As this is being written, it’s about three hours from kickoff for week four of the National Football League’s 2023 season. It’s gone by quickly.
So Thursday night, the Green Bay Packers (2-1) will host the Detroit Lions (2-1) in an NFC North division battle. We can’t say the red-hot Lions, because they do have a loss. But quarterback Jared Goff is very much red-hot.
In his last 13 starts, Goff and the Lions are 10-3, and he’s thrown 22 touchdowns to just three interceptions.
They’re also pretty hot when it comes to the rival Packers. Detroit has won three straight over Green Bay. They’re looking for their fourth straight Thursday night at Lambeau Field. But Lions, beware: Detroit hasn’t won four straight since 2017-18.
This might be the right time to catch the Packers, though: they’ve lost four of the last five home games that were played at night.
What about the quarterback on the other side of this game, Jordan Love? Love, of course, is in his first year as the starter, after Aaron Rodgers was traded to the New York Jets. Wow, that seems like three years ago, honestly.
In the three games so far this year, of which Love has started them all (of course), he’s 51-of-96 (53 percent) for 655 yards, seven touchdowns and just one interception. He’s also ran for 74 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, averaging about 5.3 yards a carry.
But the news of the day to Love might be this: the Packers’ offensive line is a mess.
They put left tackle David Bakhtiari on injured reserve on Thursday. Bakhtiari was going to miss Thursday night’s game against the Lions, anyway, but because of placement on IR, per NFL rules, that means he’ll have to miss four total games – the earliest he can return would be a matchup against the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 5.
Green Bay also won’t have their left guard, Elgton Jenkins, against Detroit, with a knee injury, and right tackle Zach Tom is questionable, also with a knee injury. Three of the Pack’s five starting linemen are injured, and if Tom can’t go, all three will miss at least the game against Detroit.
And it’s a key game. The winner takes the outright lead in the NFC North division, with Chicago winless (0-3) and struggling, and the Minnesota Vikings also winless, and somewhat of a head-scratcher on that one.
A preview of the game, courtesy of Steve Megargee, of The Associated Press: Lions seek to take early control of NFC North by beating Packers for 4th straight time .
