With the first third of the 2025 NFL regular season officially in the books, the Green Bay Packers have plenty to be happy about.
With the running game finally showing signs of life over their last two games, the Packers rank ninth in the league in total yards at 359.6 per game and eighth in scoring at 26.2 points per contest. And the Green Bay defense also ranks well in those two categories, allowing the fifth-fewest total yards (280.2) and the 10th-fewest points (20.4).
Jeff Hafley's unit has been especially strong against the run, giving up a league-low 73.0 yards per game in that regard. There's a "Micah Parsons Can't Stop the Run" joke in there somewhere, but piling on the Dallas Cowboys almost seems mean at this point.
Despite ranking in the top 10 in each of these categories, however, the Packers have only a 3-1-1 record to show for their efforts. And while that mark currently has them in first place in the NFC North and in second place in the conference as a whole behind only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-1), Green Bay should legitimately be 5-0 right now. But Matt LaFleur & Co. have been playing with fire in recent weeks, and they've already been burned twice and nearly were so again this past week.
Think about this for a moment. Through the first six weeks of this campaign, the Packers are the only team in the NFL that has held a double-digit lead in every single one of their games. And again, they've only got three wins to show for it.
The Packers have already blown two double-digit leads and were in danger of blowing a third
In Week 1 against the Detroit Lions, the Packers jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter and ultimately went on to take an easy 27-13 victory. And in Week 2, they took a 14-0 lead on the Washington Commanders and later went up 17 before a late Deebo Samuel touchdown made the final score 27-18. But the outcome was never in doubt.
In Week 3, however, things took a turn for the worse. Holding a 10-0 lead on the Cleveland Browns with less than four minutes to play, Green Bay somehow managed to lose, giving up 13 late points to take a three-point loss.
The following week, facing the Cowboys, the Packers jumped out to a 13-0 lead, only to come away with a 40-40 tie in one of the wildest games in franchise history. And they're lucky they didn't take a loss, as that easily could have happened had Micah Parsons not run down Dak Prescott in overtime to save a touchdown.
Even this past Sunday, in their win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Packers took a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter and extended it to 14 midway through the final frame, only to watch Cincy get within six just a few minutes later. It wasn't until a Lucas Havrisik field goal with 1:52 remaining that Green Bay genuinely put the game away.
Yes, the Packers got a win, but this is still something to keep an eye on, as they've blown or nearly blown these double-digit leads against teams that currently have a combined record of 5-12-1.
Do you think playing with that kind of fire will work against Aaron Rodgers and the one-loss Steelers in Week 8? Or against the defending champion Eagles, to whom they've lost their last three matchups as it is, in Week 10?
Again, the Packers have a lot of things going for them right now. But they could be even better. They could also be a lot worse, and will be if this troubling trend continues.