Green Bay Packers picks

It's Thursday night at Lambeau, 50 degrees and clear, and two teams with banged-up offensive lines meet on four days' rest. What matters is which team's injuries the other side can actually exploit. Carolina's cornerback room is gone. Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson are on IR, and Akayleb Evans, who played every snap the last two weeks, is out. That leaves Chau Smith-Wade, Will Lee III and practice-squad call-up Marco Wilson to cover Christian Watson, Matthew Golden and Tucker Kraft. Golden is expected to play. Jordan Love has thrown for 270-plus yards in five of seven games. That's the biggest mismatch on the field. Green Bay's line is patched too, with Monk, Rhyan and Glover all out. But Carolina can't take advantage. The Panthers have 11 sacks in six games, managed zero sacks and one QB hit last week, and now Jaelan Phillips is out. Carolina's own line is worse. Moton is on IR with a fractured fibula, Lewis and Simpkins are out, and Ekwonu and Christensen are still on reserve lists. Bryce Young took five sacks against Tampa, and Moton and Lewis played part of that game. Turnovers also favor Green Bay. The Packers have 13 takeaways in seven games. Carolina has none in its last three and gave the ball away four times Sunday. The Panthers are coming off a 30-point home loss in which Young was pulled late. Now they're traveling on a short week after a week of walkthroughs only. Two of their three wins came against backup quarterbacks. The risk is the hook. Green Bay has won by exactly three twice and has scored more than 23 points only once. The Packers have scored touchdowns on 12 of 26 red-zone trips, and Trey Smack is 11-of-16 on field goals. Their defense is thin as well. Zaire Franklin is out, Micah Parsons is still sidelined, three defensive linemen are questionable, and Keisean Nixon was a late addition to the injury report. Carolina has finished +31, -3 and +11 in its road games. This is a lean, not a hammer. If Golden doesn't suit up, Green Bay's edge shrinks.