Packer Central

With Playoffs at Stake, It’s Packers-Lions on Sunday Night

There’s plenty at stake for the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for their season-ending showdown at Lambeau Field. The NFL put the game in a featured spot.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will host the Detroit Lions on Sunday night with a trip to the NFL playoffs on the line.

The NFL announced its Week 18 schedule on Monday afternoon, with Packers-Lions at 7:20 p.m. on NBC.

“I do think the environment in Lambeau Field at nighttime is unlike any other place,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday. “So, hopefully, our fans show up and show out for us and support us. And don’t sell your tickets to the Lions fans, please.”

That last sentence no doubt was in reference to the number of Vikings fans who infiltrated Lambeau on Sunday.

The Packers, Lions and Seattle Seahawks are 8-8 entering Week 18. In the league’s scheduling decision, Green Bay is the clear and obvious winner.

Seattle will host the Los Angeles Rams (5-11) on Sunday afternoon. If the Seahawks beat the Rams – and they’re 6.5-point favorites against the injury-ravaged defending Super Bowl champions – the Lions will be eliminated before the night game even begins. That’s because if Seattle and Detroit both win and finish with 9-8 records, the Seahawks will get the playoff spot based on their head-to-head victory.

Thus, it’s possible the Lions will have nothing to play for on Sunday night. While they’re not going to roll over and play dead against the Packers, human nature is finicky. Will the Lions be dejected, knowing their fate is sealed? Will they lose their competitive spirit if they fall behind on a chilly Sunday night? On the other hand, a team with nothing to lose can be dangerous.

The Seahawks are losers, too. If Seattle gets the win it needs, it would need the Lions – with nothing to play for – to beat Green Bay.

Essentially, the NFL chose money – Green Bay is a flagship franchise and sure to generate massive TV ratings in a win-and-in game – over the competitive balance of having Green Bay-Detroit and Seattle-Los Angeles playing at the same time on Sunday afternoon.

The NFL could have waited until after Monday night’s Buffalo-Cincinnati game to make its decision. If the Bills knock off the Bengals, Cincinnati will play Baltimore for the AFC North championship on Sunday. That would have been a compelling Sunday night game.

Instead, the NFL is going with Green Bay-Detroit in the primetime slot, a decision the league could have made on Sunday night rather than waiting until Monday.

The Packers have won four consecutive games to dig their way out of a 4-8 hole and put themselves in position to earn a fourth consecutive playoff berth under coach Matt LaFleur. Having gotten all the help they needed, including the Cleveland Browns knocking off the Washington Commanders on Sunday, the Packers will be in with a win.

It’s not so cut and dried for the Lions or Seahawks. Oddly, the Packers are in ninth place in the NFC standings but control their destiny while the seventh-place Seahawks and eighth-place Lions do not.

“The fact that we came back from 4-8 and put ourselves in the position to make the playoffs is pretty special,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said on Sunday. “Now, I believe that a lot has happened in our favor and that’s pretty obvious. Every game that needed to go our way just about went our way. …

“I know not many people in that locker room – and definitely not many people of you people – believed we’d be sitting here at 8-8 controlling our own destiny going into Week 18. It’s pretty special.”

The Packers lost 15-9 at Detroit in December. Rodgers threw three interceptions in that game. It was Green Bay’s fifth consecutive loss and sent it to 3-6. For Detroit, the victory kicked off its season-ending stretch of seven wins in nine games following a 1-6 start.

“I’ve been counted out many times in my life as have many of my teammates, and I hope we just dig deep and find a way,” Rodgers said at the time. “We will truly be underdogs for many games moving forward. Hopefully, we can embrace that.”

The Packers are favored for the rematch.

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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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