The Packers will round out their regular season schedule with a trip to Ford Field on Sunday, a game that will mark the longest regular season played by the NFL. The road game is an opportunity for Matt LaFleur to improve to a record of 16-2 in his short but spectacular three-year tenure as Packers head coach.
Against the Lions, however, he hasn't exactly turned heads with lopsided victories. In 2019, the Packers swept Detroit but somehow did so without leading for a single second of the game. Last year, the Packers breezed past the Lions at home in September but sloppily grazed past the club in December shortly after the late-season firing of head coach Matt Patricia.
While the conversation this week has been centered around which starters the Packers plan to sit in Week 18, it's equally as important to identify the players that could see live action for the first time in months and get up to speed before the playoffs. On offense, the Packers will likely welcome back O-linemen David Bakhtiari and Josh Myers this week while wide receiver Randall Cobb will remain sidelined.
Now, to the main question: how much action will we actually see from key offensive personnel like Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones and Davante Adams?
Despite having clinched the NFC's 1-seed last week, LaFleur announced this week that most starters will play the entire game on Sunday. Given that the Packers will be playing on turf and have suffered an injury to a starter in nearly every game this season, the decision comes as a bit of a surprise. With that said, one has to believe that Rodgers, in particular, will be a prime candidate to hit the bench early.
However, I hope that LaFleur's injury mitigation plan doesn't require a comfy, three-possession lead to justify that early exit for Rodgers. Detroit's gritty defense is capable of stalling power-packed offenses, having allowed just 14 points to the Packers' O during the first half of their first meeting. More recently, the Lions held Atlanta to just 20 points on 254 total yards and Arizona to 12 points. Despite an atrocious performance last week in Seattle, the Lions' defense should present some challenge for a Packers offense that has been poor on third-down conversions lately.
In all likelihood, the game will not be won at halftime and LaFleur will be forced to choose between chasing a meaningless win with Rodgers OR putting the game in the hands of Jordan Love, who would desperately benefit from each incremental snap he receives this week.
PackerDay Prediction: Packers 26, Lions 21
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