The Green Bay Packers have a massive Week 14 clash ahead of them as they're set to face the NFC-leading Chicago Bears. Revisiting the most storied rivalry in all of the NFL, this game will have all the more meaning considering both teams will be playing for the top of the division and serious playoff implications. Ahead of all the action, we'll make some bold predictions for the Green Bay Packers ahead of Week 14.
The Packers most recently took down the Detroit Lions 31-24 on Thanksgiving Day for their third consecutive win. They've won six games over the last eight weeks and with two games against the Bears in the next three weeks, each matchup will prove crucial to the Packers and their road to the Lombardi Trophy.
Packers Week 14 Bold Predictions
Jordan Love continues his dominance in November, December.
During his run as the Packers' starting quarterback, it's become common for Jordan Love to outperform himself in the months of November and December. Throughout his career, Love has a passer rating of 97.4 with 3,377 yards, 21 touchdowns, and six interceptions in 16 games in the month of November. Throughout December games, Love posts a 105.7 passer rating, 2,046 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 1 interception.
While the Chicago Bears are leading the division and looking like a real contender this season, Jordan Love has a 3-1 record against the Bears in his career. With two games coming up, the Packers are bound to pick up at least one win as the betting favorites given Love's history against the Bears.
The Bears hang on early in the game thanks to the running game, but not for long.
While this may be a judgement call, the Chicago Bears will certainly make this a close game given the one-touchdown betting spread and the three-point spread for the first half of the game. The found massive success behind their running game against the Philadelphia Eagles, posting 281 yards on the ground. They posted another 140-yard rushing game against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 12, so the Bears are certainly feeling confident about their run attack ahead of this one.
While this may be the case, the Green Bay Packers have been notorious this season in stopping very effective running teams, holding the Philadelphia Eagles to just 111 yards on the ground and the Minnesota Vikings to just 93 yards rushing in a non-existent effort in that aspect of the game. Their defense ranks seventh in the league, only allowing 93.8 average rushing yards per game. I expect those trends to continue as Micah Parsons and the rest of the defensive line rise to the occasion at home.
Matt LaFleur continues to be aggressive with his play calling.
Thanksgiving Day against the Detroit Lions saw a new side of head coach Matt LaFleur as he was a perfect 3-for-3 on his fourth down attempts, taking a page out of Lions' Dan Campbell's book. The Packers were also eager to call long passing plays down the field with deep threat wide receiver Christian Watson back and healthy in the lineup, so expect to see much of the same as Watson tries to test the Chicago secondary on a number of attempts throughout the game.
Matt LaFleur has had minor issues throughout this season with end-of-game play calling, most indicative of their loss against the Philadelphia Eagles in the waning seconds of the game. With how much this game means to the Green Bay fan base and the implications it has for the division, expect LaFleur to try and come up with a perfect game plan to stop the run and build a lead throughout this game to avoid any close calls in the fourth quarter.
