The Packers and Seahawks are both looking for a big Week 15 win, and these two players just may determine who ends up on top.
This is as important as it gets for the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks.
Their Week 15 matchup won’t have the intensity of a win-and-you’re-in game and we’re not yet in the NFL playoffs, but there will be a playoff atmosphere for this Sunday Night football match-up at Lumen Field.
There’s a ton on the line for both teams as they each look to secure their playoff positioning. For the 9-4 Packers, bouncing back from their Week 14 loss to the Detroit Lions will be crucial.
The Packers currently control the sixth seed in the NFC playoffs, but they don’t have a ton of wiggle room with both the Washington Commanders and Los Angeles Rams behind them with the capability to get hot.
The Packers haven’t yet clinched a spot in the playoffs, but they do control their own destiny with four games left.
They need to win this one for multiple reasons, but mostly because it would prove that they can beat a playoff team.
Speaking of clinching, the 8-5 Seahawks are holding on to a slim lead in the NFC West.
They control the division as well as the three seed right now, but the Rams are right behind them at 7-6 and with a game scheduled between the two in Week 18, the Seahawks don’t have a ton of room to stumble.
With so much on the line in this one, several players on either team will need to step up and secure the win. Still, these are the two most important players in this Week 15 game, one from each side.
Jordan Love needs to shine for Packers
There’s a strong correlation between Jordan Love being healthy and Jordan Love playing good football.
The good news for him and the Packers is that after a start to the season that saw him banged up in multiple ways, he was able to get healthy after the bye week and he’s starting to play a high-level brand of quarterback.
Love has thrown for five touchdowns in Green Bay’s last three games with zero interceptions. His passer rating has been an average of 116.2, which is much improved from the 91.6 passer rating average he had for his first eight games played on the season.
When Love is able to scan the field and move around in the pocket, Green Bay’s offense can be explosive. His arm is going to be extremely important, because the Packers may have a hard time leaning on Josh Jacobs in this one.
The Seahawks will certainly stack the box and try to take Jacobs out of it after the run he’s had over the past four games.
Zach Charbonnet must have another big day for Seahawks
Seattle’s star running back, Kenneth Walker III, missed Week 14 with a calf injury and heading into this Week 15 clash with the Packers, the Seahawks are unsure if he’ll be able to play. He’s officially listed as day-to-day, per head coach Mike Macdonald.
“He’s still day-to-day right now,” Macdonald said on Wednesday per the team website. “It got more kind of complicated as the week went on, so that’s why we had to do some more tests and stuff, but right now there’s positive signs. So we’ll just say day-to-day I think is fair, but it’s not long term.”
While not having Walker would hurt in this one, the Seahawks should feel good about his replacement, second-year running back Zach Charbonnet.
Charbonnet stepped up in Walker’s absence against the Arizona Cardinals, rushing 22 times for a career-high 134 yards and two touchdowns.
The Packers were able to slow down the Lions’ rushing attack in Week 14, allowing just 94 rushing yards and a touchdown to the combination of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. But Green Bay has been gashed by big plays in the past.
New defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley’s defense is opportunistic, but his scheme does allow big plays over the middle of the field when the defense gets sucked in by the threat of the run.
That makes Charbonnet extremely important for the Seahawks against the Packers. He’ll have to have another big game in order for them to win, but even the threat of him pounding the rock up the middle can open some things up for Geno Smith and the passing game.
Even if Walker will be able to play, Charbonnet should still have a big role in this one for the Seahawks. He has rushed 97 times for 400 yards and seven touchdowns this season.
He’s absolutely one of the better second-backs in the league, so whether he’s starter or coming in to give Walker a spell, the Seahawks need him to have a big game.