The Green Bay Packers lost a barnburner Thursday night, falling 34-31 to the Detroit Lions in a tussle that changed hands five times in the second half. The defeat pushed Matt LaFleur's club to 9-4, three wins behind the 12-1 Lions, essentially relegating them to the wild-card race.
After getting swept by the Lions this season, LaFleur told his club the goal now is to return to Detroit for a postseason grudge match.
"Like I told our team, we have to earn the right to potentially come back here," LaFleur said, via the team's official website. "It's not going to be easy, and we have to put in the work, but I'm confident in the resiliency of our group.
"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."
The Packers gave the one-loss Lions everything they could handle, with Jordan Love dropping dimes against an injury-plagued defense and Josh Jacobs rolling up three touchdowns. However, the defense, which has allowed 19.6 points per game to all non-Detroit opponents but 29.0 in two games to the Lions, couldn't get off the field late.
Green Bay is 7-2 over the past nine games with both losses coming to Detroit. Packers players are confident they could get to a potential third matchup in January.
"We're definitely going to be back here, and we'll be excited to play them again once we do," defensive lineman Kenny Clark said. "But it's tough, it's a tough loss. Gotta get better from here, and we will get better from here."
The Packers showed they have the mettle to compete with the NFL's top clubs, nearly stealing a road division game despite missing some key starters. The next step is getting over the "just shy" hump. All four of the Packers' losses in 2024 have come against teams with 10-plus wins.
For LaFleur, the slow start, getting down 10-0 after a Christian Watson fumble, ultimately sunk the Pack.
"We just started, especially on the offensive side of the ball, too slow," LaFleur said. "I mean, we go, punt, punt, fumble, then we score a touchdown. So you know, it's only a handful of plays that separate these types of games."
At 9-4, Green Bay might be out on the division race (Next Gen Stats puts their current chances of winning the NFC North at 2 percent), but barring a complete disaster of a meltdown, they'll be dancing in January (97 percent odds to make the playoffs, per NGS). From there, much like a year ago, they'll have a shot to go on the road and play spoiler.
