We made it to week 17 and we’re doing a lot better than most predicted. Beat the 3 win Lions led by a 3rd string QB and get a bye followed by a playoff game a Lambeau. Throw in a Seahawks win on Sunday night and the Packers have the one seed!
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though – let’s focus on winning our game first. Here’s the big factors:
Focus
Sure the Lions are riding an 8-game losing streak, but don’t forget that they would be undefeated if not for a hands to the face penalty that was called properly. Seriously, though, this is the NFL and any team can beat any other team – we just got help when the Cardinals beat the Seahawks and the Falcons beat the 49ers. The Packers can’t overlook a division opponent on the road.
Play To Win
Focus aside, the Packers can’t afford to handle this team with kid gloves in an effort to stay healthy. Win and they ge a bye. When you play to stay healthy, you get hurt.
Execute
There’s a different between playing hard and pulling out all the stops. The Packers shouldn’t need to empty the playbook to win this game. LaFleur was (mostly) joking when he said he was saving his good stuff for the playoffs, but they shouldn’t have to put anything on tape to win this one (except maybe some goofy stuff they would never run so that other teams have to spend time preparing for it).
That’s it. The Packers are far better on paper and the Lions only have spoiler pride (and a worse draft pick) to play for. They have Matt Stafford, Jeff Driskel, TJ Hockenson, Marvin Jones, Jermaine Kearse, Mike Daniels, Da’Shawn Hand, and 9 other guys on IR. This game is about focus, attitude, and execution more than any kind of pencil-whipping.
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For more coverage of the regular season finale, check out Pregame Predictions: Packers at Lions – 2019 Week 17