The Green Bay Packers, at point this season, were 2-5 and seemed to be spiraling. The season started off as good as anyone could have asked, with Green Bay demolishing their archrival Chicago Bears while Jordan Love threw three touchdown passes and the offense rolled.
But the optimism was short-lived for many. David Bakhtiari was lost for the season, Aaron Jones suffered a hamstring injury that kept him out for a few weeks, and the Packers lost their Week Two game against the Atlanta Falcons despite leading for most of the game.
Then, in Week Three, Green Bay was held scoreless for three quarters in their home opener before Love and the offense scored 18 unanswered points in the fourth for the largest fourth quarter comeback in team history. But then the four-game losing streak hit, with the Packers dropping games to the Detroit Lions, Las Vegas Raiders, Denver Broncos, and Minnesota Vikings.
Aside from the loss to Detroit, Green Bay was in every game despite failing to score touchdowns in the first half of any of those games. In fact, in their six losses this season, Green Bay has only lost two of them by more than one score.
Now at 5-6, things are looking up for the Packers, who have won three of their last four games, the last being a convincing 29-22 victory over the Lions on Thanksgiving that was not as close as the final score made it appear. And best of all, they now have a real chance at making the NFL Playoffs.
Where the Green Bay Packers Stand in the Race for the NFL Playoffs
As hard as it may be to believe, the Packers are just one game outside of the final spot in the NFC playoff picture. Furthermore, they hold tiebreakers over many of the other teams that are in the race along with them:
The NFC rn pic.twitter.com/fou0GqvY0C
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) November 27, 2023
As seen in the graphic above, the Packers have identical records with the Saints and Los Angeles Rams, whom they defeated already this year. This means, of course, that if Green Bay were to finish with the same record as either of those two teams, they would hold the tiebreaker over them.
Ahead of the Packers in the hunt for the NFL playoffs are the Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, and Dallas Cowboys. Both Minnesota and Seattle are 6-5, though the Vikings play on Monday night against the Chicago Bears.
Green Bay has one more game against the Vikings this season, a Week 17 matchup in Minnesota.
The other teams Green Bay faces to close out the year are:
- vs Kansas City Chiefs
- at New York Giants
- vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- at Carolina Panthers
- at Minnesota Vikings
- vs Chicago Bears
The bad news is that all of these games are very winnable. The next six Packers’ opponents have a combined winning percentage of ..508. This is the second-highest winning opponent winning percentage of any of the teams vying for the sixth and seventh playoff spots in the NFC. The Rams have the toughest strength of schedule, with their opponents having a combined .528.
According to FanDuel, Green Bay has +118 odds to make the playoffs, or a 45.9% chance.
They are +6.5 underdogs to beat the Chiefs at home next week.
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1 Comment
A shame the Bears couldn’t hang on against the Lions. Goff has always been bad and it seems the Lions are doing it with smoke and mirrors and really aren’t a good team after all.
We could be in the hunt for the division yet, but maybe we can still get the Wild Card.