The Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers look to rebound from their ugly season-opening loss when they host the Detroit Lions on Monday Night in a NFC North battle. Rodgers had perhaps the worst game of his career in a 38-3 loss to the Saints, but he faces a team he’s had plenty of success against in the past. The Packers won the previous four meetings with their division rival and the reigning MVP doesn’t have back-to-back bad outings. Oddsmakers expect the Pack to be better positioning them as an 11-point favorite to close out the Week 2 betting schedule.
This matchup in Week 2 of the regular season will take place on Monday, September 20, 2021, at 8:15 p.m. ET at Lambeau Field and will be televised on ESPN.
NFL Odds at BookMaker.eu
Detroit Lions +11
Green Bay Packers -11
Over/Under 48.5
Odds Analysis
Considering how bad the Packers looked last week seeing them as a double-digit favorite was odd. They won 13 games in each of the previous two seasons while advancing to the NFC Championship, so don’t count them out just yet. But there were a lot of issues against the Saints and getting blown out as a 4-point favorite was the least of them. For the second straight week the Lions are a big underdog catching 11-points in this one. They were a 9.5-point dog last week and trailed 41-17 in the fourth. But they scored 16 points in the final two minutes to get the backdoor cover. The Lions are 1-6 SU and 2-5 ATS in their previous seven games as a double-digit dog with the outright win coming against the Packers in Green Bay a few years ago.
Player to Watch
If Rodgers isn’t overly concerned about his Week 1 performance I guess we shouldn’t be either. Even the best have off days and Rodgers certainly stunk against the Saints throwing for 133 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns. He didn’t all of a sudden become a bad quarterback and the team closely resembles the one that earned the No. 1 seed in the NFL last year, so we can expect bigger things this week.
There is a history with Rodgers bouncing back after disappointing games. The Packers have two prior losses of 25 points or more under Matt LaFleur and each time Rodgers responded by throwing four touchdowns in the following game. He’s also faced the Lions a bunch over his career posting a 17-5 record as a starter. In two games last season he threw for 530 yards with five touchdowns and zero interceptions. The Packers won both games scoring more than 30 points in each while averaging 35.5 points.
Key Injuries
For a team that ranked 30th against the pass last year and gave up 319 yards and a pair of scores through the air in the opener, the loss of starting cornerback Jeff Okudah is a big deal for the Lions. The former No. 3 overall pick sustained an Achilles injury against the Niners and is done for the season leaving an already suspect secondary in disarray. And that’s not what a team wants when facing the reigning MVP looking to bounce back from an awful outing.
Matchup to Watch
The last time Jared Goff faced the Packers was as a member of the Rams in last season’s divisional round playoff game. He completed 21 of 27 passes for 174 yards and a touchdown, but the Rams offense never sustained anything and Goff was sacked four times. And it’ll be interesting to see how the Green Bay defense responds after getting torched for five touchdown passes from Jameis Winston last week. The team brought in Joe Barry as its new coordinator with a more aggressive, attacking style. That didn’t work against the Saints, but it’s still early.
Free ATS Pick
Every team has a bad game during the course of a season, it just gets magnified when it’s a contending club and it takes place in the opener. All we know now is that the Packers won’t go undefeated. I expect Rodgers and his mates will respond in a positive way, but the issues were glaring and there were several. I like Green Bay to win but the Lions showed some fight last week and 11 points is a lot, which is why I’m backing the visitors and the points.
NFL Pick: Packers 27, Lions 20
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