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Lions-Packers preview: Quarterback questions abound for Green Bay
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Lions-Packers preview: Quarterback questions abound for Green Bay

The Packers have already lost Jordan Love for two games this season after a knee injury in the team’s season opener.

Now, they could be without him again for the biggest game of the season so far.

Love is questionable for Sunday’s Lions-Packers game with a groin injury suffered in the team’s Week 8 win against the Jaguars.

Love’s status is the biggest personnel question on both sides of the court entering a critical NFC North matchup:

Quarterback questions

Will the Packers play Love against the Lions? An NFL Network report shortly after he missed the second half of his team’s Sunday game against Jacksonville with an injury was positive, noting that his groin strain is not expected to keep him out long-term. Still, the Packers aren’t committing to anything when it comes to Sunday vs. Lions.

If Love can’t play, the Packers have already shown they have a solid backup option. Malik Willis has already started two games and finished the third (Sunday against Jacksonville) while Love deals with ongoing injury issues. The Packers won all three of those games as Willis completed 74 percent of his passes with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

Jacobs comes on strong

With the Packers playing a hobby starter at quarterback, then a backup, they needed some consistency on offense against the Jaguars.

Enter Josh Jacobs, the Packers linebacker who had one of his best games of the season on Sunday. The sixth-year running back had 25 carries for 127 yards with two touchdowns. He saw his biggest workload since 32 carries in Week 2, when he set a season high with 151 yards.

The former first-team All-Pro again with the Raiders may not put up numbers like his 1,600-yard season in 2022, but he’s shown he can still carry the load on the ground.

Can the defense rebound?

The Packers have had one of the best defenses in the NFL for most of the season. But that was not the case on Sunday.

Green Bay’s defense gave up a career-high 299 passing yards to Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars on Sunday. That included going 6-for-8 for 87 yards for a touchdown in the final five minutes of the game.

Was it a one-off bad day or an opportunity to exploit for the Lions? Jared Goff didn’t have to do much Sunday against the Titans, but he had an MVP candidate season for the Lions and could find some opportunities against the Packers secondary.

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