Kings of the North: Why the Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions
By Kenn Korb
Though both teams were officially in the playoffs by the time they took the field last Sunday, there was still plenty to fight for between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions.
The winner here would be kings of the NFC North — either a return to normalcy for Green Bay after a one-year absence from the top, or a drastically new reality for Detroit, a team which hadn’t come away with a division crown since the early days of Brett Favre in Wisconsin (1993, to be exact).
The loser would be relegated to traveling to face the Seahawks in Seattle, rather than getting at least one home game to boost their hopes of making a mark on this postseason.
It was rough going at first, with the Packers falling behind by a touchdown at one point, but they eventually worked their way around issues including penalties and finding enough healthy bodies to field a defense to come away with an eventual 31-24 win which wasn’t quite as close as the scoreboard would make it seem.
Here’s how they brought the win to fruition…