What does Green Bay have to gain by playing the remainder of the season?

Review: Eagles 40; Packers 33~ Green Bay relinquished 500 total yards to Philadelphia with an astonishing 363 coming on the ground. Credit to the Eagles, sticking to the run game knowing the Packers couldn’t do anything to stop it. It mainly opened up from solid coverage and athletic Jalen Hurts taking off and accruing >100 yards in the 1st quarter. The wild thing is Green Bay actually was able to put points on the board vs. the 6th ranked scoring defense, so that was promising. In the end, Philadelphia showed why they’re 10-1 and the Packers are what they are, a Bad Team.

Current Status~ after Rodgers’ comments about how “We’re not dead,” you can safely chalk that phrase up with all the others that led to the inevitable demise of a team he quarterbacks. Whether it was R-E-L-A-X, after not attempting a single pass at Richard Sherman in the season opener in Seattle, where their season also ended. Or in 2016 when he mentioned they could “Run the table.” Which got them to the playoffs, then absolutely demolished by the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship game. In each instance, the Packers came up well short of expectation, yet when your fans love regular season “success,” it gives them reason to have fun. This is no different, the Packers were dead prior to the Dallas game considering they lost winnable games vs. the Giants (in London holding a 20-10 halftime lead), the upstart Jets (blocked a punt and gave up 80 yards in the 1st half but couldn’t score themselves), at Washington (where they held a late lead), and in Detroit where Rodgers threw 3 awful interceptions (2 at the goal line and another 2 plays after Alexander picked off Goff) — Green Bay is finding ways to lose, not only close games but, games to lesser opponents.

If you’re hoping for postseason play, Green Bay currently sits in the 11th seed, needing to get to the 7th seed. Meaning they already lost the head-to-head vs. Washington, who sits at 7-5 in the 7th seed. Seattle is 6-5, Atlanta who’s 5-7, and Detroit who’s 4-7 with a win over the Packers. Green Bay will need those teams to eventually get to 9 losses while Green Bay wins out. That’s just to earn the right to play a 7 v 2 matchup @ US Bank Stadium (as it sits currently) against the Vikings. As things are trending, it’s likely the Vikings may fall to the 3-seed and San Francisco grabs the 2nd seed by then. Best case scenario? Green Bay wins vs. Chicago for bragging rights, both because it’s the Bears, and 2nd because that would give the Packers the most wins in NFL history, over Chicago. Then, lose-out for draft capitol OR, play Jordan Love and get him as many live reps as possible and if Green Bay wins out, but still doesn’t make the playoffs, there’s something to build from for next season.

Matchup~ the huge matchup disparity will be Chicago’s #1 rushing attack vs. Green Bay’s 2nd-to-last rush defense. While Justin Fields can’t consistantly throw with accuracy, he is big, strong, and fast. He could have a Field-day (see what I did there?) breaking contain against the Packers. Also, keep in mind, while both of these teams suck, this is Chicago’s Super Bowl – their fans’ too – they’ll be motivated. If Rodgers does start, at least there’s one thing that holds true…he is awesome vs. Chicago and Dallas. It should be a fun game, and the optimist in me says, “If we win, we beat the Bears. If we lose we get better draft position.”

	GB D	(rank)	vs.	Chi O	(rank)
Rush	154.8	31		192.0	1
Pass	187.8	4		131.2	32
Total	342.6	16		323.2	24
Pts	23.6	22		20.9	19
	GB O			Chi D
Rush	121.3	14		143.9	27
Pass	223.4	14		206.1	12
Total	344.7	16		350.0	20
Pts	19.6	23		25.4	27
T/O
Takeaways	12	T-21st		15	T-10th
Giveaways	17	T-27th		15	T-20th
Diff.	(5)	28th		0	T-18th

If the defense has any life, they should be able to show it here. The Bears, in their last 6 games have averaged 26.3 points/game, and that’s with a 10-spot at the Jets last week with their backup QB. Again, this is an evenly matched game against 2 bad teams. I’m not sure how to pick it since both teams are great at finding ways to lose. Should I just be a homer, or continue with the trend?

Packers 27
Bears 30 (+4.5)

Season: 6-6
Overall: 86-48