The Green Bay Packers are coming off their biggest win of the Jordan Love era. The Packers beat the defending Super Bowl champions 27-19 at Lambeau Field to move to 6-6. As of now, the Packers hold the seventh spot in the NFC playoff picture, but they are looking for more.
The Giants are 4-8 and have failed to build on last season’s success story where they made the divisional round of the NFC playoffs before getting blown out by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Quarterback Daniel Jones is out for the season with a torn ACL, so the Giants are playing out the string at this point in the year.
Brian Daboll is still a good coach, and they will be at home, so the Packers will have their hands full.
The Packers do not play a team with a record above .500 between now and the end of the season. The team is facing a golden opportunity to make the playoffs and potentially position themselves to make some noise.
If they’re going to do that, however, they have to beat the Giants first. Here are the keys to the Packers getting to 7-6.
Packers vs. Saquon Barkley
Saquon Barkley is one of the most dangerous runners in all of football. He requires the defense at all levels to be ready to tackle. He’s dangerous in both the run and pass game. He might be the Giants’ best pass catcher at this point of his career.
That requires the Packers to be ready in the secondary and on the front. He’ll threaten them at all of those levels. One missed tackle can turn a short gain into a touchdown with the ball in Barkley’s hands.
With an inexperienced quarterback, the Giants are likely to rely on Barkley even more.
The Packers did not stop the Lions’ two-headed monster of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, but they did slow them down.
They didn’t slow down Isiah Pacheco and the Chiefs rushing offense. The only thing that stopped Pacheco from running wild against Green Bay was the game flow. The Packers kept scoring early, forcing the Chiefs to play catch up. Couple that with Pacheco getting ejected for throwing a punch at Keisean Nixon, and you have the formula for how Pacheco was stopped.
The Packers did not do anything special to slow him down.
With all due respect to Pacheco, Barkley is a much more dynamic runner. The Packers will need to be much better to keep him in check.
Packers’ pass rush vs. Tommy DeVito
The Packers are coming off a stretch where they’ve played three high level quarterbacks.
Tommy DeVito is not one of those at this point in his career. He is the Giants’ third preferred quarterback this season. Daniel Jones is out for the season with a torn ACL. Tyrod Taylor filled in before being sidelined with an injury of his own.
DeVito wasn’t a high draft pick; he’s not highly touted. He’s someone the Packers should be able to control.
The Packers’ pass rush was dominant against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day. They wrecked the Lions’ game plan.
Rashan Gary sacked Jared Goff three times. Preston Smith has lived in the backfield in recent memory, which would lead you to believe more production should be on its way. Lukas Van Ness did not have the sack production until Sunday night when he dragged Patrick Mahomes to the ground in the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the Chiefs.
Gary, Van Ness and Smith all had at least half a sack in Sunday’s win over the Chiefs.
They’ll need to slow down Barkley as previously mentioned and force DeVito to win the game.
If they can do that, the Packers’ secondary should have plenty of opportunities to catch errant passes from Devito.
Offensive tackles vs. Kayvon Thibodeaux
Another week, another dominant pass rusher squaring off against the Packers’ offensive line.
The Packers kept Aidan Hutchinson in check two weeks ago. They did well against Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack as well.
Chris Jones had a nice night against the Packers but didn’t ruin the game. The Packers allowed other pass rushers to wreck the game earlier in the year, but Jones had what could be described as a nice night. That’s a win for someone as dominant as he can be.
Thibodeaux is the Giants’ best pass rusher and has been since he was drafted two years ago.
The Giants know a thing or two about cobbling together a good pass rush unit. The Packers know about that as well having faced off against Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck and other great pass rushers the Giants have had on their best teams.
Jordan Love’s arrow is pointing upward. One of the biggest reasons for that is the pass protection around him has been much better. They’re currently ranked second in the NFL in ESPN’s pass block win rate statistic. Zach Tom has been a brick at right tackle, while the platoon of Rasheed Walker and Yosh Nijman has masked some of their struggles as well.
Thibodeaux will line up on both ends of the line of scrimmage. All three tackles will get their dosage of him. It’s up to them to keep Love clean and allow him to find receivers down the field against a leaky Giants secondary.
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