Football season has nearly come and gone with the Green Bay Packers taking their journey into the middle of December.
They’re in the midst of a stretch where they will see the Chicago Bears twice in three weeks, with a date against the Denver Broncos sandwiched in between them.
Denver has not been a kind place to the Packers in recent memory, and that includes the Jordan Love iteration of the Packers. Love has played in Denver before and did not come away with a win. These Broncos are different, currently fighting for the top seed in the AFC.
More on that, and what the Packers are up against in our weekly six pack.
1. Painful memories
When the Packers head to Denver on Sunday, they’ll be facing a team that handed them the most painful loss in franchise history. The Denver Broncos were double-digit underdogs in January 1998 and the defending champion Packers were expected to roll them right off the field en route to a second title.
That was not to be. Terrell Davis ran around, over and through Green Bay’s defense for 157 yards and three touchdowns. Brett Favre turned the ball over twice and had his last-gasp rally fall 31 yards short, and the Packers were the first Super Bowl loser in the NFC in 14 years.
2. Payton and McCarthy
Sean Payton is widely revered as one of the NFL’s best coaches. He won a Super Bowl in New Orleans with Drew Brees at the helm, and helped turn the Saints into a perennial contender. Oftentimes the phrase future Hall of Famer surrounds Payton when he’s compared to the all-time greats in the coaching ranks.
Mike McCarthy does not get the same level of reverence. McCarthy, however, has the same amount of Super Bowl titles as Payton, coached in more conference title games and has a regular season win percentage of .608. Payton’s currently is at .627, which is comparable. One coach is consistently seen as a genius, while the other is a punch line.
3. Young QBs
Jordan Love has established himself as one of the top quarterbacks in football. Bo Nix is trying to work toward that status. Much like last week’s game against Caleb Williams, Nix has done his best work in the fourth quarter against opposing teams. The final numbers may not be there, but the Broncos are happy to have someone who can deliver under pressure. Whether or not that is sustainable is up to the eye of the beholder, but Nix has been rock solid late in games.
4. MVP run?
Everyone talks about Jordan Love’s numbers during the Toyota promotion known as Toyota-thon, but the reality now is that Love could be making a run at the regular season MVP award.
The Packers are chasing the NFC’s top seed, and to achieve that, Love is going to need to play great down the stretch.
New England’s Drake Maye and Los Angeles’ Matthew Stafford are the two favorites to win the award at the moment, but Love is creeping up the betting odds, entering play in December as +1600 to win the award. Those numbers could continue to climb if Stafford has another poor game down the stretch while Love continues to play lights out as the Packers pursue supremacy in the NFC playoff picture.
5. Orange Crush
The Packers’ defense was hoping to put together a dynamic pass rush when they paired Micah Parsons with Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness and Devonte Wyatt.
Green Bay’s pass rush has been good but largely on the shoulders of Parsons.
Denver’s pass rush is right up there with the Houston Texans in terms of the best in the NFL.
Coming into play in Week 14, the Broncos had 51 sacks on the season, harkening back to the days of the “Orange Crush” defense from the 1980s. Green Bay’s offensive line is facing its stiffest test to date when taking on this group, who is currently led by Nik Bonitto, who reached double digit sacks before play in December began.
6. Altitudue’d
We mentioned previously that the Packers had one of the most painful losses in franchise history against these Broncos. The reality is that traveling to Denver has not been a pleasant experience for them.
Since the turn of the century, the Packers have played in Denver three times. They were humiliated on Sunday Night Football against the eventual champion Broncos in 2015, who held Aaron Rodgers to fewer than 100 yards passing. They lost 19-17 in Denver in 2023 in Jordan Love’s first season as the starter, who had a late comeback drive fall short.
The lone win since 2000 in Denver came in 2007, when Brett Favre hit Greg Jennings for a walk-off touchdown in overtime against Jay Cutler’s Broncos.
