GREEN BAY, Wis. – There’s an adage in sports. It’s not who you play but when you play them.

The Green Bay Packers will face the New England Patriots on Sunday. It’s a measuring-stick game for the Packers, who believe they are Super Bowl contenders. The Patriots played in the Super Bowl last year and believe they have the goods to take the next step. With a top-tier quarterback and coach and a strong defense, they will be a formidable challenge.

The Patriots, however, will play without their top two receivers, A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs. Their premier tight end, Hunter Henry, is questionable with a foot injury that held him out of practice to start the week. Their starting guards, Alijah Vera-Tucker and Mike Onwenu, are on injured reserve. So is their top pass rusher, Harold Landry.

Can the Packers take advantage of the “when you play them” part of that adage? Here are our weekly game predictions.

Bill Huber’s Packers-Patriots Prediction

The Packers have had some good fortune this season. They faced the Buccaneers without Baker Mayfield and the Bears without Caleb Williams.

They will have more good fortune against the Patriots. While Drake Maye, last year’s MVP runner-up, will be the starting quarterback, he’s going to be playing with an incredibly shorthanded group of receivers. Mack Hollins, DeMario Douglas and Kyle Williams are not the same as A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs.

Good quarterbacks can make it work with whoever, so this won’t be a layup victory for Jonathan Gannon’s defense. However, New England’s pass protection has been leaky, with Maye facing the fourth-highest pressure rate in the league. Can the Patriots’ receivers get open before the Packers’ pass rush arrives on the scene?

Added together, the game has been put on a silver platter for Green Bay’s defense to be the most powerful unit on the field.

On the other side of the ball, it’s going to be a challenging day for Jordan Love, as well. The Packers, of course, can’t run the football, and it’s having an impact on the passing game with the play-action attack having become irrelevant.

If the Packers can’t run the ball – and what reason is there to believe they will? – they’re going to have to deal with the teeth of the Patriots’ strong pass rush, which ranks fifth in sack percentage. Elijah Ponder – the best pass rusher that nobody has ever heard of – is seventh in the league with six sacks. With 3.5 sacks, Christian Barmore powers the interior rush.

“He’s a really good player,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said of Ponder, an undrafted free agent last year. “To be truthful, I hadn’t heard a whole lot about him until I started watching the tape and I’m like who is this guy? What’s his story? How do we not know about him? Everybody knows about him now. When you look at their edges, all three of those guys that are really doing the bulk of the work are really good players, and you couple that with the interior guys, it’s a really formidable front.”

That could mean limited time for Christian Watson and Matthew Golden to beat the premier cornerback duo of Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis.

“Really good DBs,” Love said. “I think they do a lot of things very well. I think as anything, it’s a challenge for me, for the receivers on the outside to be able to go see how good we can be and how good we can attack them and make plays against them. I think they do a really good job. I think Gonzalez is definitely one of the best in the league and he makes plays. I feel like for us, it’s a fun test.”

Ultimately, I’m taking the Packers, who are 3-point underdogs at FanDuel Sportsbook. Both quarterbacks are really good, but I’ll take Watson and Golden vs. Gonzalez and Davis over Hollins and Douglas vs. Keisean Nixon and Brandon Cisse. In a close game, the Packers will fail to run out the clock but the defense will save the day.

And they’ll need it, with the Bears and Lions favored to win their games against the Buccaneers and Dolphins, respectively, while the first-place Vikings are underdogs against Buffalo.

Bill’s Prediction: Packers 24, Patriots 20.

Bill’s Record: 6-2.

Jacob Westendorf’s Packers-Patriots Prediction

Everything outside of the field favors New England in this game with the return of Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady, which has been discussed all week.

The reality on the field, however, is that the Packers have more healthy players than the Patriots do. The Patriots are missing their top two receivers and their starting tight end is going to be hobbled, at minimum, if he can play.

Drake Maye and Jordon Love are both being asked to carry a heavy load, but Love has a better supporting cast around him. In addition, Jonathan Gannon should be able to create enough confusion for Maye to make a couple of mistakes that swing the game in the Packers’ favor. 

Jacob’s Prediction: Packers 24, Patriots 17.

Jacob’s Record: 5-3.

In our weekly combo of stories, here are three reasons why the Packers will lose to the Patriots: ⬇️https://t.co/inH6lXWjgw

And three reasons why they will win: ⬇️https://t.co/ma7Fx6onkn

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 8, 2026