With a Green Bay Packers Week 14 game coming up against the Detroit Lions, the fate of the NFC North could very well be determined on Thursday Night Football. The Packers are one of the NFL's hottest teams right now at 9-3. They've won three in a row and seven of their last eight. The only problem for them? The only team that's beaten them in this stretch is the Lions, who are 11-1 and have won 10 in a row. It's now the perfect time for Packers Week 14 predictions.
The Kansas City Chiefs get all the publicity as the back-to-back defending Super Bowl champions, but it's really the Lions that are the best team in the NFL. They lead the league in points per game with 31.9 and their head coach, Dan Campbell, may have built one of the best cultures in the NFL. This is a team that went 0-16 in recent memory. They're now a legitimate Super Bowl contender, which is all a credit to Campbell.
Either way, though, the Packers should be considered the favorite to win this game, though. Why's that? Well, in the NFL sometimes it's about timing. The Packers are hitting their stride, while the Lions haven't been playing their best football as of late. They're also dealing with a bad case of the injury bug, especially on defense.
The big prediction here is the Packers will win this one, but here are several others Packers Week 14 predictions.
*Watch NFL games LIVE with fuboTV (free trial)*
Packers TE Tucker Kraft will continue his breakout season
The Packers drafted Tucker Kraft with the 78th pick of the 2023 NFL Draft out of South Dakota State because they believed that he profiled as the modern tight end. He's big and strong at 6-foot-5, 259 pounds and he's one heck an aggressive and tough blocker, but he can also go get the football and be dangerous as a pass catcher as well.
Kraft started his rookie season slow, but he came on at the end of the year to finish with 355 yards and two touchdowns. Now in year two, he's quickly become one of the best tight ends in the league. Kraft has caught 36 passes for 480 yards and six touchdowns. Only George Kittle and Mark Andrews have more touchdowns and his yards per catch average of 13.3 is second amongst NFL tight ends behind only Kyle Pitts.
Kraft is quickly becoming elite, but he only has one touchdown catch in his past four games. Expect that to change against Detroit as he'll find the end zone twice.
Packers RB Josh Jacobs will keep TD streak going
Josh Jacobs is a beast and he's running like one of the best backs in the NFL. Like Kraft, he's incredibly tough to take down at a stout 5-foot-10, 223 pounds. He's a bowling ball when he picks up steam and he's amongst the best in the NFL when it comes to picking up extra yards after contact. It's Derrick Henry-esque.
Jacobs has also gotten hot where it matters the most for the Packers, which is in the red zone. He's run in five touchdowns in Green Bay's past three games. All of those touchdown runs came in the red zone, which was previously an area of the field in which the Packers were having a hard time converting.
There's a very strong case to be made that this Packers offense is truly unlocked when Jacobs is getting 20-to-25 touches between his rushing attempts and his underrated ability as a pass-catcher. But he's a “must” to touch the ball once the Packers get into scoring position.
He's the type of back who just gets better as the game and season goes on, so the prediction and expectation here is that he'll keep up his touchdown streak against the Lions.
Packers will pick off Lions QB Jared Goff twice
Related Green Bay Packers NewsArticle continues below
Lions quarterback Jared Goff is absolutely in the NFL MVP conversation. He may not win it if the Lions don't finish strong, but so far, he's proven to be one of the best quarterbacks in the league. He's thrown for 2,982 yards (eighth in the NFL) and 22 touchdowns (fifth in the NFL) compared to nine interceptions.
Really, it's those interceptions that have held Goff back. He threw a whopping five earlier this season in a game against the Houston Texans in which he did everything wrong and yet they still won. His team had his back in that one but the odds are that if he has another multi-interception game, the Lions will lose. Case in point? Goff threw no touchdowns and two interceptions in Detroit's only defeat this season, which was a 20-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 2.
The Packers are a top five team in takeaways with 23 this season and in particular, Xavier McKinney has been a superstar with seven interceptions (he's tied with, ironically, Kerby Joseph of the Lions on the interception leaderboard).
McKinney will get one more in this one, and thanks to a pass rush that has been resurgent over the past three games, the Packers will force Goff into a second interception in this game as well.
