn’t mean they are devoid of talent.
People have hyped Rattler for his talent at various points in his college career and upon entering the NFL. I assume he gets the start if Carr can’t go on Monday. Rattler is coming off perhaps the best game of his short career on Sunday against the Commanders when he came in to start the second half. He had an 84.4 passer rating, with 135 yards, a touchdown, and a 47% completion percentage. Still, he gave the offense a clear spark.
In the first half, Jake Haener, who got the start, struggled to move the ball and only managed 38 yards of offense and no points. Rattler took over and led them on four scoring drives in the second half, including what would have been the game-tying touchdown. I’m sure Rattler would love to build off his strong relief appearance and put together a complete game in front of a national audience on Monday night at Lambeau.
The Saints also still have the league’s 10th-best rushing attack. Led by five-time Pro Bowler Alvin Kamara, they average 128 yards per game and are tied for sixth with the Packers in rushing touchdowns. They rank seventh in the highest rush expected points added (EPA) in the league, and Kamara leads the team in rushing yards and receiving yards. He will be a tough matchup for Green Bay’s linebackers, who haven’t performed their best this year when teams attack the middle of the field.
The Packers have done a decent job against the run this year but have had trouble defending the screen game, so you can expect a heavy dosage of that from the Saints on Monday night. Old friend Marquez Valdes-Scantling is still a deep threat. He’s fifth in the league in yards per catch, and with Jaire Alexander’s status still uncertain, it might be a tough matchup for Carrington Valentine or Eric Stokes. It should be a good tune-up for the playoffs when Green Bay faces some great running and deep passing teams like the Eagles and Lions.
We are all familiar with the “trap game” – a team looks beyond their opponent and focuses on what’s coming next. With a road game against the Vikings in two weeks, it would be easy for the Packers to look beyond the 5-9 Saints.
Green Bay is on the cusp of securing a playoff berth, so you wouldn’t think they would under-prepare for the Saints. Still, it feels like a less important game sandwiched between the contests in Seattle and Minneapolis. You know Green Bay has been eyeing the Minnesota matchup since the Vikings came into Lambeau earlier in the season and embarrassed the Packers by getting out to a 28-0 lead. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Packers might be focused on that when the Saints come to town and let the New Orleans game get closer than they should.
The Packers shouldn’t take any team lightly, hence the phrase “any given Sunday” (or, in this case, Monday). The Saints have a healthy mix of veteran players who can lead a young team, including Kamara, Demario Davis, Tyrann Mathieu, and Cam Jordan, as well as young players trying to put good play on tape for next season.
They seem to be playing hard for their interim coach, based on their 3-2 record under him, and Darren Rizzi has been making a case within the Saints organization to retain the gig full-time come the 2025 season. An upset win against the Packers on prime time would go a long way for his pitch to Saints management during his interview.
We shouldn’t expect the Packers to have a letdown against the Saints on Monday night. They are coming in as 13.5-point favorites for a reason. Still, they can’t take their foot off the gas. They must continue building off their recent performances and fine-tune certain areas before the playoffs. The last thing we need is for them to play a dud and then have to go into Minnesota to clinch a playoff berth against a Vikings team, which, with Detroit’s loss on Sunday, is still alive for the NFC North title. They need to take care of business on Monday night, and then the focus can shift to playoff mode.