The Green Bay Packers followed up a blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers with uninspiring wins over the two-win New York Giants and three-win Washington Redskins. The Giants trailed by only four points deep into the second half, while Sunday’s victory over the Redskins required a late onside kick recovery to complete despite a 14-0 start in the first quarter.
The Packers are now 10-3 and hold the No. 2 seed in the NFC, but Matt LaFleur’s team has plenty of doubters, and they’ve probably earned them over the last month and a half. They got destroyed in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and their four wins over the last six games came against teams quarterbacked by Matt Moore, Kyle Allen, Daniel Jones and Dwayne Haskins.
It’s just hard to know if we’ve learned anything meaningful about the Packers over the last two weeks. They did what was necessary against two struggling franchises. It wasn’t pretty, but would pretty wins over bad teams have drastically changed the opinion of a team with Super Bowl aspirations?
The next two weeks will determine whether the Packers are truly championship-worthy.
LaFleur’s team will welcome the suddenly revived and reigning division champion Chicago Bears to Lambeau Field on Sunday. Eight days later, they’ll head to Minnesota to play the talented Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium, a venue where the Packers have never won.
We’ll learn so much more about the Packers over the next two weeks than we possibly could have learned over the last two.
LaFleur, Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the offense will be challenged by two of the NFL’s best defenses. If the group is ever going to rekindle the magic of October, now is the time. They have to get hot because balanced teams with really good defenses await in the NFC playoffs. This offense (and quarterback, in particular) needs to prove it can play at a high level over prolonged periods against top competition, and the next two games will provide that opportunity.
On the other side of the ball, Mike Pettine and the Packers defense will have to find ways to stop the recently impressive run of Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and the supremely balanced and efficient Vikings offense. Remember when the Packers started 3-0 behind a dominant defense? The fast start faded, and Pettine needs to get his group trending back in the right direction. Trubisky isn’t a world-beater but he’s been playing better and better, and the Vikings have a talented cast led by a veteran quarterback, a dynamic running back and two difference-making receivers.
The Giants and Redskins didn’t provide a great barometer of the Packers’ playoff readiness. The Bears and Vikings will.
We’re 14 weeks in, but it’s still hard to know if the Packers are a dangerous team that just hasn’t peaked or a paper tiger that has benefitted from some lucky breaks and a healthy roster. The next two weeks should get us closer to the answer.
