Packer Central

Packers Need One More Win To Clinch NFL Playoff Berth

The Green Bay Packers blasted the Minnesota Vikings and the Cleveland Browns beat the Washington Commanders to set up a make-or-break finale vs. the Detroit Lions.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers are four-fifths of the way to running the table and racing into the NFC playoffs.

The Packers routed the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday to improve to 8-8 behind a fourth consecutive victory. The rest of the NFC playoff hopefuls, meanwhile, have been knocked over like bowling pins.

On Sunday, the Cleveland Browns hit the road and upset the Washington Commanders, who had been in control of the NFC playoff spot. Combined with the Commanders, Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions losing last week, the Packers suddenly control their destiny.

All they’ve got to do – this will be no easy feat – is beat the Lions next weekend at Lambeau Field. Detroit is also 8-8 after its seventh win in nine games. Packers-Lions will be played on Sunday, kickoff time to be announced after the Monday night game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills.

If the Bengals lose to the Bills, presumably the Sunday night game would be Bengals-Ravens for the AFC North title. If the Bengals beat the Bills and clinch the AFC North, then Packers-Lions could be the Sunday night game.

Either way, Green Bay is thrilled to have a chance.

“Yeah, it’s been awesome. I can’t think of really one game that didn’t go our way,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said on Wednesday. “These games have consistently gone exactly how I wanted them to. I did see a stat a few weeks ago that based on the Vegas projections, the only game we needed to flip the rest of the season was going to be the Packers in Miami game where we’d be an underdog. I don’t know if that’s still the case based on what’s happened, but we took care of business in Miami and everybody else has helped us out. So, we’re thankful for all those games that went our way.”

The Commanders led 7-3 at halftime but Deshaun Watson threw touchdown passes of 46 yards to Amari Cooper and 13 yards to Donovan Peoples-Jones to take a 17-7 lead late in the third quarter. Cooper added a 33-yard touchdown catch with a 5:21 to go to make it 24-10. The fans filing into Lambeau Field roared their approval as the play was shown on the scoreboard.

“You’ll keep an eye on it,” left tackle David Bakhtiari said. “We’d like to know what the Washington and Brown game is but, at a certain point, you kind of shut your mind off on what’s going on out there and you control what you can control and I’m not going to be thinking about it up until kickoff. Whenever I get in the facility, it’s the Vikings and that’s about it.”

Here’s the state of the NFC.

- The Seattle Seahawks are 8-8 and in seventh place in the NFC after beating the New York Jets 23-6 at home. Geno Smith threw two touchdown passes and rookie running back Kenneth Walker rushed for 133 yards.

- The Detroit Lions are 8-8 and in eighth place in the NFC after crushing the Chicago Bears 41-10. Jared Goff threw three touchdown passes and the defense held Justin Fields to 7-of-21 passing.

- The Packers are in ninth place but here’s why they control their destiny. A victory over Detroit would move Green Bay past the Lions. Even if the Packers and Seahawks (home vs. the Rams) wind up tied at 9-8, Green Bay would win the tiebreaker based on the better conference record.

- The Commanders tumbled to 10th place in the NFC and out of the race after a third consecutive loss.

“I’m not overly concerned about it, to be honest with you,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Friday. “I know we’ve got a huge challenge in front of us and that’s the priority is making sure that my mind’s right, our guys’ minds are right for what we have coming in here on Sunday afternoon. So, not to say that you don’t [look at the scores], I mean, you see the scores.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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