With 9-4 Record, Are Packers Good Team or Fraud?

With a showdown at the streaking Seattle Seahawks coming up on Sunday night, the Packers are just 2-4 against teams with winning records.

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LeFleur celebrates with quarterback Jordan Love (10) after a touchdown at Detroit. / Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With a 9-4 record through Week 14, only six teams have a better record than the Green Bay Packers. Even after Thursday night’s loss to the Detroit Lions, the Packers practically are locks to return to the playoffs.

Green Bay’s record, the performance of quarterback Jordan Love and the history of coach Matt LaFleur suggest the Packers are Super Bowl contenders.

However, there is one reason to doubt Green Bay’s resume.

Who have they beaten?

Here are Green Bay’s nine victories:

Colts (6-7), Titans (3-10), Rams (7-6), Cardinals (6-7), Texans (8-5), Jaguars (3-10), Bears (4-9), 49ers (6-7), Dolphins (6-7). Total record: 49-68.

And here are Green Bay’s four losses:

Eagles (11-2), Vikings (11-2), Lions (twice; 12-1). Total record: 46-6.

Green Bay’s opponents have a .562 winning percentage. Only the Falcons (.595), Cardinals (.592) and Raiders (.571) have faced a stronger overall schedule.

However, Green Bay’s strength of victory is only .419. That’s in the middle of the pack among the 14 projected playoff teams.

It’s true: You can only beat who’s on the schedule.

But this is also true: There are no cupcakes on the playoff buffet. With a Sunday night showdown at the surging Seattle Seahawks on the horizon, the Packers are just 2-4 against teams with winning records.

Those two wins weren’t overly impressive.

The Packers needed a late stop to win at the Rams, who played without receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua and tight end Tyler Higbee.

The Packers needed a walk-off field goal to beat the Texans, who played without star receiver Nico Collins as well as two starting linebackers, a starting cornerback and a starting safety. The Texans are 6-2 with Collins, who leads the NFL in receiving yards per game.

Green Bay also beat the 49ers, who had been slammed by injuries, the Cardinals, who lost receiver Marvin Harrison on the opening series, and the Dolphins, who have shown a complete inability to beat good teams or win in cold weather.

Green Bay’s four losses are against the best three teams in the NFC. Its strength of defeat is a preposterous .885. Against teams whose quarterback is in the top 10 in passer rating, they are 1-4.

There’s no shame in losing to elite teams with elite quarterbacks, but beating elite teams is what’s required to be elite. Lombardi Trophies aren’t handed out for sweeping the AFC South or beating Will Levis.

In their 34-31 loss at the Lions, the Packers showed they are worthy of another shot at Detroit in the playoffs. They rallied from a 17-7 halftime deficit but were torched by Jared Goff and lost on a walk-off field goal.

Josh Jacobs ran for three touchdowns and Love was so dominant during the second half that Lions coach Dan Campbell bet the game on a fourth-and-1 conversion.

“We’re going to see them again,” Jacobs said. “That’s the beauty of it all. Take these feelings, process them and go back to work.

“They’re a good team. We’ll see them again,” tight end Tucker Kraft added.

Perhaps, but Green Bay squandered a golden opportunity to get back into the NFC North race – and the race for the No. 1 seed – by losing to a team that was playing backups of backups at multiple positions on defense. That defense dominated the first 30 minutes and allowed just one third-down conversion the entire game.

With 18 players on injured reserve and four starters on the inactives list, the odds were stacked against the Lions.

They won, anyway.

“This is sweet. I told the team, ‘This will be one of those you never forget,’” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “What we’ve had to overcome, the hand we were dealt, and I just love the fact (that) our guys don’t make excuses, they just find a way. Everybody on this team believed we were going to win that game, and we were going to find a way, and we just, we did it again. We did it again. Guys did it.”

While Green Bay has struggled against the top teams, the Lions have dominated. Only the Ravens (.535) have a higher strength of victory than the Lions (.510), who have two wins over the Packers as well as victories at the Vikings and Texans.

Having won six of the last eight games in the series and earning their second sweep in three years, the Lions spoke boldly about their superiority.

“They try to be competitive, but you can tell they’re not competitive,” cornerback Amik Robertson said. “We the real dawgs. When we go out there, we hunting, we ain’t the hunted. I know the real them. Great team, man, but I feel like it’s a lot of pretenders.”

That’s tough talk. But it’s also real talk until proven otherwise.

The Packers will have their chance to earn an unquestioned quality win on Sunday night at Seattle. After a lengthy midseason slump, the Seahawks have returned from their bye to win four consecutive games. With an 8-5 record, they are leading the NFC West. Geno Smith leads the NFL in passing yards.

“It’s only a handful of plays that separate these types of games,” LaFleur said after the Detroit game. “Like I told our team, we’re going to have to earn the right to potentially come back here, and it’s not going to be easy. 

“We’ve got to put in the work and, but I’m confident in the resiliency of our group and that they’re going to continue to fight and push each other to get better and stay connected, because I do think we have a pretty good football team.”

Pretty good will get them in the playoffs.

But not much more.

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