Packers Idle Sunday After Thursday Loss to Falcons; Week 3 Slate Features First Rio Game
The short version
- Packers are 1-2 after a 35-14 Thursday night loss to Atlanta on Sept. 24 and do not play Sunday.
- Green Bay visits Tampa Bay in Week 4 on Sunday, Oct. 4, at noon on Fox.
- Ravens-Cowboys in Rio de Janeiro is the first NFL game ever played in the city, 3:25 p.m. on CBS.
- Sunday's Week 3 schedule includes 14 games across the league.
- Packers signed veteran guard Laken Tomlinson amid offensive line struggles.
Green Bay (1-2) sits out Sunday's 14-game NFL schedule after a 35-14 defeat to Atlanta, with a Week 4 trip to Tampa Bay next on Oct. 4.
The Green Bay Packers will not play on Sunday, Sept. 27. They closed out the Week 3 portion of their schedule on Thursday Night Football, falling 35-14 to the Atlanta Falcons at Lambeau Field on Sept. 24.
The loss dropped Green Bay to 1-2 and marked the team's largest margin of defeat in a home game in eight years. Head coach Matt LaFleur described the performance bluntly, and home fans booed the team as it left the field. The Packers' defense surrendered 242 rushing yards, 194 of them to Atlanta's Bijan Robinson, while Green Bay managed just 17 yards on the ground.
The defeat capped a rough opening stretch for a team that began the year with Super Bowl aspirations. The Packers opened the season with a 39-22 loss at Minnesota, a game in which they led 22-10 late in the third quarter before the Vikings scored the final 29 points. In Week 2, Green Bay trailed the New York Jets 17-7 in the fourth quarter before rallying for a 20-17 overtime win. Offensive line problems have been the biggest issue for LaFleur and quarterback Jordan Love through three games.
Because Green Bay played twice in a four-day span, the weekend off functions as extended recovery time rather than a bye. The Packers' official bye comes in Week 11 in late November, ahead of a Thanksgiving Eve game. In recent days the team signed veteran left guard Laken Tomlinson in an effort to shore up the offensive line.
Green Bay returns to action in Week 4, visiting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, Oct. 4, with a noon kickoff on Fox. It will be the Packers' only noon start among their five October games and their third road contest in the first four weeks. Tampa Bay has also struggled early and entered Week 3 as one of only two NFC teams without a winning record. The Buccaneers host the 2-0 Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
Sunday's NFL slate includes 14 games, headlined by the league's first-ever game in Rio de Janeiro. The Baltimore Ravens face the Dallas Cowboys in Brazil's second-largest city at 3:25 p.m. on CBS, with Jim Nantz, JJ Watt and Tracy Wolfson on the broadcast. It is the second of nine international games this season and begins a run of five straight weeks with a game abroad, including three in London across Weeks 4-6 and a Week 7 contest in Paris. The international schedule opened in Week 1 with the first NFL game in Australia, where the San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams 27-7 in Melbourne.
The early Sunday window features eight noon kickoffs: the Los Angeles Chargers at Buffalo, Kansas City at Miami, New England at Jacksonville, the New York Jets at Detroit, Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, Carolina at Cleveland, Houston at Indianapolis, Tennessee at the New York Giants and Seattle at Washington. The afternoon includes Minnesota at Tampa Bay and Arizona at San Francisco at 3:05 p.m., followed by the Ravens-Cowboys game in Rio at 3:25 p.m.
Beyond Week 4, Green Bay's October continues with home dates against Chicago on Oct. 11 and Dallas on Oct. 18, a trip to Detroit on Oct. 25 and a Thursday night game against Carolina on Oct. 29 on Prime Video. The Falcons game was the first of six primetime appearances on the Packers' schedule, which also includes a Netflix-streamed Christmas Day game at Chicago and a Week 18 finale against Detroit with the date still to be determined.
