Importance of Green Bay Packers Beating Kansas City Chiefs

The Green Bay Packers are 6-1 without their star receiver, Davante Adams. All they need is quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, and tight end, Jimmy Graham, along with the host of young receivers and backs can hold down the fort until Adams returns. The offense has slowly been heating up. Once Adams returns, they have a real shot of winning the NFC North. The division runs through Green Bay as the Pack is undefeated within the NFC North so far. Only a few hurdles stand in their way, the first of which begins in Kansas City.

The Packers will face the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday Night Football without starting quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. Earlier this week, head coach, Andy Reid, said he wouldn’t rule Mahomes out for Week 8. Hall of Famer, Cris Carter of FS1’s First Things First insisted that Mahomes would play. He stated that the quarterback wouldn’t be taking reps at practice to “throw off the Packers.”

As of Friday afternoon, however, the Chiefs have officially ruled Mahomes out for SNF. Reid said that as much as the young quarterback wanted to play. He just wasn’t ready quite yet. Certainly, it would have been quite the shock if he were planning to start as he’s recovering from a dislocated kneecap. Since Mahomes is not starting, Matt Moore will lead Kansas City against Green Bay.

The Chiefs will try to beat the Packers on the ground. They’ll hope that Moore can simply act as a game manager and not make mistakes. Likely, their game plan will be to attack the Pack’s 24th ranked run defense and hope that, like Green Bay’s past opponents, they can rack up 128.9 (or more) rushing yards.

Darnell Savage hopes to start on Sunday night, which should help Green Bay tremendously. The rookie safety injured his ankle in Dallas during Week 5 and has been out since. Savage is eager to get back on the field. He admits that Kansas City has a lot of playmakers, but he also says there are tons of playmakers across the league. Savage explained that preparation for SNF this week will not be different than any other week. Ultimately, beating the Chiefs is another step toward taking the NFC North.

The Minnesota Vikings Aren’t Far Behind

Vikings quarterback, Kirk Cousins, has been more consistent lately. He played a near-perfect game on Thursday Night Football against the Washington Redskins. In four straight wins, Cousins has “thrown the ball 116 times (29 per game on average) in October, completing 91 passes. That’s a 78.4 completion percentage,” according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

However, one could argue that Cousins can’t show up when it really matters and that he can’t beat the tough teams. Lighting it up against the New York Giants, Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles, and Redskins does not prove the Vikings are playoff material.

However, the Packers need to treat every game this season as a must-win. With Minnesota being only one game back in the NFC North, that doesn’t leave much room for error. Division games are always more difficult, and Green Bay ends the season with three in a row. All NFC North three teams are itching to knock off Green Bay, so they have to be ready for anything.

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