Week 14 TNF Green Bay Packers vs. Detroit Lions prediction and fantasy outlook feat. Jordan Love
The Packers take on the Lions in Week 14 of the 2024 NFL season and this Thursday Night Football match has connotations beyond their divisional rivalry.
Green Bay comes into this game with a 9-3 record. It would be enough for top spot in the NFC South and NFC West divisions. It would even be good enough for the second spot, behind the Philadelphia Eagles, in the NFC East. However, Jordan Love and his teammates enter this week third in the NFC North.
The Minnesota Vikings have a 10-2 record but it is Detroit who leads the entire conference with an 11-1 record. It is tied for the best win percentage in the league with the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, the Packers have a chance to defeat the Lions and go to a 10-3 record, which will then be just a game behind their opponents on Thursday. It will allow them to compete for the divisional title and also blow open the entire NFC standings.
However, achieving a victory will be easier said than done for the Packers. The Lions have looked like the best team in the NFL all year and it will take something special to knock them off on their home turf.
Here is how we see the action unfolding:
Packers vs. Lions prediction
The Lions will be the favorites with home-field advantage but their victories have been narrow in the past few weeks, except a blowout win against the hapless Jaguars. They met the Packers in November and ran out 24-14 winners. Their next game against the Texans was a closer affair as they won it 26-23.
And last week they sneaked through 23-20 past the Bears after atrocious clock management by their since-fired head coach Matt Eberflus and quarterback Caleb Williams.
The average of those three games gives us around 24 points. Since this is what Detroit scored against Green Bay the last time they met, this looks like a fair estimate for their Week 14 clash as well.
The Packers are a bit trickier. They have scored 30 points or more in their last two matches but scored only 20 against the Bears and 14 against the Lions, as previously mentioned. An average might not work here. Instead, let us focus on the game against Chicago, who scored 19 in that game after missing a walk-off field goal. It was also an NFC North rivalry, which is similar to this Week 14 matchup.
Based on that, we can presume that the Packers will score a similar number of points against the Lions as the Bears did against them. Of course, we expect Green Bay to have a better time-management system than Chicago, so let us assume that they would have scored 23 points. Projecting that forward, we have our final prediction given below.
Prediction: Packers 23 - 24 Lions
Packers vs. Lions fantasy outlook
The Packers bring firepower to this game in both the passing game and the running game with Jordan Love and Josh Jacobs. However, they might be eclipsed on the other side by Jared Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. Since we have projected it to be a close game, fantasy football managers could look at any of those players.
Among receivers, Sam LaPorta and Jayden Reed scored two touchdowns each last week for Detroit and Green Bay, respectively and could be canny additions.
Where to watch Packers vs. Lions
Here is how you can follow the action from this Week 14 game:
- Day & Date: Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024
- Time: 8:15 p.m. ET
- Location: Detroit, Michigan
- Venue: Ford Field
- Streaming: Amazon Prime Video
Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit will call the game along with sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung.