Green Bay Packers: What You Need to Know Heading into Week 10

It took just one play for the Green Bay Packers to go from NFC North favorites to potentially missing out on the playoffs. That play came early in the first quarter of the Packers' Week 9 matchup against the Chicago Bears when quarterback Aaron Rodgers got injured.

It took a while for the severity of the injury to come out, but ESPN's Rob Demovsky finally got news from Mr. Rodgers himself:

The slight crack in Rodgers' collarbone has turned a promising season upside down. While it might seem unlikely that there is anything more to know about Week 10 for Green Bay, we'll do our best to inform here.

Here's everything you need to know heading into this week's matchup.

Division Standings

Team	Record	Next Game
Detroit Lions	5-3	@ Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears	5-3	vs. Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers	5-3	vs. Philadelphia Eagles
Minnesota Vikings	1-7	vs. Washington Redskins

Green Bay's unlikely loss to the Bears puts three teams tied for the lead in the NFC North. It also makes the division anyone's for the taking for the remainder for the season.

If the season were to end right now, the Detroit Lions would be the winners of the division. However, the winner of next week's Bears-Lions matchup will likely sit alone atop the NFC North.

This is due to the fact that it'll be hard to picture the Packers beating the Philadelphia Eagles without their All-Pro quarterback. Even though the Eagles have been sporadic this year, they are coming off a dominating win over the Oakland Raiders in which they made scoring 49 points look easy.

As for the lowly Vikings, it's hard to imagine them having much of a chance at beating Robert Griffin III and the Washington Redskins. Their playoff hopes are firmly over, and all that's left for them to do is figure out which quarterback to draft early in the first round next year.

Injury Report

Name	Position	Injury
Aaron Rodgers	QB	Shoulder
Jermichael Finley	TE	Neck
T.J. Lang	OL	Concussion
Randall Cobb	WR	Leg
Clay Matthews	LB	Thumb
Nick Perry	LB	Foot
Andy Mulumba	LB	Ankle
Sam Barrington	LB	Hamstring

Just when things were starting to look up in terms of injuries for the Packers, everything came crashing down. There's no doubt the Packers would add any other name to this injury report in place of Rodgers, but that simply won't be happening.

As for a timeline on Rodgers' injury, Adam Schefter of ESPN had this to say on Twitter:

Three weeks isn't terrible, but Green Bay is definitely going to need to figure out how to win without its quarterback.

The other big injuries from this game were to offensive guard T.J. Lang and outside linebacker Andy Mulumba. With Lang gone, the Packers slid tackle Don Barclay inside to Lang's position and brought Marshall Newhouse off the bench at right tackle.

Mulumba's injury is a little more detrimental to the team simply due to depth issues. With Mulumba out of the game, the only outside linebackers the Packers had active were Mike Neal and Nate Palmer. If Mulumbra, Nick Perry and Clay Matthews continue to miss time, the Packers could be in some real trouble at outside linebacker.

At tight end, the Packers will be rolling with Andrew Quarless for the remainder of the season. Jermichael Finley's season is officially over, according to NFL Around the League:

While Rodgers injury is easily the worst of the bunch, Green Bay really got hit with a number of other significant injuries in Week 9. 

What Must Improve

After Monday's loss to the Bears, there were a handful of concerning areas for the Packers moving forward. The biggest, however, was the play of cornerback Tramon Williams.

The secondary—with players like Williams, Sam Shields and Casey Hayward—was expected to be the strength of this defense. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case, as the Packers pass coverage is currently ranked 10th-worst in the league, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

While some of these struggles are due to the fact that Hayward is just now returning from injury, the majority of the issues fall on the shoulders of Williams. He's currently graded by Pro Football Focus as the No. 51 cornerback in the league.

Opposing quarterbacks have a 97.4 quarterback rating when throwing his way. He's also given up 20 receptions, 286 yards and two touchdowns on the season.

While those numbers certainly aren't bad, they reached an absolute low in Week 9 against Chicago. Quarterback Josh McCown had a 133.3 rating when throwing Williams' way. He gave up five receptions for 76 yards and a touchdown.

Williams has also failed to record a single interception this season. Simply put, Williams is supposed to be the No. 1 cornerback on this team, but he's been playing like he belongs on the bench.

He needs to improve his game, or the Packers are going to continue giving up huge games to quarterbacks as bad as McCown.