On Thursday night, the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons will get the NFL’s Week 3 schedule underway at Lambeau Field. Green Bay’s first of two Thursday night games — they will play another NFC South team when they host the Carolina Panthers in Week 8 — comes with the Packers as 4.5-point favorites heading into the game.
That point spread has dropped a point from the opening line of 6.5 points, likely due in part to the issues all across the Packers’ offensive line. Zach Bako-Bewele is out for
the year and maybe longer; his replacement, Anthony Belton, was banged up in practice this week. Left guards Aaron Banks and Donovan Jennings both dropped out of last Sunday’s game, leaving rookie Jager Burton to finish out the contest.
Still, the Falcons look like one of the NFL’s worst teams through two weeks, as they haven’t even run a single offensive play in the red zone yet this season. While there’s no guarantee that the unit will be significantly better with Michael Penix, Jr. at quarterback instead of Cooper Rush or Jack Strand, the line did move a full point towards Atlanta when they announced Penix would return to the lineup this week. Still, Atlanta scored just three points against the Panthers last week, and that same Panthers defense allowed 59 points and almost 300 rushing yards to the Chicago Bears in week one.
Those numbers may be why APC is largely expecting this game to stay under the points total of 43.5, as set by FanDuel Sportsbook. Even if the Packers can manage to score against the Falcons defense, Green Bay’s own defense has been playing well, particularly late in the game against the New York Jets last Sunday.
Here are APC’s predictions for tonight’s game, and give us yours in the comments!
