Ed note: This post has been updated to reflect that Jordan Love will be out on Saturday.
The Green Bay Packers will take the field Saturday night with their playoff ticket officially punched, thanks to the Minnesota Vikings. You can bet that will have no influence on their approach to the likely final game at Lambeau this season, emphasis on the word likely.
We’ll get to the playoff scenarios in a second. Most importantly, they need to wipe away the stench of their collapse in Chicago, their second straight loss, and put a solid performance together against a competent team to swing the momentum their way. They need to play this game like they need to have it.
Things got a bit murkier with the Friday afternoon news that Jordan Love has been ruled out.
Malik Willis has also been dealing with the flu, but he is set to start on Saturday night, with third-year QB Clayton Tune elevated from the practice squad and slated to be the backup. Willis is also dealing with a sore shoulder from the Bears game. If he gets banged up, the Pack may need to carry that Tune (sorry).
The Packers listed 20, count them, 20 guys on their injury list, ending with seven players questionable, which ballooned on Friday, with the additions of Aaron Banks and Savion Williams, both of whom are dealing with an illness that has rocked the locker room, also claiming Christian Watson. Sean Rhyan and Bo Melton. They’re all questionable. Not ideal.
Assuming the sick guys will all be available, that leaves Zach Tom and Evan Williams to sort out. Tom missed practice all week and seems to be a long shot to play. Williams returned to practice, limited, this week. He seems like the one guy who maybe plays if the season is on the line, but with seeding the only thing in question, it might make more sense to err on the side of caution and get him ready for the playoffs.
That also may hold true for Josh Jacobs. He’s off the injury report after dealing with knee and ankle injuries, but I’d love to see the team shut him down until the playoffs. They can win these last two games without him.
So here’s how things stand:
- If the Packers lose to the Baltimore Ravens, they’re locked into the seventh seed.
- If they win, they could still slide in at two, three, five, or seven.
- A Packers win and a Bears loss in San Francisco will give Green Bay a 25 to 30% chance to win the NFC North heading into Week 18.
Of course, in that scenario, you’re counting on the Detroit Lions, with their season over, to go into Soldier Field and knock off the Bears. Hey, they did it to the Packers at the end of the ’22 season, closing the books on the Aaron Rodgers era. It’s not out of the realm of possibility, though they have to feel pretty deflated right about now.
As we sit here looking ahead to Week 17, the most likely playoff matchup is the seventh-seeded Packers (for the third straight season) heading back to Soldier Field to face the second-seeded Bears. Don’t know about you, but I would not be mad at that at all. Not one bit. Let’s play those guys again, and break their hearts on their field, just like 15 years ago in the NFC title game.
First things first. Baltimore’s season is hanging by a thread. They need a win to stay alive, and they’ll likely be without their two-time MVP QB Lamar Jackson, who they’ve listed as doubtful with a back injury. It’ll likely be Snoop Huntley directing the offense, which will lean heavily on Derrick Henry and Keaton Mitchell.
It feels like a lost season for the 7-8 Ravens, who never seemed to gain their footing. Jackson missed five games, and Henry was a shadow of his ’24 self, thanks in large part to a reconfigured offensive line, which has stayed healthy but is not nearly as talented as last year’s unit.
The defense has one stud, Kyle Hamilton, but otherwise is very ordinary, ranking near the bottom of the league in pass rush and has allowed more than 400 yards of offense four times this season, including last week against the New England Patriots. They’ve also turned the ball over 22 times, tied for the third most in the league. The Pack would be doing them a favor by putting them out of their misery and giving Aaron Rodgers and his Pittsburgh Steelers a little stocking stuffer, the AFC North title.
The Ravens are 0-3 in primetime this season and are heading to Lambeau on Saturday night to face an ornery Packers team that knows they likely gift-wrapped the division to their hated rivals a week ago and would love to take out their frustrations on someone. I’m guessing they do.
Packers 24
Ravens 13
