Green Bay will host Baltimore on Saturday night, its second consecutive Saturday night game this season. It’s also the last home game of the regular season for the Packers.
Packers’ offense vs. Ravens’ defense
Green Bay’s offense has one giant question mark coming into this weekend’s game against the Ravens.
Who is playing quarterback? That’s typically a question that nobody wants to be answering at this point in the season, but those are the breaks in Green Bay these days.
Jordan Love left Saturday’s game in Chicago after a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit from Austin Booker knocked him out of the game and put him in the concussion protocol.
Love remained out for the remainder of the game and put his status for this weekend’s game in doubt. If Love cannot go, the Packers will hand the keys to Malik Willis. What has Willis done since he’s come to Green Bay late last summer?
He’s played really well, and typically the Packers have won. That included Saturday night when Willis threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Romeo Doubs late in the third quarter.
Willis’ athleticism adds something to the run game, and he has some arm talent, which led to him getting drafted in the third round four years ago. He has been a perfect fit in Matt LaFleur’s offense in the two seasons he has been here.
The boost he could give the run game is interesting as well. Josh Jacobs is banged up and reportedly was on crutches the Monday before the Chicago game. Jacobs was clearly limited, but he gutted through the injury to put on a gritty performance against Chicago.
Chris Brooks and Emanuel Wilson both received carries as well, which is likely a good indicator of how Jacobs was feeling.
Willis can create more plays with his legs than Love can, and LaFleur is willing to call more things out of the quarterback run game.
The question now is whether Love can get out of the concussion protocol between now and Saturday night when the Packers have to take on the Ravens.
Baltimore’s defense has a good reputation, but they have not been the same unit this season.
They’re second-to-last in the NFL with just 22 sacks on the year.
They entered play on Sunday with nobody on the team having more than 3.5 sacks individually.
The leader? Rookie edge rusher Mike Green, who was drafted in the second round of April’s draft.
They’re 26th in the league in passing yards against them. They’re right in the middle of the pack against the run, giving up 111.1 yards per game.
They have nine interceptions and have recovered seven of the 12 forced fumbles they have.
Packers’ defense vs. Ravens’ offense
To state the obvious, the Packers’ defense suffered a devastating injury with the loss of Micah Parsons. They may have taken an even bigger punch to the gut with the way they fell apart on Saturday night against the Chicago Bears.
The Green Bay defense had shut down Chicago’s offense for the first 58 minutes of the game.
Thanks to some unforced errors by the Packers, Caleb Williams caught fire late in the game, throwing two touchdown passes on the Bears’ final two possessions of the game.
The Packers slowed down Chicago’s powerful run game, holding them to 108 yards on 22 carries.
Baltimore’s offense has some big names on it with two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson heading to Lambeau Field for his first start there Saturday. Derrick Henry is his running back, and he’s likely destined for a gold jacket when his career ends.
Baltimore has the third-ranked rushing offense in the NFL coming into play for Week 16. That’s largely due to Henry along with the legs of Jackson, who is as gifted a runner as anyone has seen in the NFL.
Jackson has not been running as much this season, only getting 333 yards on the ground with just 61 carries. Henry has added another 1,000-yard rushing season to his total.
When the ball goes in the air, Zay Flowers is Baltimore’s go-to receiver with 100 targets, which is 40 more than the next closest receiver.
When it’s not Flowers making plays, it’s Mark Andrews who has 60 catches and continues to fight off Father Time.
Special Teams
Rich Bisaccia often says that his unit does not get a second down. Sometimes just one play swings an entire game, and the Packers learned that the hard way in Saturday night’s loss to the Chicago Bears.
Romeo Doubs misjudged an onside kick on the other side of the two-minute warning, which gave the Bears life.
The story of the year on special teams has been too many mistakes at critical times, and this past weekend was the worst error of them all.
There is no rest for the weary as John Harbaugh’s background is in special teams, and the Ravens typically field an excellent group in the third phase of the game.
Tyler Lopp has replaced Justin Tucker almost seamlessly this season, making 92.9% of his field goals, while Rasheen Ali and Keaton Mitchell combine for a dynamic return game that has speed to burn.
