Three Reasons Why Packers Will Beat Panthers, Extend Winning Streak

The Green Bay Packers have won three consecutive games. Here are three reasons why they’ll extend that streak to four on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Romeo Doubs makes a leaping catch at Carolina in 2023. | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Fresh off a road sweep of the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers, the Green Bay Packers will play just their second home game in 52 days when they host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Starting with Jordan Love vs. Bryce Young, here are three reasons why the Packers will win their fourth consecutive game at Lambeau Field.

1. Quarterbacking Matchup

Sometimes, the game is pretty simple. Quarterback is the most important position on the field, and the Packers will have a big advantage with Jordan Love vs. Bryce Young. Here’s the tale of the tape based on 29 qualifying passers.

Passer rating: Love, fourth, 112.8; Young, 25th, 84.5.

Completion percentage: Love, fourth, 70.9; Young, 24th, 61.6.

Yards per attempt: Love, fourth, 8.44; Young, 28th, 5.75.

Air yards per attempt: Love, 18th, 7.48; Young, 27th, 6.49;

Touchdowns to interceptions: Love, fifth, 13-2; Young, 26th, 11-5.

It’s not just the quarterbacks. It’s the overall passing games, including the scheme of getting players open and the talent of the receivers to make something happen. Love is the No. 1 beneficiary of yards after the catch with a league-high 6.54 YAC per completion. Young is 17th with 4.80.

Love is coming off the best game of the season and, with the exception of the playoff win at Dallas in 2023, perhaps the best game of his career. He was sensational during the second half at Pittsburgh as the Packers turned a 16-7 deficit into a 35-19 lead.

“He was on fire,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “He was playing with a lot of confidence. He was finding the open receivers, making really good decisions, and just doing a great job executing and then just making some great plays on his own, which is awesome. So, yeah, I think that was probably one of the best games he’s played.”

One other thing works in Green Bay’s favor. The Packers on offense have given up the seventh-lowest sack percentage and the Panthers on defense have the seventh-lowest sack percentage.

Love has thrived when given time. According to Pro Football Focus, Love’s clean-pocket passer rating of 135.8 is the second-best in the NFL. He’s completed a ridiculous 86.3 percent of his passes, which is the best in the league, and averaged 10.2 yards per attempt, which is just behind Sam Darnold.

Love will need a patient approach – something he’s excelled at this season compared to 2023 and 2024. While Green Bay has the fifth-most passing plays of 20-plus yards with 26, Carolina is just outside the top 10 with 21 completions allowed of 20-plus yards.

“They do a good job on defense of staying in that shell,” Love said. “They don’t want to give up big-time plays, and you can see it all over the tape that they do a good job of that. They’re one of the highest in the league of least explosive plays hit on them.

“So, you’ve got to do a good job of taking what’s there sometimes and finding those little (completions), whether it’s a checkdown, whether it’s hitting a guy over the middle, and maximizing all those yards. And when those opportunities do come to hit a big play down the middle or over the top, we’ve got to hit on that. You’ve got to maximize those opportunities when they come.”

2. Playmaker Disparity

The Panthers have a big-time rookie receiver, with Tetairoa McMillan being this week’s game-wrecker. He has as many receptions as Carolina’s second- and third-leading receivers combined and 102 more yards than the total of its second-, third- and fourth-leading receivers. He is the Panthers’ passing game.

“He’s really developing and going to be a really good player for a long time,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said this week.

If Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is as good as everyone believes and perhaps a head coach at this time next year, he’ll have a plan to limit McMillan’s production.

Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero will have a much different challenge against Green Bay’s whack-a-mole passing attack.

Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft (85) celebrates scoring a touchdown with wide receiver Christian Watson last week. | Michael Longo / For USA Today Network-PA / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Packers have an abundance of playmakers. Tucker Kraft leads the team in receptions (30), yards (469) and touchdowns (six). He leads all tight ends in receiving yards per game and yards after the catch per catch.

It’s not just Kraft, though. Romeo Doubs had a streak of three consecutive games with five-plus catches snapped last week. Christian Watson came off injured reserve last week to catch four passes for 85 yards. Rookie Matthew Golden has at least three catches in five consecutive games.

So, Evero might want to take away Kraft – his defense, by the way, has allowed the sixth-most receiving yards to tight ends – but what does that mean for containing Doubs or Watson or Golden?

Four players have multiple games of 50-plus receiving yards and Watson is 1-for-1.

“A lot of pride,” Watson said of his debut performance. “I definitely feel like whenever I’m out there on the field, I can make an impact in a lot of different ways – run game, pass game, whatever it is. I definitely take a lot of pride in what I’m able to do when I’m out there.”

3. Potential Mismatches

The Panthers’ offensive line is beat up, and the Packers’ defensive front is equipped to inflict additional pain.

Carolina will play without its starting center and right guard on Sunday. Right tackle Taylor Moton and left guard Damien Lewis are expected to play but won’t be 100 percent.

“It don’t matter. Line them up,” defensive end Micah Parsons said in a mic-drop moment at the end of Thursday’s media availability.

The Packers’ defense will attack quarterback Bryce Young with Rashan Gary, who is fifth in the NFL with 7.5 sacks, Parsons, who is sixth in the NFL with 6.5 sacks, and Devonte Wyatt, who is second in pass-rush win rate among defensive tackles.

Of 33 quarterbacks who have had at least 50 under-pressure dropbacks, Carolina’s diminutive Bryce Young is 24th in completion percentage and 20th in yards per attempt.

Parsons and Gary are Green Bay’s game-wreckers but the interior pressure provided by Wyatt is critical in crushing the pocket. Plus, he’s emerged as a quality run defender.

“If you watched early in the game,” defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said, “and you just watched him run to the ball and how physical he was, even down the field – I’m not just talking about the point of attack. He’s taking on double teams, he’s making negative plays. His pass rush, he’s pushing the pocket.

“Watch him run to the ball and watch him hit people down the field. Whether it’s chasing down a screen or chasing down a ball-carrier, a receiver standing around the pile and he just knocks a big guy over, he’s just got a ton of energy and he’s strong and he’s a dog. That’s what he brings. He brings that attitude to the interior of the D-line. I think guys like rushing with him, and we certainly like him in the run game. I thought he played pretty well in his return. We missed him, and I think he’ll get better as he goes and he feels more comfortable.”

Green Bay’s defense is second in yards allowed per play, including first in passing yards allowed per play. It dominated last week’s matchup against Aaron Rodgers. 

Now that he’s about to enter his eighth game with the team, Parsons said he and the rest of the defense are getting into a groove.

“Coach Hafley, my rushers, we understand the talent we have and situations, and we’re just coming together as a cohesive unit,” he said. “Before, it was just like, ‘Let’s see what Uno can do.’ And now it’s kind of like the standard’s been set in the room. We just talked about the standard’s the standard today, and how we’re honing in on it.

“What that means is more stuff’s coming in. We’re only going to get better because now we’re like, ‘All right, this is how they’re going to play? We’re going to adjust to this.’”

Parsons appreciates all the wrinkles being thrown his way, and Carolina’s highly regarded defensive coordinator, Ejiro Evero, probably will have some more.

“So many things are coming in, and we’re glad that teams are showing us how they’re going to approach me, how they’re going to approach the team, early on because now we can plan for almost everything and we have a plan for almost everything,” Parsons said.

“It’s always exciting to see what new challenges we face but early challenges mean later success because we’ve seen these looks before, we’ve seen how they’re going to attack us, and now we know how to adjust and what to get into.”