Green Bay Packers three-game road trip ends in the City of Brotherly Love for a Monday Night Football showdown with Philadelphia Eagles. As The Ringer’s Bill Simmons says, this is a loser leaves town match. If Green Bay loses this game, they are likely finished, and if they win, a light starts forming into the playoff tunnel. This is Packers first trip to Philly since their playoff win in 2011. The last time they lost at The Linc was 2006 on a Monday Night. Let’s hope that’s not a sign.

Randall returns
Damarious Randall returns to this Packers defense. This is an upgrade from what Green Bay’s defense has been showing in the last two weeks. Randall had a rough start to the year, but he gets a good matchup with a weak Eagles receiving core. These two guys won’t save Packers defense, but they’ll definitely provide some stop gaps. So we expected Jake Ryan to return as well, and that’s not happening as Packers made him inactive for tonight’s game. Clay Matthews will likely move inside tonight, and I do believe he’s going to succeed there. Matthews did well there last season, and it will limit how much running he has to do on his bad ankle.

Christine Michael’s impact
This is the first week we’ll get to see what Christine Michael can do with Packers offense. The hope is James Starks and Michael will have a powerful one-two punch that provides more balance to Packers offense. My hope is Green Bay uses him in short yardage situation. Michael is a bruiser like Eddie Lacy who can wear down a defense. He needs to be in there when third and short pop up, or it’s a goal line scenario.

Capers Frustrate Carson?
One of the things you could always expect from Dom Capers is he would frustrate the hell out of young quarterbacks. So far, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota dominated Capers defense, but Carson Wentz is a little more wet behind the ears than the other two. In the past couple weeks, Wentz struggled with different coverages especially zones. Packers haven’t forced turnovers like they have in the past, and this would be the perfect time for Green Bay to turn that around.

Mike McCarthy versus Jim Schwartz
Awhile back, Green Bay’s head coach did wonders on offense facing Jim Schwartz-led defenses in Detroit, and now, he has an opportunity to do it again. McCarthy struggled when Schwartz moved to Buffalo a couple years ago, but that was a weird game for a myriad of reasons. Maybe it’s different this time around. Aaron Rodgers has done well versus the Schwartz defenses in the past.

Prediction
Green Bay and Philadelphia both need a win badly. I believe Packers have more horses than Eagles do right now. If Rodgers is one of the 10 best quarterbacks, he’ll be able to handle Wentz in a shootout. Eagles defense is a good one, but they have started to show cracks with injuries all over the place. Packers pick off Wentz twice providing short fields for their offense leading to more points as Green Bay gets back on track. GB 30-24

Charlie.