The Green Bay Packers are back in the NFL playoffs for a franchise record sixth consecutive year and can be as high as the No. 1 seed or as low as No. 6. It would take a minor miracle for the Packers to get the top seed but a win over Detroit Sunday would leave them at no worse than No. 2.
Against the Bucs yesterday the Packers used an aggressive defensive performance to grind out a 20-3 win in Tampa. The Packers’ offense got another solid performance from running back Eddie Lacy, whose 44-yard touchdown run got the Packers on the board and in the end was all they needed. An under the weather Aaron Rodgers took what the defense gave him in completing 31 of his 40 passes for 315 yards and a TD.
Today I actually heard national radio pundits wondering what is wrong with Rodgers, claiming he’s now had two bad games in a row. What a joke. I guess completing 78% of your passes is a bad game now. Rodgers has raised the bar of quarterbacking so high that a day Jay Cutler would die for is considered a poor performance. Crazy stuff.
The real story of yesterday’s game was the defense completely shutting down the Bucs’ offense. Yes, like Buffalo the previous week, Tampa Bay is seriously offensively challenged, but holding an NFL team without a TD two weeks in a row is pretty good defense by any standards.
The Packers’ defense will have a chance to show its mettle against the Lions with the NFC North Division title on the line. With the exception of the second half of the Atlanta game the defense has been much improved since the bye week, but now it’s crunch time. Since winning the Super Bowl in 2010 the Packers have been ripped in the playoffs by the 49ers and Giants and much of it has to do with the play of the defense – it has been good enough to win in the regular season but not when the stakes are high.
The Lions have the league’s second ranked defense and gave the Packers’ fits last September in Detroit.
The early forecast is for a high temperature of 22 Sunday which means it will be in the teens by halftime probably. With little wind, weather will not be a factor the game.