The Packers Path to the Playoffs

The Pack had a dominant victory last night over the Seattle Seahawks, winning 30-13 and scoring their first victory in Seattle since 2008. It was a great feeling. But where do we go from here?
At current moment, the Packers’ “magic number” is 1. Just 1 more victory, and the worst they can do is be the #7 seed. But to keep our current position as the #6 seed? That’s slightly more complicated, but not by a lot.

Mathematically, their magic number to keep the #6 seed is 3. Realistically, it’s more like 2. But it depends how things play out. The only real threats to our position are the Commanders, Rams, and Seahawks.
Concerning the Rams and the Seahawks, one of them will win their division. The other? Well, it doesn’t matter who it is because we have a tie-breaker over both. Just 1 more victory puts them both out of reach no matter what else happens. That leaves the Commanders.
The Commanders have the Eagles on Sunday, so things aren’t looking good for them. But they have the Falcons and Cowboys after that. Certainly not “gimme’s”, but they have a solid chance to sneak by both. We just need to hope for the probable situation where the Eagles finish them easily on Sunday, and take care of business ourselves against a very easy Saints team on Monday.

From there, the Packers would need an additional win in our remaining 2 games after this week. The bad news is, we have the Vikings. The good news is, we also have the Bears. So if the Commanders pull off an upset against the Eagles, that could potentially force the Pack to be perfect. I still think they can take down the Vikings, but I’d obviously much prefer they not need to. The Bears? I’m not completely brushing them off as I’m comfortable with doing to the Saints. Our last meeting was much closer than any fan wants to admit. But this game is in Lambeau, so that eases my worries a lot.

In short, beat the Saints on Monday, and the playoffs are locked. With some help from the Eagles, they just need to beat either the Vikings or Bears, and #6 stays with Green Bay.
I’ll talk about the playoffs after they’ve done this.

COVER PHOTO CREDIT: Lindsey Wasson/ASSOCIATED PRESS