Fantasy Football: 5 Bold Predictions for Week 9

The Packers Will Upset the Patriots

This Sunday night we are in for a treat. The Green Bay Packers are taking on the New England Patriots in Foxborough. The game will pit two of the greatest quarterbacks of this generation against each other in what should be one of the most exciting games of the year. The Packers are currently 5.5-point underdogs, but I see this game going another way.

We all know Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are elite. We aren't questioning their respective talent, just the talent of the teams around them. And this year, I think the Packers have the Pats beat.

Taking a look at the defenses, the Packers (5.5) are allowing fewer yards per play than the Patriots (5.8) despite having played a similar difficulty of opposing offenses (the average yards per play of each team's opponents so far this year are within a tenth of a yard of each other). The Packers have the sixth-most sacks in the league (23) despite already having their bye, while the Patriots have only 12 sacks despite playing an extra game. That comes out to the second highest sack rate in the league for the Packers and the third lowest rate for the Patriots. To put it simply, the Packers are going to be putting a lot more pressure on Brady than the Patriots are going to apply to Rodgers.

I'm specifically emphasizing the pass defense because the Pats barely have a healthy running back on the roster -- their leading rusher on Monday Night Football was Cordarrelle Patterson -- and the Packers have the third-highest pass-to-run ratio in the league. We all wanted a quarterback duel out of this game, and it's exactly what we're going to get.

On the flip side, the Packers have faced the fifth-hardest schedule of opposing defenses so far this season, while the Patriots have faced a league-average schedule according to Warren Sharp's Strength of Schedule app. And yet despite that --not to mention the MCL sprain he's been playing through -- Rodgers is throwing for 8.8 adjusted yards per attempt (AY/A), his highest mark since 2014. Brady, on the other hand, is throwing for 7.5 AY/A, his lowest mark since 2014, and currently has his highest interception rate (2.4%) in over ten years. With Randall Cobb and Geronimo Allison coming back from injuries and rookies Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Equanimeous St. Brown emerging, the Packers have a much more intimidating passing game than the Patriots -- who could be without Rob Gronkowski -- coming into this game.

This is no doubt one of the most exciting games on this week's slate. The Packers are going to march into Massachusetts and take down the Patriots.