The Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions will begin the NFL’s Week 14 schedule with a pivotal showdown in the NFC North on Thursday night at Ford Field. The nationally televised primetime game will determine if the Packers — who have won three straight games since the bye — are competing for the division title or settling for a wildcard spot over the final four weeks of the 2024 season.
Can the Packers get the season’s biggest win on Thursday night at Ford Field?
Here’s how the staff at Packers Wire believes the Week 14 showdown with the Lions will go down:
Zach Kruse: Packers 27, Lions 24 (7-5)
At full strength, the Lions present the Packers with a ton of difficult problems on both sides of the football. But Matt LaFleur’s team isn’t getting the Lions at full strength, and I think the physical edge the Packers can create on offense is going to be the difference. These teams are playing a third game in less than two weeks, and the Packers have established — through the run game and the ability to create yards after the catch — a tough, physical identity. Playing indoors changes the dynamic somewhat, but the Packers can still attack up front where injuries have devastated Detroit’s first line of defense. Add in Jordan Love’s health and efficiency coming out of the bye, the improvements made in the red zone and the suffocating run defense shown over the last two weeks, and the Packers have the ingredients ready to beat the short-handed Lions. In the biggest game of the season, the Packers ride Jacobs, Tucker Kraft and Jayden Reed and get the one takeaway necessary to escape Ford Field with a huge victory.
Brandon Carwile: Packers 28, Lions 23 (10-2)
Green Bay will have a great opportunity when they clash with Detroit this Thursday night. They can make up ground in the NFC North race and prove to the rest of the league that they are a legitimate Super Bowl contender. The first meeting was ugly for the Packers, who tripped over their own feet every chance they could. Self-inflicted wounds have been an issue for Green Bay this season, but they have looked better since the bye week. The Lions still only have one loss but did not look their best in last week’s narrow win over the Chicago Bears. That might have been the start of Detroit’s regression, so I’m taking the Packers in a closely contested matchup in primetime.
Brennen Rupp: Lions 23, Packers 20 (11-1)
The Packers have picked up steam coming out of their bye week and Jordan Love has been making good decisions. I don’t think the Packers will struggle to put points on the board inside Ford Field. Where they will struggle is slowing down Detroit’s ground game and getting the Lions off the field. It could be a carbon copy of the Bears matchup, only this time they won’t be blessed by Karl Brooks’ hands. Give me the Lions edging the Packers.
| Writer | Prediction | Score | Record |
| Zach Kruse | Win | 27-24 | 7-5 |
| Brandon Carwile | Win | 28-23 | 10-2 |
| Brennen Rupp | Loss | 23-20 | 11-1 |