Since I was eight years old, I've been going to games at Lambeau Field and it's a special place for home and visiting fans alike. It's made even more special when you're the visitor and your team walks in there and snatches a victory in front of the green-and-gold-clad Packers fans.
Unlike in last week's venue, the Texans have done that before in Green Bay. In 2008, led by their defensive captain, a young man named DeMeco Ryans, the Texans charged into Lambeau Field and beat future HOF QB Aaron Rodgers and his Packers on a last second Kris Brown field goal on one of the coldest days in Texans history.
But now it's 2024. It should be 75 degrees and sunny on Sunday in October. Ryans leads the Texans in a different way than he did 16 years ago. Rodgers is a Jet and took all the Packers with him. Okay, not all of them, but he took a few important ones. However, after Rodgers left the building in 2023, the Packers built something with staying power. QB Jordan Love is one of the best young gunslingers in the NFL and his receiving corps is flat out nasty, even if you don't have any of them on your fantasy team.
Coach Ryans reiterated this week how difficult a test this is for his Texans. The Packers are red hot. Love is tremendous. The run game is outstanding. Head coach Matt LaFleur is one of the best coaches in the NFL and one of three best in the league with X's and O's. DC Jeff Hafley has given the defense a major boost and the results have been obvious, especially in the turnover department. There are not enough compliments for this Packers squad this early in the season.
The CBS A-team (Jim Nantz and Tony Romo) will be in the booth, so that should tell you even more about how this matchup is perceived around the league. It should be a great one and hopefully one that ends the way it did in 2008.
As such, let's get to Know the Texans' Week 7 Foe - the Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers 2024 Schedule (4-2)
Week 1 - L v. Philadelphia Eagles (Brazil) 34-29
Week 2 - W Indianapolis Colts 16-10
Week 3 - W @ Tennessee Titans 30-14
Week 4 - L Minnesota Vikings 31-29
Week 5 - W @ Los Angeles Rams 24-19
Week 6 - W Arizona Cardinals 34-13
Week 7 - Houston Texans
Week 8 - @ Jacksonville Jaguars
Week 9 - Detroit Lions
Week 10 - BYE
Week 11 - @ Chicago Bears
Week 12 - San Francisco 49ers
Week 13 - Miami Dolphins
Week 14 - @ Detroit Lions
Week 15 - @ Seattle Seahawks
Week 16 - New Orleans Saints
Week 17 - @ Minnesota Vikings
Week 18 - Chicago Bears
Packers OFFENSE (in 2024 regular season)
Rushing Yards Per game - 167.2 ypg (2nd in the NFL)
Passing Yards Per game - 233.7 ypg (10th)
Total offense per game - 400.8 ypg (4th)
Turnovers lost - 8 (6 INT, 2 Fumbles lost)
Expected Packers starting offense for Week 7
QB - Jordan Love
RB - JOSH JACOBS
WR - Jayden Reed
WR - Christian Watson
TE - Tucker Kraft
TE - Ben Sims
LT - Rasheed Walker
LG - Elgton Jenkins
C - Josh Myers
RG - JORDAN MORGAN or Sean Rhyan
RT - Zach Tom
Other Key Offensive pieces
RB - Emanuel Wilson
WR - Romeo Doubs
WR - Bo Melton
WR - Malik Heath
WR - Dontayvion Wicks - injured in last game
Italics - Rookie
ALL CAPS - New to team in 2024
Keys to winning v. the Packers Offense
- Love is NOT Blind- From afar, the Love situation was one of the most compelling storylines of the 2023 season. Having sat for three seasons like his predecessors, Love had plenty of time in the oven to bake and be ready for 2023. But over the first half of the season, Love struggled giving the ball away. Over a 7-game stretch, Love threw just eight touchdowns and a whopping 10 interceptions and as a result, the Packers went 2-5 in that span. He took some heat from local and national media, but then it turned around. Over the second half of the season, Love was allergic to interceptions, throwing just one in his last eight regular season contests. He had a 108.5+ passer rating in those same seven games. The Packers finished 6-2 as a result and went to Dallas for the playoffs. We know what happened next. However, as he started 2024, he threw interceptions again with six in his four starts, which was a bit of a worry. However, he was taking a few more calculated risks with the ball. He pushed the ball downfield and spread the wealth amongst his receivers. He's seeing the field as well as could be and finding the mismatches in the secondary. Case in point, the Packers ran a crosser with Jayden Reed in the low red zone against the Cardinals. Love let Reed clear all the way until he was picked up by a linebacker. Love dotted Reed, who had a step on the slower LB, for a key first half touchdown. Love is exactly who the Packers WANTED him to be when they drafted him back in 2020…and that's a scary thought for this Texans defense.
- The Whole is greater than the sum of its parts - The Packers have not shied away from using early round picks on offensive linemen the past few years. They just drafted Jordan Morgan in the first round. But look at the makeup of this OL; it's not littered with first round stars. LT Zach Tom - 4th rounder. RT Rasheed Walker - 7th rounder. Josh Myers - 2nd rounder. Elgton Jenkins - 2nd rounder. This OL plays excellently TOGETHER. They make subtle adjustments on certain plays to give each guy a chance to make the best block possible. They don't yield a ton of pressure on Love and the run game is SECOND in the NFL in rushing because of them. This group gives Love a ton of time to determine his target on any one given play. In the run game, it's fun to watch how in sync they are on zone runs, in particular. There might not be one of them going to the Pro Bowl or is an All-Pro, but as a quintet, it's a cohesive group that is better as a whole than as individual parts.
- The Magic Men- It's hard to miss how dynamic Reed and how explosive Christian Watson are and I saw that front and center at the Senior Bowl two of the last three years. At the Senior Bowl in 2023, Reed cooked a number of defensive backs and even made a number of plays on deep shots. It was hard to not fall in love with how twitchy and sudden he was on all his routes and then when he got the ball in his hands?? Whoa. In Green Bay, Reed's usage has been maximized, similar to the way Tank Dell has been used in Houston. Love gets him the ball in all kinds of ways - both run and pass. At the Senior Bowl in 2022, Watson was a clear winner and defensive backs couldn't handle his strength or speed. With Green Bay, though, it's been more about his ability to create explosives in the passing game as he did last week against Arizona. He ran a deep over route and ran away from Cardinals S Budda Baker to snag a 44-yard TD in the first half. The Packers' offense has so many different ways to hurt a defense, but the two guys that create the most issues are Reed and Watson. With a Texans' secondary and linebacking crew that is less than 100%, stopping these two will be ultra-difficult, yet paramount.
Packers DEFENSE (in 2024 regular season)
Rushing Yards Allowed Per game - 110.0 ypg (8th in the NFL)
Passing Yards Allowed Per game - 228.7 ypg (25th)
Total offense Allowed per game - 338.7 ypg (18th)
Turnovers generated - 17 (9 INT, 8 Fumbles recovered - Packers are +9 in TO margin, lead the league)
Expected Packers starting defense for Week 7
DE - Rashan Gary
DT - Kenny Clark
DT - T.J. Slaton
DE - Preston Smith
LB - Quay Walker
LB - Isaiah McDuffie
CB/Nickel - Keisean Nixon
CB - Jaire Alexander
S - XAVIER MCKINNEY
S - JAVON BULLARD
Nickel/S - EVAN WILLIAMS
Other Key Defensive pieces
DE - Lukas Van Ness
DT - Karl Brooks
DT - Devonte Wyatt - injured last week
LB - Eric Wilson
LB - EDGE COOPER
DE - Kingsley Enagbare
CB - Eric Stokes
Italics - Rookie
ALL CAPS - New to team in 2024
Keys to winning v. the Packers Defense
- The Reunion- In every NFL game, there are always little games within the game that give said game its flavor. Yes, it's the Packers v. the Texans but the game within the game will feature Texans WR Stefon Diggs and Packers CB Jaire Alexander. There's history between those two and some bad blood as well. The two met in 2018 and 2019, when Diggs had 17 receptions, 205 yards and three TDs (2018) and two TDs in 2019. When they met up in 2022 again in Buffalo, Diggs had six catches for 108 yards. But after the game, Alexander made some, uh, not-so-nice comments about the Pro Bowl receiver, now the Texans star pass-catcher. So, you want to watch the game within the game? Check out #1 vs. #23. This one will get personal and nasty, but Diggs has been outstanding in his first six games with the Texans - 37 receptions for 392 yards and three TDs. 23 is going to want a piece of 1 and vice versa. Can't wait for this, uh, Reunion.
- Clark Bar- The Texans interior offensive line doesn't really get any breaks throughout a season and that statement is no more true this week. When Kenny Clark came out of UCLA many eons ago, 2016 to be exact, I was a massive fan of his combination of power and quickness. It took just a little bit to find his way, but when he found IT, my goodness, his game went to a different level. It's so rare to find interior game wreckers and it's even more rare to find interior game wreckers that have been doing it as long as Clark has in the NFL. I saw it last week against Arizona on a snap early in the game. He nearly beat the snap to QB Kyler Murray and even though he didn't make the tackle, Clark forced RB James Conner to have to bubble deep into his own backfield and three Packers combined on a tackle for a loss as a result. I worry about Clark's interior push in that same way - will he disrupt the zone run game flow? Will the Texans interior be able to have one-on-one success against Clark? Will Clark ruin the run game if the Texans' interior guys don't control his forward momentum, quickness and power? Yes, they MUST and yes. It's a big one against #97 on Sunday.
- NO Fly Zone- When the Packers signed former Giants safety Xavier McKinney, it was a little bit of a shock to the system. Packers fans were the most shocked because, in their words, "we don't sign free agents, especially big ticket ones." That's 100% true; the Packers have made a habit of rewarding their own. The starting defense alone has as many as nine original Packers draft picks featured. The two that weren't? Preston Smith and McKinney. So, the Packers have had success when they've signed free agents because Smith has been a rock for them. But, McKinney has been an instant success. He has FIVE interceptions and the secondary has NINE overall. That's an insane number for playing just six games. Although McKinney's been the beneficiary of some ill-timed throws and decisions by subpar QBs, he's also picked off passes on the sidelines showing his range from the middle of the field. Against Tennessee, the Packers were in cover one (man-to-man with McKinney reading the eyes of the QB in the middle of the field) as QB Will Levis looked for WR Calvin Ridley on the sideline, deep down the field. McKinney read Levis' eyes and took off like a shot for the sideline, picking off the pass over the top of Ridley. All five interceptions were on passes approximately 15-20 air yards or more where McKinney could take advantage of playing top down on receivers from zone coverage. QB C.J. Stroud must be aware of the presence of the Packers safety, using his eyes to freeze McKinney, keeping him from driving on deeper intermediate throws and deep shots.
