GREEN BAY – In the most highly anticipated game this weekend the Green Bay Packers play host to the New England Patriots Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field. The game features two first-place teams and two MVP, Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks in Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.

Green Bay has won seven of eight, and New England has won seven straight. The teams are 1-2 in the league in scoring and star players are littered about both sides of the ball.
Then you have a defensive minded, Super Bowl-winning coach in Bill Belichick and an offensive-minded, Super Bowl-winning coach in Mike McCarthy.

Everything, on paper at least, points to an exciting, tightly contested game.

But, the games aren’t played on paper are they?

There are plenty of concerns for the Packers going into this game, and it frankly could trend in the direction of the team’s 36-16 beatdown in Seattle in week 1 or disappointing loss in New Orleans in week 8 than any of their recent dominant showings.

Here are five things to watch for Sunday afternoon:

Lambeau Field

^{Photo: Jim Owczarski}

The Packers are 5-0 at home this year with an average score of 44-17. The Patriots are 2-2 on the road and have been outscored 116-113 – but they do have two road wins during this streak and have outscored Buffalo and Indianapolis 79-42 in those games.

It is always hard to win on the road in the NFL, no matter how good a team is, and it seems like this Packers team has found a comfort zone in their renovated and expanded home field after going 4-4-1 at home last year.

Now, the combined record of the teams the Packers have beaten at home stands at 22-32-1 and includes only one winning team (Philadelphia). All four of the Patriots’ road games have come against teams with a winning record, including two teams currently in the playoffs, for a combined record of 26-18.

Will Lambeau field be a true advantage, or have the Packers just benefitted from playing easier opponents at home?

The Gronk

Rob Gronkowski is 6-feet, 6-inches tall and weighs 265 pounds. He runs the 40 in 4.6 seconds.

He is literally bigger than every linebacker on the Packers roster except for Julius Peppers (6-7. 287), who is playing the position for the first time. He dwarfs every defensive back on the roster. It is folly to ask "who can cover ‘The Gronk?"

No one can.

At least, no one in the NFL.

The question is what Dom Capers decides to do to contain him. Can the Packers afford to take Peppers away from the ball and have him shadow a player who is nine years younger?

Do they think a limited Clay Matthews (groin) can do it at times? Because A.J. Hawk, Brad Jones, Jamari Lattimore, Sam Barrington, et al. assuredly cannot.

Or, do they just let the Gronk run wild and focus their efforts on the other receivers? The thing is, Gronk is a player who can literally take over a game if he’s allowed to. And Brady wouldn’t be shy to just feed him the ball.

Who’s next?

That is Jonas Gray, cover boy one week, benched the next. The Patriots aren’t really a running team – they have only topped 100 yards on the ground as a team four times – but Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels aren’t shy about turning into a ground-and-pound team if that’s what will win them a game.

No doubt Capers will watch the film of the Patriots’ 42-20 road win in Indianapolis two weeks ago. The Colts didn’t have a lot of beef, or solid tacklers, in their front seven. So, the Patriots ran it 44 times for 246 yards with Gray, a bruiser, doing most of the damage (37 carries, 201 yards, 4 TD). But now, LeGarrett Blount is back in the fold, and Stevan Ridley has two, 100-yard rushing games under his belt as well.

Even Shane Vereen, who is more of a pass catching threat than a runner, averages 4.4 yards per carry.

The Packers remain awful against the run (30th in the league) and they really haven’t been tested in that regard since the loss in New Orleans. Chicago and Philadelphia had to go away from their talented running backs due to the quick deficits.

The question isn’t if New England is going to run it, but who and how often. Can the Packers prevent another player from earning cover-boy treatment?

Will we see these smiles?

^{Photo: Jim Biever/Packers.com}

Way back in week 1, the Packers lined Jarrett Boykin up on the Richard Sherman’s side of the field in Seattle and didn’t throw at one of the league’s best corners one time. Conversely, Jordy Nelson saw 14 targets, of which he caught nine for 83 yards.

This week, Darrelle Revis comes to town and Belichick doesn’t keep one of the league’s premier corner man on an island. No, Revis moves around. And, he may end up shadowing Randall Cobb, taking away Rodgers’ third-down (and red zone) security blanket. And then there’s Brandon Browner, a 6-4, 221-pound monster of a corner who knows Nelson well from his previous engagements with the Packers as a member of the Seattle secondary.

The Packers top two wideouts have put up monster numbers, but they haven’t faced individuals who can cover them one-on-one – not like this. Usually, one is attracting attention from the other. In this case, the Patriots can focus on Eddie Lacy and send help to other areas, or completely take one of these receivers out of the mix. How often Cobb and Nelson can win their individual matchups against these two corners may go a long way in determining who wins the game.

Will it be Clay or the Claymaker?

^{Photo: Jim Biever/Packers.com}

Believe it or not, but the Packers have completed their first 11 games and Clay Matthews has played in all of them. Why is that noteworthy? Because it’s the first time that has happened since 2011. His production is about what it was in 2011, when he registered just six sacks in 15 games. He did have three interceptions, set a career high in forced fumbles with three and passes defensed with nine, and he made 55 tackles, five short of a career high.
This year, Matthews has been moved inside and is dealing with a problematic groin, but has just 4 ½ sacks. He does have an interception and two forced fumbles, and an additional six passes defensed with 37 tackles.

And last week, he was taken off the field in obviously pass rush situations – some believe it was to guard against further injury – and it ended a three-game sack streak that had started in New Orleans. Matthews can’t cover Rob Gronkowski, and he probably can’t cover Tim Wright, so his impact will have to come in stopping the run and bringing down Tom Brady, who has been sacked 14 times this year.

Will Matthews be that playmaker, the guy who was all over the field against the Bears, who brought down Drew Brees? Or will he be the guy who totaled just a half sack and eight tackles over a five week stretch before that?