Detroit is coming off their best season in franchise history, and retained many of their players however, lost both of their coordinators (OC Ben Johnson and DC Aaron Glenn). Due to these departures many claim that Detroit will have a “fall off” season. I believe they’ll drop their win total a bit, but not due to the coordinators vacating, but due to Washington exposing them in the playoffs last year. Let’s keep in mind, Dan Campbell is a master motivator and a very good Head Coach. With that, he depends on his coordinators and positional coaches to scheme for the team. Time will tell if the Lions can retain their spot atop the NFC, but that’s awfully hard to do when you don’t lose your brain trust.

Matchup Matrix

Detroit was the best team in point differential a season ago, while Green Bay finished 6^th in that category. The Lions’ defense was a problem for them, and the reason they got smoked in the Divisional Round vs. the Commanders last year. The Motor City Kitties were missing star pass rusher, Aiden Hutchinson, for a majority of the season and get him back – we’ll see if he’s back to full health. On the flip side, the Lions should have (one of) the best offense(s) in the NFL and a major victory for any team will be holding them to <30 points every game.

The 2024 Packers seemed like a team that never got rolling, and while it did feel like that (and is more true than not) Green Bay did improve their record from 2023 by 2 games while leaving 5 losses that easily could’ve (should’ve) been wins. This team is close and when they put together a game (they did 1-2 times last year) they’re unbeatable. This matchup could easily be the best two teams in the NFC, maybe the NFL and we get it in Week 1 in a divisional matchup!

We’ve covered the major acquisition (Micah Parsons) for the Packers as well as discussed, the major departures (Clark and Slaton) which will negatively impact the rush defense (ranked 7^th against the run in 2024), but the biggest difference this season and what will propel the Packers to a Super Bowl championship aren’t those two areas…it’ll be the health and efficiency of their Quarterback, Jordan Love. In each of the previous 2 Hall of Fame QB’s Green Bay has had, in their 3^rd seasons as starters, they had immense success:

• 2010 Aaron Rodgers: won Super Bowl XLV
• 1994 Brett Favre: took the Packers to the Divisional Round and lost to the Dallas Dynasty

This is Love’s 3^rd year as The Man and a Divisional Round loss won’t cut it. However, Favre was only age 25 in his 3^rd year starting while Rodgers and Love were 27. It’s been covered, but each of the previously mentioned Hall of Famers won Super Bowls in the year they turned 27…Love turns 27 on November 2^nd this year.

What does this have to do with the game? Both of these teams’ expectations are to win the Super Bowl, and anything less should be considered a failure of a season. Expect a tight game, likely throughout with neither team having a lead larger than 14 points at any given time and it will come down to the last possession. If it’s a shootout, it favors Detroit as they have playmakers-a-plenty on offense and the Packers have a bunch of unknowns at defensive back (Nixon is solid)…Packer fans are not familiar with Hobbs (free agent signee from Las Vegas), and Bo Melton switched from WR to CB this camp and hasn’t played during live bullets.

As stated above, if the Packers can hold Detroit to less than 30 points, they should win and it would be huge considering Green Bay’s first 2 games are against 2 of the best the NFC has to offer – not only from a competitive standpoint, but the tiebreakers will be huge!

Prediction Time

Detroit boasts the better team as they’ve won 4 consecutive games in Lambeau Field. It’s time for that to change, but will it? I think with the addition of Micah Parsons, Green Bay has the tools to beat everyone, however he’ll likely be on a snap count (missing the entire Summer camp comes at a cost) as well as Jayden Reed missing significant time, among others (Hobbs, Lloyd, Love, etc.) there will be quite a bit of rust to knock off prior to playing their best ball.

Overall: 107-69 (.608)