The Green Bay Packers Week 16 game against the Carolina Panthers pits them, on paper, against the team with the worst record in the league. But there are no easy games for Green Bay down the stretch as it plays to stay alive in the playoff race. The Packers are looking to bounce back from a tough defeat at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but the Panthers are coming off their second win of the year and have proven to be difficult to defeat this year.
With this important contest coming up, we make our Packers Week 16 predictions.
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Jordan Love fails to build on his big game against the Bucs
After a disastrous performance against the New York Giants in Week 14, Jordan Love bounced back well — throwing for 284 yards with two touchdowns and no picks against the Buccaneers. But Love will go from facing the second-worst passing defense in the NFL to playing the third-best passing defense in the league this Sunday.
The Panthers have not allowed a 300-yard passer all season, and have given up less than 200 net passing yards in seven of the last eight weeks. Open throws will be few and far between for Jordan Love, and it will be tough for him to even approach his season average of 240 passing yards per game. Expect a modest 190 yards and one TD for the Packers QB.
Dontayvion Wicks has another productive performance for the Packers
The emergence of these young Packers receivers has done wonders for Jordan Love's performances on the field. Jayden Reed has five total touchdowns over his last five games and leads the Packers with 26 catches in this stretch, but no Packers pass-catcher has more yards during this span than Dontayvion Wicks.
The rookie fifth-round pick out of Virginia has 291 receiving yards since the start of Week 11 despite missing Week 12. He has two games with 90+ receiving yards in recent weeks, including six catches for 97 yards against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Cracking the century mark will be tough to do against this stout Panthers secondary, but with Reed and Romeo Doubs drawing much of the attention from opposing defensive backs, Wicks should have another productive game in Week 16.
The Packers fail to slow down the Panthers rushing attack
The focus on the Green Bay defense in recent weeks has been the secondary. It started with the game-winning drive the Packers gave up to Tommy DeVito and the New York Giants, then continued with the four touchdowns and perfect passer rating Baker Mayfield put up for the Buccaneers in Week 15. Green Bay will be looking to improve its passing defense in Week 16, but that might happen at the cost of its rushing defense.
For all their recent secondary struggles, Green Bay is still giving up the third-most rushing yards per game. The Panthers duo of Miles Sanders and Chubba Hubbard has not been the most productive rushing attack, but they have been better in recent weeks. Hubbard has three straight games with at least 85 yards on the ground while Sanders totaled 74 yards on just 10 carries in Week 15. With the Packers looking to slow down the Panther passing attack, expect a big day for Carolina on the ground, though more in a solid all-around afternoon rather than a dominant performance from either running back.
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