Preview: Carolina at Green Bay

My first thought about Carolina was that the Packers are going to destroy them. The Packers just destroyed Minnesota at home while Carolina is coming off a last minute loss at home to Joey Harrington and his Atlanta Falcons. The game is at Lambeau, Carolina is dealing with a lot of injuries at quarterback, and their star wide receiver Steve Smith is hurting.

However, since Carolina is 4-5 overall and haven't won at home since November 2006 it means that they are 4-1 on the road. Their second best receiver behind Smith is 2nd year TE Jeff King, and tight ends have killed the Packers in coverage. Plus this has the makings of a classic let down game with Detroit and Dallas coming up after Carolina. The team most similar to Carolina this season is Chicago who the Packers lost to at Lambeau back in week 5. Carolina is +4 in turnovers and if they can recover a couple of fumbles or grab a couple of interceptions, then this could turn into a close game.

Carolina hasn't scored many points in their past three games, but they've played against two great defenses in Indianapolis and Tennessee before their offense struggled last week against Atlanta. The Packers blew Minnesota away last week, but every other game has been close. This game will be a lot closer than many people might expect. The Packers will have to avoid turnovers and make Carolina's struggling offense work the length of the field for all their points while keeping Carolina's defense guessing by getting all the receivers involved in the game with the occassional running play.