The Green Bay Packers have kept the top spot in the NFC North going into playoffs, despite losing the regular-season finale. | Wikilmages/Pixabay
The Green Bay Packers have kept the top spot in the NFC North going into playoffs, despite losing the regular-season finale. | Wikilmages/Pixabay
The Green Bay Packers’ regular-season finale 37-30 loss to the Detroit Lions was a win on a couple of levels, pundits said.
The Packers kept the top spot in the NFC North going into playoffs, having finished with a season record of 13-4.
“Forget the final score at Ford Field,” a statement on NFL.com said. “The Packers won on Sunday because they got David Bakhtiari back. The All-Pro left tackle, sidelined since tearing his ACL in practice on the last day of 2020, made a surprise return to the lineup in what served as a postseason dress rehearsal. Bakhtiari was on the field for 27 snaps against the Lions. The team hopes he'll be able to play four quarters when the Packers reemerge in the Divisional Round.”
The Packers, 13-time World Champions, haven’t played their best game yet this season, Packers.com writer Mike Spofford said.
“We saw them do that in Week 16 each of the last two years (at Minnesota to clinch the North in '19, vs. Tennessee in the prime-time blowout last season), and it helped carry them a ways,” Spofford said. “That best game is still out there this time.”
Followers were offered encouragement from Andy Herman, owner of “Pack-A-Day Podcast.”
“Three wins and your Green Bay Packers are Super Bowl champs. All that matters,” Herman tweeted on Twitter.