Coming off an ugly 16-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers in Week 9, the Green Bay Packers were obviously hoping to avoid their first two-game losing streak of the season to close out Week 10 on Monday Night Football against the Philadelphia Eagles. But much to the dismay of Cheeseheads everywhere, Matt LaFleur & Co. failed miserably.
Well, that's not completely true, as the Packers' defense undoubtedly did its part, holding Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia offense to just 294 total yards and a season-low 10 points.
Unfortunately, however, Jordan Love and the Green Bay offense failed to take advantage, amassing only 261 total yards, marking the team's second-lowest total of the season, and scoring a season-low seven points. The Packers also matched a season high with two turnovers, both coming on lost fumbles, the first from Jordan Love on the Eagles' 36-yard line just before halftime and the second from Josh Jacobs on fourth down with just under 90 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
Yes, Green Bay still got one more opportunity to tie the game after forcing a turnover on downs (what a highly questionable decision that was from Nick Sirianni to go for it on fourth down), but Brandon McManus was never making that 64-yard field goal as time expired.
Packers are now in third place in the NFC North and fell to seventh in the conference
Every loss hurts, of course, but this defeat was particularly painful, as not only did it knock the Packers out of first place in the NFC North, but it also now has them on the brink of falling out of the postseason picture altogether.
Here's an updated look at the NFC playoff picture heading into Week 11.
Updated NFC playoff picture
- Philadelphia Eagles (7-2, 1st NFC East)
- Seattle Seahawks (7-2, 1st NFC West)
- Detroit Lions (6-3, 1st NFC North)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-3, 1st NFC South)
- Los Angeles Rams (7-2, 2nd NFC West)
- Chicago Bears (6-3, 2nd NFC North)
- Green Bay Packers (5-3-1, 3rd NFC North)
- San Francisco 49ers (6-4, 3rd NFC West)
- Carolina Panthers (5-5, 2nd NFC South)
- Minnesota Vikings (4-5, 4th NFC North)
- Dallas Cowboys (3-5-1, 2nd NFC East)
- Arizona Cardinals (3-6, 4th NFC West)
- Atlanta Falcons (3-6, 3rd NFC South)
- Washington Commanders (3-7, 3rd NFC East)
- New Orleans Saints (2-8, 4th NFC South)
- New York Giants (2-8, 4th NFC East)
As you can see, given the Week 10 victories earned by both the Detroit Lions, who took an easy 44-22 win over the Washington Commanders, and the Chicago Bears, who scored a 24-20 comeback win over the New York Giants, who Green Bay faces this Sunday, the Packers have fallen to third place in the NFC North and seventh in the overall conference standings at 5-3-1.
The Packers did at least catch a couple of breaks, as the two teams directly behind them, the San Francisco 49ers and the Panthers, each took losses on Sunday, with the Niners losing to the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina taking an embarrassing defeat to the New Orleans Saints.
The Packers obviously don't want to get into a tiebreaker situation with the Panthers, as they lose that head-to-head tiebreaker. That can't come into play with the 49ers, as the two don't square off this season, but Green Bay is in bad shape there as well, as the second tiebreaker would be the best record in conference games. As it stands now, San Francisco has gone 6-2 (.750) against NFC opponents, while Green Bay has gone 3-2-1 (.583).
The Packers, of course, still have a solid shot to win the NFC North, as they've only played one game within the division thus far, that being their Week 1 win over the Lions. But if the offense continues to struggle, Green Bay could easily fall out of contention altogether.