Controlling Their Own Destiny: Green Bay One Win Away from the Playoffs

A month ago when the Green Bay Packers were sitting at 4-8 following a Sunday night loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the hope that they would win out and receive a ton of help to even sneak in a Wild Card spot was just wishful thinking.

Now, going into the final week of the season that hope has almost become reality following a 41-17 beatdown of the Minnesota Vikings in Week 17.

With a Commanders loss to the Cleveland Browns, the Packers fully control their own destiny for the NFC's 7th seed. A win over the rival Detroit Lions, who are also fighting for that final spot, would clinch a playoff berth for the Packers for the 4th season in a row under head coach Matt LaFleur.

But first, they had to take care of their business against the Vikings.

After Minnesota blocked an early Green Bay punt which set themselves up at the GB 5-yard line, the defensive front stymied Dalvin Cook and the Vikings settled for a field goal.

The lead was short-lived for Minnesota, and they never found a way to get back into the game.

On the ensuing kickoff, Keisean Nixon finally rewarded the special teams unit with his biggest return of the season, running 105 yards to the end zone for the Packers' first score of the game and the first kickoff return touchdown for Green Bay since Randall Cobb's 108-yard score in Week 1 of the 2011 season.

Two possessions later, the defense complemented special teams with their first takeaway of the game. Rasul Douglas deflected the ball from TJ Hockenson on a go route, and Darnell Savage took the interception back the other way for a 75-yard pick six to go up 14-3. It was the first time the Packers had scored a kickoff return touchdown and a pick six in the same quarter since October 1967.

The offense would cash in on scoring opportunities of their own in the first half. A pair of missed Vikings field goals and a second interception thrown by Kirk Cousins resulted in 13 points for a 27-3 Green Bay lead at the half.

The Packers never took their foot off the gas pedal, forcing two more turnovers and scoring two touchdowns off those takeaways in the second half. The Vikings scored two of their own in garbage time, but the game wasn't ever as close as the final score turned out to be.

Defensive coordinator Joe Barry learned his lesson from Week 1 about using too much zone coverage and went for a more aggressive approach with his defensive backs at the line of scrimmage. The NFL's leading receiver Justin Jefferson was limited to just 1 catch for 15 yards, and the defense held the Vikings to only 54 yards on 22 plays in the first quarter.

It made Kirk Cousins's day difficult, as he threw three interceptions and was strip sacked by Kenny Clark early in the third quarter, which killed any momentum the Vikings hoped for to get back into the game.

As for Aaron Rodgers, the 39-year old started slow but moved the ball around throwing 15 completions for 159 yards and a touchdown. Rodgers only completed one pass for more than 20 yards, but did not throw an interception and was only pressured on six dropbacks.

Allen Lazard caught 5 passes for 59 yards, with four of them going for a first down while Robert Tonyan caught Rodgers' only touchdown pass, with 3 catches for 52 yards alongside Lazard.

Aaron Jones rushed for 111 yards on 14 carries- only the fifth time this season Jones has rushed for more than 100 yards a game, but had an average of 8 yards per carry and provided pass-blocking help on the outside.

The 41-point game is the most for the Packers this season, and the first time they've scored 40+ points a game since Week 14 against the Bears last season.

The matchup in Week 18 is the third time in the last 10 years the finale between Green Bay and Detroit has some sort of playoff implication on the line between the two teams. 2014 and 2016 decided the NFC North, but this will decide the final NFC Wild Card spot. However, if Seattle wins against the Rams the Lions are eliminated before kickoff and instead will be playing spoiler to keep the Packers out of the postseason.

These two teams were in very different positions back in Week 9 when they last played each other. Green Bay was at 3-5 and Detroit was 1-6, with neither team near contention for a playoff spot. The 15-9 Lions win led to them winning 7 out of 9 games during the second half stretch, while the Packers' late season turnaround didn't become in motion until a win against the Bears in Week 13 started a four game win streak.

Detroit has averaged 30 points a game over the last 8 games, but the Packers defense has limited their opponents to an average of 17 points a game since their bye week. Green Bay has also earned 12 takeaways in the last 4 games (matching their total from the first 13 weeks), so the biggest keys will be limiting Jared Goff in the pocket and stopping the run in the short game.