GREEN BAY, Wis. — If the first half of the season said anything about the Green Bay Packers, it’s that they have a potential playoff team that probably won’t win the NFC North.
At 6-3, they’re in a far better position at their bye week than they were at this time last season when they were 3-6 and needed to win six of their last eight games to make the playoffs as the final seed.
But in terms of the NFC North, they’re still in a heap of trouble — much like they were a year ago.
They’ve played two division games and lost them both. Worse yet, both came at Lambeau Field, at the hands of the division rival Minnesota Vikings in Week 4 and the Detroit Lions last Sunday. The same thing happened last season, and they returned the favor by winning in Detroit and Minnesota and sweeping the Bears to finish 4-2 in North games on the way to earning the seventh and final playoff spot in the NFC.
This is the first time since 2005 that the Packers have started division play 0-2, and they have now lost five of their past six home NFC North games. This after coach Matt LaFleur went 15-3 in the division over his first three seasons.
“It’s not good,” Packers safety Xavier McKinney said. “We don’t want to lose any games, especially not division games. So we put ourselves in a hole being 0-2 in the division. Luckily we play the Lions again, we play the Vikings again. We gotta take care of our business next time that we play these teams.”
With the Lions (7-1) and Vikings (6-2) ahead of them, here are four things the Packers need to change to go on another second-half run to the playoffs:
Interceptions
Jordan Love has missed 2½ games, yet his 10 interceptions are tied for most in the NFL with Geno Smith who has 10 in nine games. One more and Love will match his total from all last regular season. He had similar issues in the first half of 2023, although that was chalked up to being a first-year starter. He curtailed it, throwing one pick in the last eight games.
Two of his interceptions, including one Sunday against the Lions, have been returned for touchdowns. Love was flushed out of the pocket on both pick-sixes due to breakdowns in protection and should have taken a more conservative approach.
“I think he would agree with you that in that situation, he’s just got to throw the ball away and live to play the next down,” LaFleur said. “I do think that one of his strengths is his ability to make off-schedule [plays] and not wanting to give up on a play, and I admire that. But I think it’s just, you’ve got to factor in the situations.”
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