Three Reasons Why Packers Will Beat Giants

The Green Bay Packers can turn lemonade into lemons better than any playoff-caliber team in the NFL.

The Browns, who are 2-7, beat the Packers in Week 3. Coming off their bye, the Packers had to hold off Joe Flacco and the Bengals in Week 6. The Panthers, who had just lost at home by 31, beat the Packers at Lambeau in Week 9. The offense managed to waste an elite defensive performance last week against the Eagles.

Nonetheless, the Packers are hungry for a bounce-back win, and they’ll get one on Sunday for these three reasons.

1. This Is the Week for Josh Jacobs

It’s been a dismal season for Packers running back Josh Jacobs. It’s not Jacobs’ fault. According to Stathead, Jacobs ranks 41st out of 48 qualifying players in yards before contact per carry. It wasn’t appreciably better last season, when he ranked 32nd, but he’s seemingly had to scratch and claw for every yard more than ever behind an offensive line that was supposed to be new and improved.

Enter the Giants, who are 31st with 152.1 rushing yards allowed per game and 32nd with 5.53 rushing yards allowed per carry.

New York shut down the Saints and Eagles in Weeks 5 and 6 but has been the equivalent of a gnat against a tractor-trailer the last four weeks. After holding the Eagles to 73 rushing yards in the first matchup, they gave up 276 three weeks ago.

Jacobs, perhaps wisely, was taking nothing for granted.

“Looking at their front five, they’re all first-rounders, all guys that you know play at a really, really high level, just watching them on film,” he said this week. “They fly around to the ball.

“You know, something about teams that always get a new head coach, that they just play a little harder, they do things a little bit different. They take more chances. We know we’re going to get a lot of unscouted looks. It’s really just about us this week. I think that’s the main thing I’ve been trying to preach to the guys (is) that we’re going to go as far as we want to go. So, it’s really about us.”

That was the message from coach Matt LaFleur this week, too.

“I think every week’s an opportunity but, ultimately, it’s going to come down to our ability to execute,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “That’s a very good front. I think you’ve seen that. They’ve gotten out of position at times, and that’s always the goal for an offense is you want to try to find a way to cut the defense, get a guy out of the gap, and that’s usually when those gashes tend to happen.

“But every week’s a new challenge and they’ve done a pretty good job at times with their run defense, as well. We’ve just got to try to get them out of a gap somehow, some way, and then hit the right gap.”

That’s the right approach for an offense that has had 104 or fewer rushing yards in six of nine games. That includes 81 in the loss to Cleveland in Week 3 and 104 in back-to-back losses to Carolina and Philadelphia.

Jacobs said he had 22 people at last week’s game. They were “loud and obnoxious” at his place, Jacobs said with a laugh, but when he got home after the game, he closed himself in his room for a half-hour.

“My pops came and knocked on the door,” Jacobs recalled. “He said, ‘Yeah, I know you just need a minute.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, man, I’ll be out there a little bit.’

“But it’s just one of those things, man, where you’re replaying everything, you’re questioning everything. You wonder, ‘How do you fix things?’ You wondering if you could have pressed the ball here, ran harder here, or any of those things — what would the outcome have been? It got to a point where he was like, ‘Man, at the end of the day, you could really only do all you could do, and then try to motivate and push guys to do the same.’ So that’s my mindset coming into this week.”

While there’s a belief from the outside that the Packers need to turn Jordan Love loose, the Packers need to ride their running game this week – not just to win but to build some momentum for the stretch run and the potential of bad-weather games that make throwing the ball incredibly difficult.

2. Giants Have No Playmakers on Offense

New Giants starting quarterback Jameis Winston is “going to let it rip,” coach Matt LaFleur said this week. But to whom?

Last season, Malik Nabers caught 109 passes for 1,204 yards and Darius Slayton caught 39 passes for 573 yards. Combined, that’s 148 receptions for 1,777 yards and nine touchdowns. Both players are injured, leaving Winston short on playmakers.

Receiver Wan’Dale Robinson leads the team with 53 receptions for 602 yards. Tight end Theo Johnson is next with 33 catches for 314 yards. But the next three in receptions – running back Cam Skattebo, Slayton and Nabers – are out.