Rich: Why the 5-3 Packers are Well-Poised for a Run at the Playoffs

Five weeks ago, the Green Bay Packers were getting booed off their own field. Now they are 5-3 and, in Rich's view, very much in the playoff conversation.

Rich admitted the Thursday night game that opened Week 8 was "not terribly compelling," unless you count somebody being driven off in an ambulance after a 100-yard night and then returning to play, or Josh Jacobs running one in and catching one. The Panthers led 10-6, then got wiped out, then fired their defensive coordinator after the game.

The bigger story is where Green Bay sits at the eight-game mark. Rich took everyone back to Week 3, the Thursday night when Atlanta came into Green Bay and "hit him in the mouth and punked him," after the Packers had barely beaten the Jets the week before. They also had the Vikings right where they wanted them in Week 1. If the Packers had protected Jordan Love in the fourth quarter of that game and not "thrown the game away with a ton of other mistakes," Rich said, Minnesota would not be the last remaining undefeated team in the league.

At 1-2, Rich said, Packers fans would have signed for 5-3. Especially if they had been told the Brewers would show up with the World Series trophy on a Thursday night. They did, back from Tampa with five sausages and Bernie Brewer in tow, though their timing was rough. They arrived between the first and second quarters, just as Chuba Hubbard was set up on the doorstep to give the Panthers a lead they would later relinquish.

The roster is rounding into form. Micah Parsons is coming back. Josh Jacobs is back. "Jordan Love is at the top of his game," Rich said, "and if Matthew Golden could just hold on to a couple passes, he would be at the top of his game right now." Tucker Kraft is too, the same Kraft who told the booing fans in Week 3, "This isn't helpful."

Rich knows the division is loaded. The Bears are looking terrific with Super Bowl aspirations, and the Vikings and Lions are taking on one another. But he gave Green Bay credit for hanging in and reaching this moment at 5-3 with a mini bye to rest up.

The schedule is where it gets real. Next comes a trip to New England, then the big one, Minnesota coming to Green Bay. "They need to win that one," Rich said. The Packers have already lost division games at Minnesota and Detroit, so they have to "hold serve at home in division." Split those next two and they are 6-4 coming out of the bye, with a trip to the Rams the night before Thanksgiving waiting.

Rich did flag one question mark. Love was picked off near the goal line on Thursday, a shocking moment because "everything that he's throwing deep is connecting." Will Green Bay shop for a wide receiver? Rich noted the Packers usually stick with the group they came into the season with.

His larger point was perspective. At 1-2, fans were demanding that Matt LaFleur go, saying the way last season ended was the way this one was starting. "And yada yada yada, they're five and three." Rich also expects Zaire Franklin back in the defense and credited Jonathan Gannon with getting his mojo going calling plays, even if Gannon's play sheet looks like an index card. "Gannon's looks like he can barely cover his mouth," Rich joked. "I'd need glasses the entire time to read that thing."