Game 6: Cardinals at Packers - 10/13/24 - Noon - FOX

[MickeyDavis]

Complete snap counts. Surprised Morgan got so many snaps in his first game back. I'll let the experts weigh in on how he did. I saw a couple of replays where he looked good.

OL
Walker 73
Jenkins 73
Myers 68
Rhyan 40
Morgan 38

RB
Jacobs 46
Wilson 23
Brooks 10
Beck 7

TE
Kraft 60
Sims 28

WR
Doubs 54
Watson 44
Reed 39 53
Melton 27
Heath 17
Wicks 10

DL
Clark 44
Brooks 29
Wooden 19
Slaton 18

Edge
Gary 38
Smith 30
Enagbare 27
Van Ness 26

LB
Walker 58
Cooper 38
McDuffie 26
Er Wilson 14

DB
Nixon 58
McKinney 58
Bullard 54
Alexander 46
Williams 38
Stokes 16
Ballentine 1

[Turk Nowitzki]

Carrington Valentine was healthy right? Zero snaps for him and Nixon playing full time is at least somewhat surprising to me.

[Flames24Rulz]

Wonder if all the NFC North will make the Playoffs

One thing that makes this much harder, besides the obvious, is that division record is one of the first tiebreakers when teams haven't played head-to-head. Some inferior team in a much weaker division will probably win a tiebreaker over at least one North team based on a having a good division record, despite having a far worse expected record controlling for strength of schedule. North teams would probably have to win at least 75% non-division game; they're 16-4 now, but that's going to be hard to maintain.

The NFL has incredibly imbalanced schedules, and the more you scrutinize the implications for playoff berths and seeding and tiebreakers, the more you realize what an unfair advantage it is to play in a weak division. It just comes up over and over and over again.

Isn't it conference record over division record for tiebreaker purposes when you're talking about a wild card?

I still think Minnesota & Chicago will come back down to earth, but it's certainly plausible that all four teams can make the playoffs this year. Obviously a long way to go, but the other competition for WC spots will probably be the Tampa/Atlanta runner-up in the South and whoever the runner-up is in the East. 9 wins probably gets you in the dance and all four teams in the North are almost halfway there already.

[coolhandluke121]

Wonder if all the NFC North will make the Playoffs

One thing that makes this much harder, besides the obvious, is that division record is one of the first tiebreakers when teams haven't played head-to-head. Some inferior team in a much weaker division will probably win a tiebreaker over at least one North team based on a having a good division record, despite having a far worse expected record controlling for strength of schedule. North teams would probably have to win at least 75% non-division game; they're 16-4 now, but that's going to be hard to maintain.

The NFL has incredibly imbalanced schedules, and the more you scrutinize the implications for playoff berths and seeding and tiebreakers, the more you realize what an unfair advantage it is to play in a weak division. It just comes up over and over and over again.

Isn't it conference record over division record for tiebreaker purposes when you're talking about a wild card?

9 wins probably gets you in the dance and all four teams in the North are almost halfway there already.

I couldn't remember, so I was careful to say that it's one of the first tiebreakers. Turns out that you're right; I might have had it confused with some of the other tiebreakers that come into play, or with convoluted 3+ team tiebreakers.

In any case, having a much easier division schedule all but guarantees an easier conference schedule as well, since half your conference games are division games. So, it's still a difficult tiebreaker for North teams. You're punished twice for having a much more difficult schedule - once because it's much harder to achieve the same record, and again because the main tiebreakers are based on a tougher subset of your games (whether that subset is conference games or just division games).

I wouldn't agree that 9 games actually gets you in - I think it typically just gets you in a tie for the last wild card spots at best, and even that is only when mediocrity reigns. Some mediocre division is going to have two 9-win teams and two really bad teams, and they'll both probably be 5-1 in their division and therefore probably about 7-5 in the conference at worst - especially if they don't play more than one team from the North.

[LikeABosh]

Evan Williams and McKinney are PFF's #1 and #2 ranked safeties

[Ron Swanson]

Evan Williams = Certified Elite football IQ dude. It's like we used a time machine to pair prime Nick Collins with prime Micah Hyde.

[humanrefutation]

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[Treebeard]

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Like the multi-headed "Hydra" of mythology. Cut one head off and more grow back

[paulpressey25]

As a Packer fan you have to be incredibly happy where we are at right now.

Love avoids season ending injury and now is rounding back into form
Running game looks John Brockington/MacArthur Lane era
We now have a proven backup QB who can handle the role
Defense forcing all sorts of turnovers

We just need a new placekicker and more experience, which will come in the games ahead.

[MVP2110]

As a Packer fan you have to be incredibly happy where we are at right now.

Love avoids season ending injury and now is rounding back into form
Running game looks John Brockington/MacArthur Lane era
We now have a proven backup QB who can handle the role
Defense forcing all sorts of turnovers

We just need a new placekicker and more experience, which will come in the games ahead.

It's so easy to forget how young and inexperienced this team is. We saw them grow last year right in front of our eyes but they are still the team with the least amount of game experience in the NFL. Plenty more upside still with this squad

[ReasonablySober]

I still don't really believe in the defense because you can't count on turnovers.

That said, the Evan Williams Peanut Punch yesterday was one of the coolest, most heads up things I've seen from this defense in years. That was awesome.

[HKPackFan]

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Like the multi-headed "Hydra" of mythology. Cut one head off and more grow back

It's so so refreshing to see schemes and routes getting wrs open.

It's like a breath of fresh air compared to those MM days of 8 inch windows on a play.