Green Bay Packers bold predictions for Week 9 vs. Lions

10/30/2024 11:39 PM

With a Green Bay Packers Week 9 game scheduled against the Detroit Lions, a lot of eyes will be on America’s Game of the Week. Ahead of the Packers-Lions, we'll be making our Packers Week 6 predictions.

It’s undoubtedly a huge game for both the Packers (6-2) and the Lions (6-1). The winner of this game will be the leader of the NFC North, and in 2024, that means the winner of this game is the likely favorite to come out of the NFC to play in the Super Bowl. Of course, a ton can happen between now and February of 2025, but the North is currently the toughest division in football and both the Lions and Packers have Super Bowl rosters and aspirations.

They will have a rematch of this game in December, but it doesn’t get any bigger than this. With that, let’s move into our Packers Week 9 predictions.

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Jordan Love will not play vs. the Lions

You know he wants to play because this is a huge game for the Packers. Playing well in this type of game is also the type of thing that Love has proven that he can do, and a great performance could go a long way toward quieting some the concern about his up-and-down season in 2024. Remember, the last time he played the Lions, he completed 22-0f-32 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, and he also rushed three times for 39 yards. That was the beginning of a second half of the season for Love that put him in the MVP conversation.

So yes, Love undoubtedly wants to go and he says he can go even if he doesn’t practice this week as he recovers from a groin injury. Head coach Matt LaFleur doesn’t sound he’s willing to risk the franchise quarterback, though.

“He’s moving around better. We’ll see, again, we’ll take it one day a time. Certainly, yeah, we’ll push the envelope with that. I know he wants to play, but we’ll see where he’s at by the end of the week,” LaFleur said on Wednesday, according to Rob Demovsky of ESPN.

This is a big game for the Packers but it’s not “the” game. As mentioned, they’ll get the Lions later this season and even if they don’t win the NFC North, they still have all their playoff goals in front of them right now.

Especially with a backup quarterback like Malik Willis, who has proven to be able to win games for them and come up big in big moments, it’s hard to see LaFleur or the Packers brass risking Love’s long-term health for this game if he’s not as close to 100% as possible.

Ultimately, it makes the most sense to go with Willis, even if the offense won’t be as explosive.

Josh Jacobs will rush for two more touchdowns

Running back Josh Jacobs is going to carry the rock no matter who starts. He was billed as the “bell cow” back when the Packers signed him this offseason and he’s proven to be just that through eight games this season. He’s tied with Derrick Henry for the most rushes in the league with 145 and he’s turned those into 667 yards and three touchdowns. All of 127 of those yards and two touchdowns came last weekend against the Jacksonville Jaguars in a game in which the Packers needed Jacobs to step up.

Step up he did, and that’s the type of performance Green Bay is going to need again from him in order to stay competitive with the Lions. The best way to keep their explosive offense off the field is to control the ball and control the clock, and a heavy dose of Jacobs will do just that. More than anything, though, Jacobs is completely in a rhythm right now as a runner and as long as he’s healthy, he’s starting to show that “closer’ instinct to find the end zone that made him a first-team All-Pro a few seasons ago.

He’ll find the end zone two more times against Detroit.

Rashan Gary will have his best game of the season

Rashan Gary has been a disappointment, to say the least. The Packers gave him a four year, $96 million contract extension last year and so far through eight games, he only has two sacks. The thing with Gary, though, is that much like Jacobs, he’s a rhythm player. Gary has been better as of late — he notched a sack against the Houston Texans in Week 7 — and he has been getting consistent pressure.

Lions quarterback Jared Goff is having an MVP-like season but nobody will mistake him for having the elusiveness of Patrick Mahomes. Gary recorded three sacks the last time he played the Lions. He’ll notch two in this one and have his no-doubt best game of the 2024 season.

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