The Green Bay Packers Believe A Big Winning Streak Could Be Coming

Kenny Clark remembers it well when the Green Bay Packers rolled off eight straight wins in 2016.

Or six in a row in 2019.

Or seven straight in both 2020 and 2021.

Clark, Green Bay’s standout defensive tackle, believes these 2024 Packers could be on the cusp of a big run themselves after they dismantled Arizona, 34-13, on Sunday.

“Each and every week we strive to get better and we’re doing that right now,” Clark said. “Everything we talked about this week, it came to fruition. We just keep getting better and better and hopefully that means we can get on a little roll here.”

The Packers have won two straight games and four of five to improve to 4-2 overall, which is 1 ½ games behind NFC North-leading Minnesota.

Green Bay played its most complete game of the season, piling up 437 total yards, forcing three turnovers and excelling on special teams.

“I feel like we’re about to pop,” Green Bay center Josh Myers said. “I certainly have that feeling right now.”

With good reason.

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The Packers have gone through a lot of adversity these first six weeks and come out of it in decent shape.

Quarterback Jordan Love missed Weeks 2 and 3 with a sprained MCL. And even when Love returned in a Week 4 loss to Minnesota, he was rusty and inefficient as Green Bay dug itself a 28-0 hole that day.

Then prior to Green Bay’s Week 5 game at the Los Angeles Rams, wide receiver Romeo Doubs went AWOL, skipped two days of practice and meetings, and was eventually suspended for one game.

The Packers persevered, though, and defeated the Rams, 24-19. Then Green Bay had its cleanest game of the season Sunday in routing an Arizona team that was fresh off a win over defending NFC champion San Francisco.

“I think this was a great team effort in all phases, just playing off each other and going out there and making plays and executing at a high level,” Love said. “I feel like that’s what we’ve lacked in the last couple of weeks. It was awesome. The defense going out there and getting all those takeaways, that helps so much in just getting us the ball back. It was nice to play just a complementary game, all four quarters.”

Love was terrific against the Cardinals, tying his career-high with four touchdown passes. He also completed 22-of-32 passes for 258 yards and had a passer rating of 119.5.

Love completed passes to nine different players. And he became the first Green Bay quarterback to throw four touchdown passes in consecutive home games since Brett Favre did so in 1995.

“I mean obviously dealing with the knee it was a little bit tough for him to get right back into the swing of things, but we know the kind of player he is,” wideout Christian Watson said of Love. “We saw it last year as the season progressed and we're going to see it again this year. He's just a dog. He's just a baller.”

The Packers also dominated on the ground, piling up 179 rushing yards on 38 carries (4.7). That marked the fourth time this season that the Packers have rushed for 160-plus yards.

The Packers’ 1,003 rushing yards to date are their most in the first six games of a season since 1963 (1,041).

“We talked about coming into this game just playing four quarters of complementary football, and thought that was about as good as we could’ve done it,” Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur said.

Defensively, the Packers forced three fumbles — and recovered them all.

Midway through the third quarter, defensive lineman Karl Brooks forced a fumble of running back James Conner and recovered. Later that period, safety Evan Williams knocked the ball loose from wideout Greg Dortch and cornerback Jaire Alexander recovered.

Then with 6 minutes left in the game, Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray fumbled and Kenny Clark recovered.

Green Bay now has 17 takeaways this year after producing just 18 turnover plays all of 2023.

“Crazy,” defensive end Rashan Gary said. “As you’ve seen throughout the season, man, we’re attacking the ball, ripping at it. All we’ve got to do is keep on being consistent and keep on holding our standard. Every time we have a wrap-up tackle and the ball-carrier’s not down, we’ve got to strip at the ball, we’ve got to punch at it. The more we’ve been doing that and giving the offense back the ball, the more opportunities they have to score.”

Return ace Keisean Nixon had a career-long 39-yard punt return. The Packers had a season-low five penalties. And Green Bay held the ball for 36 minutes, 35 seconds — a whopping 61.0% of the game.

The Packers have a tough game against NFC South leading Houston (5-1) next week. Then after a road game at Jacksonville (1-5), Green Bay hosts Detroit (4-1) before heading to a bye.

While nothing ever comes easy in this league, the Packers believe they could be poised for some big things in the coming weeks.

“First off, I think we’re good enough to get hot,” Myers said. “We’re all settled in and I think we’re starting to get healthy at some places where we’ve been hurt and I think it’s time. This team is about to take off. I really feel like we are.”