The NFL announced that the Green Bay Packers will open the 2024 season against the Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This will also be the first NFL regular season game played in South America. But this is not the first time the Packers have played international games. With that in mind, here is a look back at the Packers previous games that were played outside the United States. They include three preseason games and one in the regular season.

Packers International Games, Number One: August 16, 1997, vs Buffalo at Toronto

The Packers were the defending Super Bowl champions when they headed north to Canada to face the Buffalo Bills in what was part of the American Bowl series of preseason games in front of 53,896 fans.

Brett Favre played a little more than a quarter of the game but left his mark. He threw two touchdown passes to Antonio Freeman from 18 and three yards out. Dorsey Levens scored on a 25-yard touchdown run as the Packers first string offense moved the ball easily on the Bills starting defense.

The Packers were confident and improved to 4-0 on the preseason with the commanding 35-3 win.

After Favre left, Doug Pederson threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Mayes and Aaron Hayden ran 15 yards for another score. Reggie White also had two sacks for the Packers in limited action.

Number Two: August 2, 1998, vs Kansas City at Tokyo, Japan

One year later, the defending NFC champion Packers traveled to Tokyo to face the Kansas City Chiefs. While the team wasn’t happy with the way they played, Green Bay came away with a 27-24 overtime win on Ryan Longwell’s 27-yard field goal. The game was a sellout with 42,018 fans in attendance.

The Packers played four quarterbacks in this game. Favre got the start followed by Pederson, Matt Hasselbeck, and David Klingler. Only Favre failed to lead them on a scoring drive.

Glyn Milburn had a big day as a kick returner, breaking off a 76-yard effort. Meanwhile, wide receiver Bill Schroeder caught seven passes for 155 yards. This was a key, breakout performance by a player who was fighting for a job.

The Packers overcame an early 14-0 deficit to win their preseason opener in what would be their final season under Mike Holmgren.

Packers International Games, Number Three: August 23, 2019, vs Oakland at Winnipeg, Canada

The Packers met the Raiders in a game that ended up being quite strange. It was played on a modified 80-yard field because of concerns about the turf. The goal posts had been moved from the CFL-sized field to the NFL one. Only 21,992 fans showed up for the game, about two-thirds of capacity, to see the Packers face the Raiders.

Rookie head coach Matt LaFleur held Aaron Rodgers out of the game and rested 33 players altogether in what would eventually become a trend for his teams.

The Packers lost this game 22-21 on a 33-yard field goal by Daniel Carson with eight seconds left in the game. All the Packers points came in the second quarter.

Tim Boyle had a big day for the Packers, throwing for 191 yards and two touchdowns while finishing with a quarterback rating of 113.9.

Trevor Davis led all Packers receivers with five catches for 78 yards and a touchdown. Jake Kumerow caught the other scoring pass. Running back Tra Carson ran for the third Green Bay touchdown.

Number Four: October 9, 2022, vs. NY Giants, London, England

This was the first time the Packers played a game outside the United States that counted in the standings. It was also their first foreign game against an NFC opponent.

The Packers entered the game with a 3-1 record. Green Bay led 20-10 at halftime on a pair of touchdown passes by Rodgers and a pair of field goals by Mason Crosby. But the Giants dominated the second half and led 27-20 when Rodgers put together one more drive. Unfortunately, the drive stalled at the Giants 6 with 1:05 seconds left.

After the Giants took an intentional safety, things got worse for the Packers. On the final play of the game, Rodgers suffered a broken thumb which hampered him for much of the rest of the season.

The Packers fell 27-22 and went on a five-game losing streak. They finished the season 8-9 and missed the playoffs.

 

 

 

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