After back-to-back losses dropped Green Bay from the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoff standings to the final wild-card-qualifier spot in the postseason field, Packers safety Xavier McKinney doesn’t think his team has much margin for error in the second half of the 2025 NFL season.
“I think it’s a must win,” McKinney said about Green Bay’s game against the New York Giants on Sunday. “I think we put ourselves kind of in a sticky situation. But it is what it is. Things happen. Obviously, everything don’t go always as planned, that you want it to go sometimes. But you got to make do with the circumstances that you have and the type of environment that it is, so that’s just what it is.”
The Packers have a 5-3-1 record after losing to the Carolina Panthers 16-13 on Nov. 2 and the Philadelphia Eagles 10-7 on Monday night. The Cleveland Browns got one of their two wins this season by upending Green Bay 13-10 on Sept. 21.
In their other six games this season, the Packers have scored at least 27 points.
Green Bay is the first team since the 1982 Pittsburgh Steelers to have three losses nine games into a season without yielding more than 16 points in any of those defeats. Between the 1982 Steelers and 2025 Packers, 16 teams suffered three losses without giving up more than 16 points in any of those defeats before they reached their 10th game. But those teams lost plenty of other games, too – none had a winning record after nine weeks of play as Green Bay does and Pittsburgh did. (The 1982 Steelers were 6-3 after nine games, which was their entire regular season because of games lost to a players strike.)
McKinney said the Packers defense won’t be pointing fingers at the Green Bay offense.
“We don’t go through OTAs and we don’t do all the running and all the lifting and just everything that we do inside the building and even outside the building, like, we don’t do all that stuff for no reason,” McKinney said. “We do that to build with each other. We do that so when we do have hard moments that we face and the adversities that we face, we’re able to come closer, so I just think that we’ve built a great relationship just throughout kind of each man in this locker room. We’ve built a great relationship with each other to know that even through tough times and knowing that the season will never be easy -- this league is not easy -- that we can stick together and overcome any obstacle that we may be faced with. So that’s just kind of our mindset.
“And really, if you think about it, it ain’t nothing we can do anyway. Like, we can’t grow apart. Like, we still got a whole season to play. It’s a long season. We still got a good-ass team. We got a championship-level team, so it’s like these times is really when you should come together even more because I think in the long run when we start getting into the playoffs and all that extra stuff, like, that’s going to help us out in the long run. I know it may not be seen now, but as the time goes on, I think it’ll show.”
Sunday’s game will mark a return to New York for McKinney. He entered the NFL from Alabama as a second-round selection of the Giants in the 2020 NFL Draft. Last year, McKinney left New York in free agency for a four-year, $67 million contract and earned first-team All-Pro recognition in his first season with the Packers.
“It’s my first time playing them since I’ve been gone,” McKinney said, “so I’m going to definitely have to be juiced up. But it’s all out of good intention and just looking to have a good game.”
New York had a 26-42-1 record during McKinney’s four seasons with the team, although the 2022 Giants won a playoff game.
“Man, it taught me a lot,” McKinney said. “Taught me patience. It taught me just resiliency. Just a lot of different lessons that I learned throughout the time of being there helped me build into the kind of the player I am today. And it wasn’t always easy. Obviously, it was a lot of ups and downs, a lot of hard, difficult times, and I went through life-changing moments while I was in New York. So those are times I definitely won’t ever forget, but it molded me into who I am today, and I’m grateful for that time that I spent there.”
The Alabama Game of the Week is the Detroit Lions-Philadelphia Eagles contest on Sunday night. The teams’ active rosters include 16 players from Alabama high schools and colleges.
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The Week 11 schedule (with all times Central and point spreads from BetMGM):
Thursday
New York Jets at New England Patriots (-13), 7:15 p.m. (Prime Video)
Sunday
Washington Commanders vs. Miami Dolphins (-2.5) in Madrid, Spain, 8:30 a.m. (NFL Network)
Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons (-3.5), noon
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Buffalo Bills (-5.5), noon (WIAT, WTVY, WHNT, WKRG, WAKA)
Los Angeles Chargers (-3) at Jacksonville Jaguars, noon
Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings (-3), noon
Green Bay Packers (-7) at New York Giants, noon (WBRC, WZDX, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)
Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers (-5.5), noon
Houston Texans (-6.5) at Tennessee Titans, noon
San Francisco 49ers (-2.5) at Arizona Cardinals, 3:05 p.m.
Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Rams (-3), 3:05 p.m.
Baltimore Ravens (-7.5) at Cleveland Browns, 3:25 p.m.
Kansas City Chiefs (-4) at Denver Broncos, 3:25 p.m. (WIAT, WTVY, WHNT, WKRG, WAKA)
Detroit Lions at Philadelphia Eagles (-2.5), 7:20 p.m. (NBC)
Monday
Dallas Cowboys (-3.5) at Las Vegas Raiders, 7:15 p.m. (ABC, ESPN)
The Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints do not play in Week 11.
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