The Green Bay Packers improbable run to a NFC North Division title is now only one game away after a dominating 38-25 win over the Minnesota Vikings Saturday. It is an amazing turnaround for a team that looked ready for a regime change after losing four games in a row in the heart of their season. Now they are a win over the Detroit Lions away from reclaiming the division title they lost last season in week 17.
The Packers have a slim chance to make the playoffs as a wildcard if they lose, needing the New York Giants to win at Washington. The Redskins can get in the playoffs with a win while the Giants are locked in at number five. Not likely the Packers’ get any help there. So a Packers win would set up a Giants-Packers’ matchup at Lambeau. Ugh! Not again?
But first comes first, and the Packers need to beat a Lions’ team that has played them tough for years but have come up short in most of those contests, many in crazy finishes. Last year the Packers needed the Motor City Miracle to beat the Lions in Detroit, but lost in the discussion is Mason Crosby’s missed field goal as time expired in Lambeau in what should have been a Packers’ win. In other words, anything can happen Sunday and probably will.
The win over the Vikings is a hard one to judge, the Packers’ defense gave up a ton of yardage and looked really bad at times, no pressure on the QB and receivers running wide open. When the game was on the line, however, the Packers did hold the Vikings to field goals on their first two scoring drives and forced a key turnover when the Vikings were poised to tie the game up before the half.
This will never be a great defense and I highly doubt it can carry the Packers to the Super Bowl, but they might very well have enough to pull out the division next week in Detroit. The Packers have overcome a wide variety of weather conditions the last two months, snow for the Texans and Seahawks, bitter cold in Chicago and unseasonably warm against Minnesota, guessing the can’t wait to get indoors.
This will be the second time in two years the Packers and Lions have played for the division title in the last game of the season with the Packers beating the Lions 30-20 in Lambeau in 2014 to finish 12-4 and win the division by a game.
That Packers’ team had a defense that was pretty good all year until five minutes left in the NFC Championship game, this defense is solely based on bend, don’t break, and get turnovers. I’m not so sure they can hold up one more week.
The Packers have the momentum advantage, the rest advantage, and the quarterback advantage, to squeak out a victory, but I still think the odds are so against them.
More to come.