Playoff Push: Packers Face High-Stakes Showdown With Lions as Playoff Probabilities Hang in…
Between the end of practice and the start of his Sunday news conference, Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur watched a bit of the Minnesota Vikings’ game against the Arizona Cardinals.
“You’ll have to tell me what happens,” LaFleur said.
Only a moment earlier, Aaron Jones scored the go-ahead touchdown for the Vikings and Shaq Griffin intercepted Kyler Murray to clinch a 23-22 win for Minnesota.
“Uh,” LaFleur said. He hung his head for a moment. Only he knows if the dejection was real.
The good news: The computers say the Packers have all but locked up a playoff spot. According to The New York Times and ESPN the Packers have a 99 percent chance to reach the playoffs. At NFL.com, it’s 96 percent.
Now the bad news: The Packers have won three consecutive games but haven’t been able to make up a bit of ground in the NFC North.
State of the NFC North
With Week 13 complete in the North and the Packers getting ready for a battle against the first-place Detroit Lions on Thursday night, here are the division standings:
Detroit Lions: 11-1 and have won 10 in a row.
Minnesota Vikings: 10-2 and have won five in a row.
Green Bay Packers: 9-3 and have won three in a row.
Chicago Bears: 4-8 and have lost six in a row.
For the Packers, this is their last stand. Their last chance to not just make a run at a division championship but earn homefield advantage with the No. 1 seed.
Packers safety Xavier McKinney embraced the magnitude of the game.
“This game’s important. I understand that, we understand that as a team,” he said. “We got a tough division, as you can see – the Vikings won today again. This game is going to be important for us moving forward toward the end of this thing, and we’re going to treat it as such and we’re going to get ready and prepare the right way and be ready to go Sunday. Or Thursday.”
The top three teams in the North have won a combined 30 games. With the Sunday night and Monday night games to be played, the most wins for any four-team division are the AFC West’s 28.
By total record, the NFC North is 34-14 while the AFC West is 28-20.
“I still think Chicago is no slouch of a team,” center Josh Myers said. “The entire North has been just incredibly competitive this year. It’s been fun to watch. There’s a lot of good teams. It’s challenging to play in.”
The Packers would be running away with the NFC West and NFC South titles. Instead, they’re in third place.
“I guess it’s just a tribute to the toughness of the North,” tight end Tucker Kraft said. “Teams in the North, we’re just playing tough football. We’re trying to win our division, get that first-round bye.”
