After back-to-back losses to the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles, the Green Bay Packers weren’t necessarily in a must-win situation in their Week 11 matchup with the New York Giants but were certainly as close to that as they’ve been all year. But while things weren’t always pretty at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, the Green & Gold got the job done, earning a 27-20 victory.
Jordan Love, who exited for a short time with a shoulder injury that thankfully wasn’t too serious, didn’t have the greatest-looking box score, as he completed just 13 of 24 passes for 174 yards, but that can be attributed to the ridiculous number of drops recorded by his receiving corps. Nevertheless, he still tossed a pair of touchdowns, including a beautiful game-winning strike to Christian Watson, and was interception-free for the second straight week in the victory.
While the Packers were fortunate with Love’s injury, they weren’t so lucky with running back Josh Jacobs, who suffered a knee injury that kept him out of the entire second half and may force him to miss this Sunday’s matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. Emanuel Wilson stepped up and filled in admirably enough, gaining 40 yards on 11 carries while scoring his first touchdown of the season.
The Green Bay defense wasn’t quite as sharp as it was in the previous two games, but Jeff Hafley’s unit did force a season-high two turnovers, both of which came in the fourth quarter, with Evan Williams intercepting Jameis Winston on the Giants’ penultimate drive of the afternoon and Micah Parsons sealing the victory with a strip-sack on the final play of the game.
With the win, the Packers improved to 6-3-1 for the season and also saw their standing improve in both the division and the conference as a whole as the rest of the weekend played out.
Packers bumped up a spot in both the NFC North and the NFC standings as a whole
Here’s a quick look at the updated NFC playoff picture heading into Week 12.
Updated NFC playoff picture
- Philadelphia Eagles (8-2, 1st NFC East)
- Los Angeles Rams (8-2, 1st NFC West)
- Chicago Bears (7-3, 1st NFC North)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-4, 1st NFC South)
- Seattle Seahawks (7-3, 2nd NFC West)
- Green Bay Packers (6-3-1, 2nd NFC North)
- San Francisco 49ers (7-4, 3rd NFC West)
- Detroit Lions (6-4, 3rd NFC North)
- Carolina Panthers (6-5, 2nd NFC South)
- Dallas Cowboys (4-5-1, 2nd NFC East)
- Minnesota Vikings (4-6, 4th NFC North)
- Arizona Cardinals (3-7, 4th NFC West)
- Atlanta Falcons (3-7, 3rd NFC South)
- Washington Commanders (3-8, 3rd NFC East)
- New Orleans Saints (2-8, 4th NFC South)
- New York Giants (2-9, 4th NFC East)
As you can see, with the Detroit Lions losing to the Eagles on Sunday night, the Packers now sit in second place in the NFC North and own the No. 6 slot in the conference standings, up one spot from where they were a week ago.
What the Lions’ loss also did, however, was give first place in the division to the Chicago Bears, who scored their third consecutive comeback victory in as many weeks, this time taking down the Vikings on a last-second field goal from Cairo Santos. So, Green Bay fans naturally aren’t happy about that.
The Packers will finally get their first crack at the Bears in Week 14 at Soldier Field and will then host their longtime rivals just 13 days later in a Saturday contest at Lambeau Field in Week 16. In between is a Week 15 date with the Denver Broncos, who are tied for the league’s best record at 9-2.
Before that, however, Green Bay will first match up with Minnesota this Sunday at Lambeau and will then head to the Motor City for a Thanksgiving Day battle with the Lions, who dropped out of the top seven with the loss to Philly but are right there in the mix at 6-4.
So, the next few weeks are obviously quite crucial for the Packers, not only as it pertains to the division race but in the race for a wild-card slot as well. The San Francisco 49ers are mere percentage points behind Green Bay at 7-4, and the Panthers, to whom the Packers would obviously lose a head-to-head tiebreaker, aren’t far back at 6-5.
Buckle up, Cheeseheads, as you’re in for a wild ride over the next few weeks.
