GREEN BAY — Malik Willis wasn’t especially interested in retelling his football life story this week. He had an injured right shoulder to treat, a flu bug to kick and an offensive game plan to master in case he got the call to start at quarterback for the Green Bay Packers — something he’d done with success previously — on Saturday night against the Baltimore Ravens at Lambeau Field.

But what Willis was willing to do was express his gratitude — to the Packers and head coach Matt LaFleur for helping unlock his talent; to the Tennessee Titans for underestimating, misevaluating him and ultimately trading him to the Packers before the 2024 season — while also emphasizing that he always thought he was capable of being a good NFL player, even if the Titans decided otherwise.

“I mean, there’s nothing like somebody believing in you. But it starts with yourself,” Willis said a few days before the Packers announced that starter Jordan Love hadn’t cleared the NFL’s concussion protocol and would be out against Ravens — making Willis the starter.

“What are you doing that prepares you [for] when you get the opportunity to put something on tape? Because that’s what this league is about, being able to put good stuff on tape, and somebody will take a chance then. But if you don’t have anything good on tape, nobody’s willing to be behind you. So it’s awesome that Matt feels that way [about me].”

Does he ever. And that’s why LaFleur and the rest of the Packers (9-5-1) are confident that they can beat the Ravens (7-8) even without their franchise quarterback.

And, that they can do it without having to cobble together a vastly different game plan than the one they’d use if Love was playing — unlike the run-heavy play-calling approach he took when Willis led the Packers to Week 2 and 3 wins over Indianapolis and Tennessee last season when he started two games Love missed with a knee injury he sustained in the 2024 regular-season opener in Brazil.

“He’s just had so much more exposure to just the full gamut of what you have in your playbook by having a whole offseason here,” LaFleur explained. “That is absolutely critical for all players, but especially at that position. So you learn all the intricacies and details and why you want to run what you’re running. I think that allows them to go out there and execute at a higher level.

“He’s done a hell of a job, man. I think it’s all about his approach, how he came in here, how open he was to being coached. I feel like the more he plays, the better he’s gotten. It’s great to have a guy like him who you have so much confidence in.”

Willis played well in relief of Love in last Saturday’s 22-18 overtime loss to the Chicago Bears after Love departed with a concussion during the second quarter, completing 9 of 11 passes for 121 yards with a gorgeous 33-yard touchdown pass to Romeo Doubs and no interceptions (142.8 passer rating). He also ran 10 times for 44 yards.

“Every time we’ve needed him, he’s come through — and given us a chance to win,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “We’ll see what the future holds for him but I think he’s really helped himself out, for sure, with what he’s done the last two years here.”

For his part, Willis, who injured his throwing shoulder at the end of regulation against the Bears and missed Wednesday’s practice after contracting the illness that has infected the locker room this week, insisted he’s not thinking about what another strong performance could do for his earning power when his contract expires after the season.

“I think it’s just taking advantage of those times that weren’t great and trusting in God’s plan for my life and learning from each situation that I’ve been in,” Willis said. “[It’s about] taking all the good I could from it and just being able to get a chance to utilize it. I just didn’t get a chance to get on the field [with the Titans], so you can’t really say whether this offense, it made me get better or not. It’s just, I didn’t have the chance to do anything.”

In addition to how Willis performs, here’s are three other aspects to the matchup worth watching:

1️⃣ — BACKUP PLAN

The Packers aren’t the only team in this game who’ll be starting their backup quarterback. With two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson listed as doubtful with a back contusion he sustained last Sunday in a loss to the New England Patriots, the Ravens almost certainly will start Tyler Huntley in his place.

Huntley has started 10 games (including one playoff game) in place of an injured Jackson, including one this season. He’s completed 76.6% of his passes for 319 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions for a 101.3 passer rating.

Just as importantly, the Ravens don’t have to overhaul their game-planning with Huntley in the lineup.

“Both of those guys are extremely athletic. The one thing that’s unique, I would say, about them versus maybe some other teams is they’re going to run their offense because both of those guys are capable of beating you with their arm or they can beat you with their legs,” LaFleur said.

“There’s a lot of similarities; I would say there’s more similarities than not. Certainly, Lamar has been an MVP of this league, so we all know the type of talent that he has.”

Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley treaded lightly when comparing the two quarterbacks, given Jackson’s accomplishments, but made it cleat that Huntley is a threat, too.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Lamar and say it’s just going to be the same thing. I have a ton of respect for him and what he’s done in this league and how dynamic he is,” Hafley said. “I don’t want to say, ‘It’s just the same thing no matter who plays quarterback,’ because I think that’s unfair to Lamar and what he’s done in this league and how dynamic he is.

“[But] as far as scheme, I don’t think the scheme will change very much. Certainly, they might have wrinkles in what Huntley is more comfortable in doing, just like any other coach would do with his player. But if you go back and watch the games he’s played in, it’s similar. He can run the ball, he can throw the ball, he moves well in the pocket, he can escape coverages, he can scramble, he’s a good athlete who’s been in the league for quite a while.”

2️⃣— OH, HENRY!

Packers running back Josh Jacobs didn’t get to be teammates at Alabama with Derrick Henry when the Ravens star running back was with the Crimson Tide — Jacobs arrived on campus as a freshman in 2016, but he heard the larger-than-life stories and got to meet him several times when he returned to campus. They’ve since become friends.

“Obviously he’s, like, a legend there, so you hear a lot about the stories about things he used to like squat 500 pounds after a game and stuff like that,” Jacobs said at midweek. “He used to just come back in the summer and train with us.

“Still to this day, certain things that he used to do out there when we were training, I’m like, ‘I don’t know how anybody could do this.’”

Henry enters the game having rushed 251 times for 1,253 yards and 12 touchdowns, well off his 2020 pace (when he had 2,027 yards) and last season’s pace (when he had 1,921 yards). He’s also fumbled four times this season, which Hafley said gives his turnover-starved defense an opportunity to get the takeaways that have eluded the unit for much of the year.

“I don’t think there’s many knocks on him, because he’s big and fast and he’s hard to bring down,” Hafley said. “And it’s more carries, more chances for him to fumble the ball, more chances [for the defense] to attack the ball. So we’ll do everything we can to take the ball from him.”

3️⃣ — SINGING THE RED-ZONE BLUES

The Packers offense traversed the Bears’ 20-yard line five — five! — times during their overtime loss at Soldier Field last Saturday night, and they never got in the end zone a single time.

That 0-for-5 against the Bears combined with a 1-for-4 against the Denver Broncos the previous week took one of the NFL’s best red-zone offenses and dropped the Packers to a middling 16th (a 58.93% touchdown rate).

Before the Broncos-Bears debacles, the Packers had scored touchdowns on 32 of 47 red-zone trips in the first 13 games — a 68.08% success rate, the second-best in the NFL at the time.

“Yeah, it hasn’t been good enough. Flat out. We’ve been bad,” Stenavich said. “Against the Broncos, we had some penalties and things like that where anytime you’re in the red zone and you get those negative plays, that’s really going to hurt your chances of scoring a touchdown.

“Against the Bears, we just didn’t do a good job executing the plays and we obviously need to do a better job — coaches, players, everybody — so that when we get in there we score touchdowns because, if you’re kicking too many field goals or not getting enough points, obviously, it’s going to be very hard to win.”

Exactly why the Packers have been so bad inside the 20-yard line of late has been hard to pinpoint, LaFleur said, because it hasn’t just been one or two issues.

“Everything that you can think of has hurt us. You know what I mean?” LaFleur confessed. “There’s some things that teams have done that kept us a little off balance. Certainly sometimes, I wish we had a better play call. Then there’s times where we have to absolutely execute better — we’ve got to focus and finish, whether it’s a block, whether it’s finishing with the ball.

“We had a turnover. We’ve had penalties. Those are drive-stopping plays, obviously, and you can’t have those down there. Period.”

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