The Green Bay Packers 2017 schedule has been released, and it is not one of the easier ones in the league. Aside from the usual NFC North games, they will face the AFC North this year. Throw in the usual “marquee” games, and this upcoming season will be exiting.
They begin the season with the Fox “Game of the Week”, at home, against the Seattle Seahawks on September 10th. This will be an interesting game, not just because it is one of the league’s marquee matchups in recent years, but because of Eddie Lacy. This off-season, Lacy signed with the Seahawks, after spending his first four seasons with the Packers. If all goes well and he is not injured, this will be his debut for the Seattle and against his former team no less.
For week two, the Packers head back to Atlanta. The last time they were in Atlanta they got steamrolled by a red hot Falcons team in the NFC Championship game. This game, it will not just be the Falcons 2017 home opener, but the Falcons first game in their new stadium. The first two games are about as tough as it gets, league-wide.
Week three, the Pack faces the Bengals, a team that went 6-9 last year, and hopes to improve on that record in 2017. The team will play week four at Lambeau, and it’s the Packers vs. Bears! That’s a Thursday Night NFL game, with a 7:25pm start, broadcast on CBS and the NFL network.
Following the Bears game, they head to Dallas, for the rematch of the game of the year one season ago. That was the night that Aaron Rodgers played one of his best playoff games of his career. Following the Cowboys game, they head to Minnesota to revisit what has become one of the biggest rivalries in the NFL. The Packers “took care of business,” (along with those pesky Vikings) on Christmas Eve, last year.
Green Bay plays host for only one game in October, and that’s a noon start, against New Orleans on 10/22. From there, the weather turns colder, and the schedule gets a bit lighter.
If they can make it to the bye still in the hunt for the NFC North title, the second half of their season is much easier than the first. After starting at home against the Lions on Monday night, November 6th, then it will be a road game against the Bears on November 12th.
They will host the AFC Ravens on November 19th at noon. The Packers head to Pittsburgh for what could turn out to be the marquee game in the second half of the season. The Steelers are always in the playoff hunt, and they will once again have all those weapons on offense. This should be a very high scoring game.
Following the “Showdown in the Steel City,” the Packers come home for a game against the Buccaneers on December 3rd. It is two road games after that, as Green Bay will take on the Browns and Panthers. The 2017 Packers will end the season exactly how they finished the last one, at home against the Vikings on 12/23 (A Saturday game,) and on the road against the Lions.
