Thanksgiving offers up a feast of an NFC North matchup in Ford Field. The Green Bay Packers are in town to face the Lions in a game that means a great deal in the divisional and conference playoff pictures.
The Packers are 7-3-1 and already beat the Lions back in Week 1, a game in Green Bay that was not a great effort from Detroit. The 7-4 Lions are looking for payback and to play a better, cleaner game.
To get a little more intel on the Packers and where they stand entering Week 13, I hit up Packers Wire editor Zack Kruse for a few questions about the team.
How is the Packers health coming in on a short week?
The Packers are beat up, no doubt. The first injury report of the week had 16 players listed, and Tucker Kraft and Elgton Jenkins are on injured reserve. They didn’t have Josh Jacobs, Jayden Reed, Quay Walker, Matthew Golden or Nate Hobbs last week, and Lukas Van Ness and Karl Brooks barely played. Oh, and Jordan Love is playing through a left shoulder injury after separating his shoulder in Week 11. Everyone is dealing with something this time of year, but it sure looks like the Packers and Lions could both use the mini-bye coming up. It’s perseverance time on a short week for both sides.
Detroit’s biggest weakness is A-gap pressure. How does Green Bay fare in attacking there defensively?
I’ve got some bad news for Lions fans. Edgerrin Cooper (and Quay Walker, if available) are excellent A-gap blitzers, Isaiah McDuffie got a sack last week off an A-gap blitz, and there’s this new guy, Micah Parsons, who gets opportunities to line up over the center and pick his pass-rushing spots on obvious passing downs. A lot of the disruption created last week against the Vikings was from the interior, and Jeff Hafley is pretty good about knowing when to pick his spots as a blitzer. Don’t watch the clip of Parsons blowing up Ryan Kelly and paving the way to a Devonte Wyatt sack from last week.
What’s one thing the Packers do well that doesn’t get enough acclaim?
Preventing explosive plays on defense. Parsons is getting a ton of attention, and rightfully so — he alone has changed the entire defense. But because teams fear Parsons and the pass-rush, and also because the Packers safety tandem of Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams is so good and reliable, teams are just not throwing the ball downfield against this defense. And while the Packers run defense hasn’t been perfect down to down, they’ve done a nice job of limiting explosive runs. Jeff Hafley’s defense is making you earn it to score points.
What scares you most about playing the Lions right now?
Jahmyr Gibbs. Does this need any more elaboration? Sure, the Packers held him to 19 rushing yards in the opener. But kind of like Adrian Peterson in that 2007-2012 stretch or Barry Sanders in the 90s, every Gibbs run is a hold-your-breath type moment. He’s becoming that level of terrifying. And is it at all surprising that the Lions are 7-0 when Gibbs scores a touchdown and 0-4 when he doesn’t this year? When Sonic is rolling, defending that Lions offense becomes near impossible.
Who wins and why?
I’ve gone back and forth on this one, and it certainly looks and feels like a coin flip. But I’m going to give the Lions the slightest edge, in part because they are at home on a short week, but mostly because they have a healthy quarterback and running back. Jordan Love was fine as a passer but also clearly limited by his left shoulder injury last week, and Josh Jacobs is a big question mark coming off a knee contusion. Jared Goff and Jahmyr Gibbs are healthy. I can see a scenario where the Packers defensive front controls the game against an injury-riddled Lions offense line, and the Lions defense eventually wears down after playing almost 80 plays on Sunday. But I’ll go Lions 24, Packers 23 in a Thanksgiving Day slugfest. Happy holidays, Lions fans!
This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Behind Enemy Lines: Breaking down Week 13 vs Green Bay w/ Packers Wire
Reporting by Jeff Risdon, Lions Wire / Lions Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
