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          NFL Nation

          Green Bay Packers' schedule 2020: Buckle up early, bundle up late

          • Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff WriterMay 8, 2020, 12:28 AM
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              Rob Demovsky is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Green Bay Packers. He has covered the Packers since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2013. Demovsky is a two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the NSSA. You can follow him on Twitter at @RobDemovsky.
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          The Green Bay Packers' schedule for 2020 was released Thursday.

          The regular season kicks off with the Houston Texans visiting the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday, Sept. 10 (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC). The opening doubleheader for Monday Night Football will feature the Pittsburgh Steelers at the New York Giants (7:10 p.m. ET, ESPN) and the Tennessee Titans at the Denver Broncos (10:20 p.m. ET) on Monday, Sept. 14.

          Check out the full week-by-week schedule here. Here's what's in store for the Packers:

          Game-by-game prediction

          Packers reporter Rob Demovsky is predicting a 11-5 finish:

          Sept. 13: at Minnesota, Loss

          Sept. 20: vs. Detroit, Win

          Sept. 27: at New Orleans, Loss

          Oct. 5: vs. Atlanta, Win

          Week 5: Bye

          Oct. 18: at Tampa Bay, Loss

          Oct. 25: at Houston, Win

          Nov. 1: vs. Minnesota, Win

          Nov. 5: at San Francisco, Loss

          Nov. 15: vs. Jacksonville, Win

          Nov. 22: at Indianapolis, Win

          Nov. 29: vs. Chicago, Win

          Dec. 6: vs. Philadelphia, Loss

          Dec. 13: at Detroit, Win

          Dec. 19 or 20: vs. Carolina, Win

          Dec. 27: vs. Tennessee, Win

          Jan. 3: at Chicago, Win

          Strength of schedule: 18th, .504

          Breakdown

          Four of the first six are on the road, one of those is against Tom Brady, another is against Drew Brees. What a start to the 2020 schedule for the Packers. For the first time in franchise history, the Packers will open a season at the Vikings, in the first season-opening meeting between the two teams since a Monday Night Football opener at Lambeau in 2008. They close the season at another division rival, the Bears. In between are five prime-time games (including a Thursday night NFC title game rematch at the 49ers). The Packers’ meeting with Tom Brady and his new team in Tampa Bay is a late-afternoon game, for now, but is open to flex scheduling unless protected by a network.

          Cold-weather finish

          If coach Matt LaFleur indeed wants to focus his offense more on the run, then this is the schedule to do it. The final three games all have the potential to be winter-weather affairs: two at Lambeau against the Panthers and Titans and the finale at Chicago. The Week 16 game against Tennessee could be especially cold given than it’s slated for Sunday night. In all, the Packers have four home games after Thanksgiving.

          Request (partially) denied

          Packers president Mark Murphy told ESPN in February that he made two schedule requests that would put the team on the road for consecutive weeks in the first part of the season: Week 3 because of the Ryder Cup at nearby Whistling Straits and Week 4 because of the Wisconsin-Notre Dame game at Lambeau Field on Oct. 3. "For the Wisconsin game, we said the facility wasn't available and for the Ryder Cup we requested to be on the road," Murphy said at the time. The NFL put the Packers at the Saints on Ryder Cup weekend but scheduled the Packers to play at home against the Falcons on Monday Night Football, two days after Lambeau’s college football game. It not only puts stress on the playing surface and the crew who takes care of it but also denies the NFL’s smallest city a chance to add revenue it would get from a bonus weekend of football.