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Preview: Green Bay at St. Louis

It's bad times in St. Louis where the injuries have been devastating, the Scott Linehan watch is on, and the loses are piling up. The Packers are favored by 10. They were favored by 10 and a half last week and crushed Oakland 38-7. The only thing that has beaten the Packers this season is turnovers which let Chicago get back into the game during their week 5 loss while QB Brett Favre's two early picks at Dallas fueled a big early lead that the Packers couldn't overcome. St. Louis doesn't do anything well, but their best unit is their pass defense which did a solid job last week against QB Carson Palmer in Cincinnati, and is 14th in the league in interceptions.

Teams FO Ranking NFL Ranking
Packers Rushing Offense 9 23
St. Louis Rushing Defense 26 21

RB Ryan Grant can run the ball and St. Louis is terrible at stopping the run.

Teams FO Ranking NFL Ranking
St. Louis Rushing Offense 32 25
Packers Rushing Defense 5 12

The Packers run defense just keeps getting better, it shut down Oakland's good run offense last week, and St. Louis is awful running the ball. They haven't gotten any better since RB Steven Jackson returned from his injuries either because he's padded his stats with some big runs while struggling most of the time. He's also lost 4 fumbles on 184 carries.

Teams FO Ranking NFL Ranking
Packers Passing Offense 5 2
St. Louis Passing Defense 23 17

I wrote about this above. St. Louis needs their pass defense to shut down one of the best pass offenses in the league and force some big turnovers. Good luck.

Teams FO Ranking NFL Ranking
St. Louis Passing Offense 26 18
Packers Passing Defense 19 15

The Packers pass defense keeps slipping as the season goes on. Only CB Charles Woodson has been solid this season while everyone else has struggled at some point (or multiple points). It will be hard to tell whether the defense is getting any better during the last two games, at Chicago and vs. Detroit, because the cold weather should limit the pass offenses, so this is the last chance to see if the Packers can't get something figured out before the playoffs. St. Louis' pass offense isn't any good, but they are better if QB Marc Bulger can play on Sunday. Unfortunately for St. Louis, he has been playing poorly due to his own injuries (and he will likely be playing through them on Sunday) and the overall offensive struggles.

Teams FO Ranking
Packers Special Teams 10
St. Louis Special Teams 29

I haven't seen St. Louis play this season, but apparently their special teams are really bad. The Packers special teams have been making big plays all season long and contributed two TDs in the win last week against Oakland.