Slumping Packers finally get some home cooking
One look at the schedule in April, and it was easy to see the make-or-break stretch for the Green Bay Packers. After a Week 7 bye, the Packers were scheduled to play at the Rams and Patriots, home vs. the Dolphins, then at the Seahawks and Vikings.
The Packers emerged broken from that five-game gauntlet. They lost all four road games to plunge to 4-6-1. They are in 10th place in the NFC playoff race. A team that hasn’t won two games in a row all season will have to win its final five – and perhaps get some help – to reach the postseason.
Green Bay returns home to face the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Fans, accustomed to seeing the team in the playoffs, mostly have given up. A seat in the main stadium bowl will set you back only $48 – less than half of the $109 face value and maybe one-quarter of what those tickets would cost if the Packers were in the championship conversation.
Simply because of the quarterbacks, the Packers should roll. Arizona rookie Josh Rosen has been miserable. Of 34 qualifying quarterbacks, he ranks 32nd in passer rating (68.9), 32nd in completion percentage (55.5), 34th in yards per attempt (6.28) and 31st in interception percentage (4.5). Rodgers, however, hasn’t been exponentially better, though. While he owns a 101.7 passer rating and has thrown 20 touchdowns vs. just one interception, his 61.7 percent completion rate in only 28th.
“We’ve just been a one-half team this year,” Rodgers said. “We haven’t put it together for four quarters. We’ve had a couple stretches where we had back-to-back good quarters in the first or second half and haven’t done it in the other two. So, it’s execution, it’s the little details that puts us in the red zone, that puts points on the board, that keeps the momentum going. (Instead), it’s not converting third down the first drive in the third quarter against Minnesota. We get in these doldrums where we’re not functioning at a high level and put ourselves in a tough position.”
Injuries have become an enormous issue for the Packers. Left tackle David Bakhtiari missed the end of the Minnesota game with a knee injury. His availability will be the thing to watch on this week’s injury report because the individual matchup is against Chandler Jones, who led the NFL with 17 sacks last season and has 11 this season. On the other side of the ball, starting cornerbacks Kevin King and Bashaud Breeland were inactive last week and starting safety Kentrell Brice aggravated an ankle injury and suffered a concussion.
If Green Bay can hold serve at home this week against Arizona and next week against Atlanta (4-7), a trip to first-place Chicago awaits.
Not that the Packers can look too far ahead.
“The immediate is win today and the obvious is to win the game on Sunday,” head coach Mike McCarthy said. “We’re going to do everything we possibly can in our preparation to go out and win that football game. It’s going to be great to be at home, particularly coming off this stretch of games that we’ve been on here the last five or so weeks. That’s the obvious, and really the big picture is the expectations and the standards to win the rest of our football games.”
SERIES HISTORY: 72nd regular-season meeting. Packers lead series, 44-23-4. They are 7-0 at Lambeau Field, and the Cardinals haven’t won a game in Wisconsin since earning a 39-17 win in Milwaukee in 1949.
