Five takeaways from Packers schedule: Early division tests, plenty of prime-time exposure
Tom SilversteinGREEN BAY - Even with the country in the midst of a pandemic, the National Football League didn’t blink an eye when it came to going ahead with free agency in March and the college draft in April.
The show always goes on with the NFL.
And so, the Green Bay Packers are scheduled to open the season playing at Minnesota in Week 1, at home against Detroit in Week 2 and at New Orleans in Week 3. It is the third consecutive year they’ve opened with two straight NFC North games.
Despite there being no scientific basis that it will be safe for 70,000 people to gather in a football stadium, the league went forth with its regular-season schedule release Thursday hesitating not one bit to puff up the television ratings out of the gate.
To the surprise of some, there was no consideration to a possible shortened or delayed season, not to mention no season at all. The schedule looked like any other with big-ticket match-ups and classic division rivalries lined up like playoff games.
Instead of everyone opening with a month of non-conference games – which could easily be lopped off were the season delayed and still allow for an equitable schedule –the league assumed everything would be just fine come Sept. 10 when the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs play in the traditional Thursday night opener.
And so, the Packers will – on paper – open the season at U.S. Bank Stadium Sept. 13, where they could be playing in front of 70,000 or 35,000 or no one at all, depending on where the country stands with coronavirus precautions.
Or they could still be sidelined with the rest of the 31 teams. The NFL is said to have made several contingency schedules that could result in a much different look should the season need to be pushed back or truncated.
For now, this is the schedule we know and so with that in mind, here are five things worth noting about the Packers’ 2020 slate of games:
Division dance
From 2000 to 2017, the Packers opened with back-to-back NFC North games just three times.
Only one other time did they open with two division games in the first three weeks.
Now they’ll be doing it for a third consecutive year.
It hasn’t been a bad proposition for the Packers. They are 6-1-1 this millennium when starting with back-to-back division games, including 3-0-1 the last two seasons.
- RELATED: Packers' complete 2020 regular-season, preseason schedules
- RELATED: NFL, Packers proceeding with business as usual
Victories at Chicago and at home against Minnesota last year set the tone for a 13-3 season in coach Matt LaFleur’s first year. Over the last 10 seasons, the Packers are 41-17-2 against their division rivals in regular-season games.
The Vikings game stands to be one of the more interesting of the season. Usually one of the loudest stadiums in the NFL, it would be a neutral field without fans, giving quarterback Aaron Rodgers the freedom to work his cadence as if it were a home game.
It will be the first opener the Packers have played in Minnesota.
The Packers play the Bears twice in six weeks: at home in a Sunday night game Week 12 at Lambeau Field and on the road in Week 17.
The mighty, mighty 49ers
The Packers played San Francisco last season on Nov. 24, a week after their bye, and suffered a humiliating 37-8 loss on the road.
They’ll face the 49ers on the road again, only this time it will be on a Thursday night in Week 9 and neither team will be coming off a bye.
The 49ers are a team the Packers must get past, both competitively and psychologically after getting thumped in the Week 12 game and then again in the NFC championship game.
This will mark the first time the Packers have played the 49ers on the road in back-to-back years since 1973-74 and it marks the fourth time the two teams have played each other at Levi’s Stadium in six years, including playoffs.
The game comes after a potentially difficult stretch. The Packers play at the Houston Texans in Week 7 and at home against the Vikings in Week 8.
Go south, Packers
The Packers will face three of their four AFC South games in a five-week period starting with the Texans in Week 7.
In Week 10, they will play the Jacksonville Jaguars at home in a noon start and the following week they will travel to Indianapolis for another noon game. Their final AFC game comes Dec. 27 when the Tennessee Titans come to town for a Sunday night game.
Late-season night games can be a bear for opposing teams, but they’re not exactly easy on the Packers or their fans either. Beware of the Titans, though: They are a power running team with a stout defense and played the Kansas City Chiefs tightly for three quarters in 17-degree temperatures in the AFC championship game.
Home matters
The Packers will only play one back-to-back road stretch when they play at Tampa Bay in Week 6 and the Texans the following week.
Last year, LaFleur’s team played three sets of back-to-back road games, including trips to Kansas City and Los Angeles (Chargers) and San Francisco and New York (Giants).
The Packers split both of those trips and then swept their final two games, both on the road at Minnesota and Detroit.
LaFleur had five of his first seven games at home and made use of it, going 6-1.
This year, his team plays just two of its first six games at Lambeau Field.
Prime-time Packers
The team will play in the same number of night games it did in 2019, including a Thursday night NFL Network appearance that every team must make.
The four true prime-time games include three Sunday night games on NBC – at New Orleans, Week 3; Chicago, Week 12; and Tennessee, Week 16.
The Packers’ only appearance on Monday Night Football will be against the Falcons in Week 4, which means they will play back-to-back night games in the first month of the season.
The schedule calls for 3:25 p.m. games at Tampa Bay in Week 5 and at home against Philadelphia in Week 13.
The final seven weeks are subject to flex scheduling, which means the times can change based on network preferences. The networks may also change two games from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night during Weeks 5-10.