Packer Central

Predicting Rest of Packers’ Schedule, Final Record, Playoff Fortunes

The Green Bay Packers are 6-3 and on their way to the playoffs at the bye. Here’s how the rest of the play out, including the Packers’ postseason fortunes.

Bill Huber

Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur reacts to a call during the fourth quarter against the Detroit Lions.
Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur reacts to a call during the fourth quarter against the Detroit Lions. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Last year at this time, the Green Bay Packers were 3-6. This year as they enjoy their bye, they are 6-3.

Last year, Green Bay snuck into the playoffs with a 9-8 record and had a chance to reach the NFC Championship Game. Can it rekindle that second-half-of-the-season magic?

“I think that’s one of the things we’re going to talk about as a staff is some of the things we did the back half of the season to allow us to develop and continue to get better,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday.

“I think a lot of it just started with our approach to practice, how much competition we had in practice. I thought it made practices have more energy and I thought it reflected in our play, quite frankly.”

Can Green Bay replicate last year’s 6-2 finish?

Here are our predictions for the final eight games.

Week 11: at Chicago Bears (4-4)

The Packers have won 10 in a row against Chicago, which of course means nothing because this isn’t Aaron Rodgers vs. Bad Bears Quarterback.

What does matter is the Bears have hit a bump in the road. After beating three lousy teams in consecutive weeks, they’ve lost two in a row coming out of their bye and there’s some doubt hanging over the head of coach Matt Eberflus.

It seems sort of unfair that the Packers will be coming off their bye for a division game.

Winner: Packers.

Week 12: San Francisco 49ers (4-4)

Green Bay won’t have to deal with receiver Brandon Aiyuk (knee) but running back Christian McCaffrey should be back in the lineup. McCaffrey is a great player but Jordan Mason is fourth in rushing and seventh in yards per carry. So, it’s not as if McCaffrey’s absence is why the 49ers are sputtering along at .500.

It’s possible the Niners have run their course, and they are merely a good team but no longer a great team. It’s interesting to note they gave up more than 21 points in five games all of last season but in six games already this season.

Winner: Packers.

Week 13: Miami Dolphins (2-6)

Tua Tagovailoa is back, and so is Miami’s offense. After failing to score more than 15 points in the four games that he missed with a concussion, they’ve scored 27 in back-to-back weeks. They lost both games, anyway.

Green Bay showed against Detroit that a presumptive weather advantage is no advantage at all. However, it’s not going to be especially warm at Lambeau for this Thursday night game, and maybe the Dolphins would rather be spending Thanksgiving in Miami.

Winner: Packers.

Week 14: at Detroit Lions (7-1)

The Lions are the most complete team in the NFC and possibly the NFL. They’re outscoring their opponents by 13.8 points per game – by far the best mark in league – and are in the top eight in the league in third-down offense and defense and red-zone offense and defense.

The Packers won at Ford Field last season and are capable of doing it again. Really, they outplayed Detroit in most areas last week but were too busy punching themselves in the face to do anything but land a few body blows on the Lions.

Until the Packers show they can put together a full game for 60 minutes, I can’t pick them in a huge game.

Winner: Lions.

Week 15: at Seattle Seahawks (4-5)

Homefield advantage is overrated, as we all learned last week when Detroit swam into Green Bay and threw the Packers into the dunk tank.

Since the start of the 2021 season, Seattle is 15-16 at home and 14-15 on the road. The Seahawks just completed a stretch of four home games in five weeks. They lost all the home games to the Giants, 49ers, Bills and Rams.

Does Green Bay have the cornerbacks to keep up with D.K. Metcalf, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Tyler Lockett? Maybe not, but they’ll have the three-day rest advantage following a Thursday game while Seattle will be playing its fifth game in a month.

Winner: Packers.

Week 16: New Orleans Saints (2-7)

The Saints looked like a legit team when they opened the season by beating the Panthers and Cowboys by a combined 91-29. However, they have lost seven in a row, fired coach Dennis Allen and traded cornerback Marshon Lattimore.

Teams that are out of the playoff hunt will enjoy a Monday night game in Green Bay two days before Christmas, I’m sure.

Winner: Packers.

Week 17: at Minnesota Vikings (6-2)

After starting 5-0, the Vikings have come back down to earth a bit. They lost 31-29 at home against Detroit, lost 30-20 at the Rams and weren’t especially impressive in beating the Colts at home 21-13.

The key to the game will be Aaron Jones. He’ll be 30 when this game is played. He’s 12th in the league with 151 touches, putting him on pace for 321. His career high is 285, one of only two seasons of 250-plus.

Winner: Vikings.

Week 18: Chicago Bears (4-4)

At this point, who knows about the state of the Bears. Will they be playing for a playoff berth when they arrive at Lambeau Field? Will they be auditioning for their new coach? Will they be counting the minutes until their tee times?

What we do know: Their four wins have come against teams with a combined record of 10-24.

Winner: Packers.

Final Record

12-5, seventh seed.

Yes, 12 wins will equal the seventh seed. Minnesota will get one wild-card spot. In this scenario, it swept the Packers. The other wild card will go to the NFC East runner-up. The Eagles have the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Packers and the Commanders are 5-1 in the NFC compared to 2-3 for Green Bay.

Playoffs

The seventh seed will play at the second seed. As it stands now, that would mean Green Bay at Washington in the wild-card round. The Commanders have faced the easiest schedule in the NFL, so maybe they’re paper tigers.

That would set up Round 3 between the Packers and Lions. Playing the what-if game is dangerous, but what if the Packers had scored a touchdown after Brian Branch’s ejection and 30 yards of penalties – one of three red-zone failures? What if Jordan Love hadn’t thrown a pick-six before halftime?

On a play-to-play basis, the Packers showed they are good enough. It’s just that the Lions made all the important plays.

I put Detroit at No. 1 in our On SI NFL Power Rankings. The Lions are going to win this year’s Super Bowl.

More Green Bay Packers News 

How good are Packers after the bye? | Packers midseason awards | Wild half-season at QB for Packers | Updating the NFC playoff picture | Where’s the pass rush? | Edgerrin Cooper among midseason All-Rookie picks | Winners and losers for Packers at NFL trade deadline | On SI NFL power rankings | Packers trade Preston Smith | Packers at the NFL trade deadline | Consensus NFL power rankings | Dontayvion Wicks’ historically bad numbers

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.