The Packers’ 2018 season was bad. What was supposed to be a redemption tour after Aaron Rodgers’ broken collarbone in 2017 ended up being a death spiral for the Mike McCarthy era, and that spiral started spinning quite a bit faster after the Packers’ last matchup with the New England Patriots.
But even before things started looking rough in Green Bay, the Patriots game loomed large. The Packers’ schedule in 2018 got considerably tougher after their Week 7 bye, and the Patriots’ game was the second of four road games during a five-game stretch.
The Packers had managed to hold off an undermanned 49ers team just before their bye and went into the week off at 3-2-1 (their tie having occurred because Clay Matthews’ infamous sack on Kirk Cousins erased what would have been a game-sealing interception by Jaire Alexander).