Last season it was the WR group that was besieged by injuries. This season it's been the DBs who have been constantly hamstrung. The results of DB play has not been what many had anticipated at the start of the season. The perceived strength of this team has been transformed into its undisputed weakness due to ongoing injuries.
Going into this game the DB and LB groups are the biggest question marks for me. The sophomore CBs have both been injured and are also looking as though they have minimal route recognition skills - deer staring into headlights. They play soft and always seem to be breaking late, often trailing the WRs by too wide of a margin. Their tackling is an adventure. If Hyde is covering Eric Ebron then that all-too-familiar throw across the middle could be open just about every time Detroit needs a critical first down. This contest has all the makings of a shoot-out. Amongst both teams' collective CBs (still healthy enough to play) there may not be 1 or two out of the bunch that one would feel even somewhat confident about starting them in a game of this importance.
We may be seeing an ugly dog contest unfold on Sunday night between these two secondaries.
Injuries have not done the Packer LB corps much good, either. Although the ILBs have been struggling at times to plug gaps consistently, that may be attributable to injury as much as to their collective inexperience and so-so physical talents. Unlike the OLBs, the raw talent at ILB is not at the level of #1 picks (except, technically, when Matthews has played there). They seem to guess wrong a lot about which gap to cover and that allows too many runs to leak for substantial gains well into the secondary. The OLBs have also been struggling with injuries for much of the year. The defense has really taken it on the chin when it comes to injuries this season.
I definitely don't take it for granted that a Packer victory this Sunday is a given. Either team's offense may score enough points to qualify for blowout status. But each team's defensive secondary could also make the combined score resemble an arena football game.
If high-powered offense and lots of scoring is to your liking then this could be your kind of game.
