The Green Bay Packers will finish the 2019 season in the controlled conditions of indoor stadiums.
The team’s schedule, which was officially released Wednesday night, brings the Packers to Minnesota to play the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium in Week 16 and to Detroit to play the Lions at Ford Field in Week 17.
It’ll be a rare kind of finish for the team.
As noted by Michael Cohen of The Athletic, the Packers will play back-to-back games indoors to finish a season for the first time in the franchise history.
While the indoor road trips will provide a reprieve from the harsh Wisconsin winter associated with playing at Lambeau Field, the finish will also rob the Packers of a valuable home-field advantage late in the season.
Winning games at Lambeau Field in late December was a hallmark of Mike McCarthy’s teams. Now, Matt LaFleur will have to get the Packers to play their best on the road indoors to end 2019.
Still, the Packers will have opportunities to play in the December cold. They’ll go to New York to play the Giants on Dec. 1 before hosting the Washington Redskins (Dec. 8) and Chicago Bears (Dec. 15) in back-to-back games.
The Packers lost both games indoors last season. They fell to 2-2-1 with a 31-23 defeat to the Lions at Ford Field and then threw away a chance to get back in the playoff hunt with a 24-17 loss to the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.
