Packers Wire staff predictions: Week 4 vs. Buccaneers - Packers Wire
The Green Bay Packers have a chance to bounce back from last week's disaster in the home opener, get back in the win column and even their record at 2-2 when they take on the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers at a hot and humid Raymond James Stadium on Sunday in Week 4 action. Is Matt LaFleur's team ready to play a better brand of football after adding several veterans to the offensive line and getting the rest and recovery of the mini-bye?
Facing a winless Buccaneers team with an undrafted rookie starting at quarterback should provide an excellent opportunity for the Packers to get back in the win column, but I'm in need-to-see-it-to-believe-it mode with the whole operation. At 1-2, and coming off a 21-point home loss, the Packers don't need to win pretty. Just get out of Tampa with a win. But seeing some signs of progress would be helpful. Can the offensive line keep Jordan Love from getting hit a dozen times? Will Love look more settled behind a new-look line? Can the run game show any signs of life? Given the states of the two offenses, the first to 14 might win on Sunday. I'm picking the Packers to get the job done, but they probably won't earn any style points. In reality, only two things need to happen: win and show real improvement along the offensive line. Anything else is icing on the cake.
A healthy Baker Mayfield probably changes things, but I still expect Green Bay to emerge victorious. Tampa Bay will trot out quarterback Jalon Daniels, an undrafted rookie out of Kansas. That’s not ideal for a Buccaneers team still searching for its first win, but it’s not like they’ve been getting blown out—they’ve lost all three matchups by a touchdown or less. They have a top-10 defense that doesn’t give up much on the ground. It’s not like Green Bay can run the ball anyway, and we’ll see if that changes this week if Laken Tomlinson and Kevin Zeitler are both inserted at guard. If the Packers are forced to air it out on Sunday, they’ll need to be prepared to face another aggressive defense ranked third in blitz rate. However, Jordan Love should be used to that by now, and since Daniels is a wild card, I think the Packers move the ball more effectively in the Tampa Bay heat.
At some point I should probably stop predicting the Packers to win until they show they deserve it, and often trips to Florida do not go too well for Green Bay. If Baker Mayfield was in the lineup it would be different, but the Packers have to be able to take advantage of playing a backup quarterback in Jalon Daniels on Sunday. No matter how bright he looked in preseason, or the problems of facing a relatively unknown QB who is mobile can bring, there are no excuses for the Packers not to bounce back this week, at least on defense. On the other side of the ball, Green Bay’s success will once again come down to who they have on the offensive line and how they play. If both Laken Tomlinson and Kevin Zeitler are on the field (the former seems more likely than the latter), my confidence level in a Packers victory will jump exponentially. They are likely to struggle to run the ball regardless against a stingy Buccaneers rush defense, but if they can just protect Jordan Love against a defense which blitzes at a very high rate but has not been getting home, it could make all the difference.
This type of games deserves an ugly score prediction. Realistically I think the Packers could win by double digits. Than I remember the Packers are currently operating as a bad football team and until they prove otherwise it's hard to trust them even if they are going up against an undrafted rookie quarterback making his first career start. On top of that Raymond James Stadium is a House of Horrors for this franchise. I’ll take Packers coming out of it with all their limbs intact as they build momentum for a showdown with the Bears.
