Why The Packers Could Use A ‘Signature’ Win Down The Stretch

Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers are 0-4 this season against the NFC’s top three teams.

The Green Bay Packers are 9-4 overall, sit in third place in the NFC North and hold the conference’s No. 6 seed.

While those numbers may not blow anyone away, one thing about these Packers is they don’t lack confidence.

“There’s not a soul in here that believes that we are not the best team in the whole league,” cornerback Eric Stokes said. “Hands down.”

Added right guard Sean Rhyan: “We’re real (expletive) good. We’re as good as anyone in football.”

To a man, though, the Packers acknowledged they could use a “signature” win before the postseason arrives.

While Green Bay has had an extremely solid season, it still hasn’t defeated an elite team.

The Packers are 0-4 against the top three teams in the NFC — Detroit, Minnesota and Philadelphia.

On the flip side, Green Bay’s nine wins have come against teams with a combined record of 50-69 — a .420 winning percentage. The Packers have also defeated just two teams with winning records — Houston and the Los Angeles Rams — and both of those teams were dealing with major injury issues when they played Green Bay.

So while the Packers are remarkably self-assured, they know beating a team like NFC West leading Seattle (8-5) on Sunday night or Minnesota (11-2) on Dec. 29 would be good for the soul.

“It wouldn’t be a bad thing to give ourselves a little reminder that we’re a really good team,” Rhyan said. “I think that would help us. It would reinforce that we’re really (expletive) good. We’ve just got to play to our standard.”

Overall, Green Bay has faced one of the league’s more daunting schedules as its opponents are a combined 96-75 (.561). The Packers have taken care of business against the teams below them in the standings, but have yet to beat an elite team.

Green Bay’s four losses have come against teams with a preposterous 46-6 combined record (.885).

Detroit (12-1) is tied for the best record in football, while Minnesota (11-2) and Philadelphia (11-2) both remain in the hunt for the top seed in the NFC. And while Green Bay is 0-4 against that trio — with two of the losses coming against Detroit — its average margin of defeat is just 5.0 points.

“We’d love to play any of those teams again,” Stokes said. “It’s a play here or there.

“We’ve just got to play a clean football game. We all know it ain’t ever going to be perfect, but (expletive), just make it the best as you can. Just be clean and stick to your rules and everything will be good.”

Added Packers coach Matt LaFleur: “We’ve found a way to win a lot of games. So I don’t want to like discredit that, but I think when you’re playing against one of the premier teams in the league, you better be your best. So we just got to be better in those situations.”

The Packers’ most impressive wins — Houston and the Rams — have come when those teams were without several key players.

Houston was without four defensive starters, along with star wideout Nico Collins. On that day, Green Bay needed a walk-off field goal from Brandon McManus to emerge with a 24-22 win.

The Rams were without star wideouts Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp, along with starting tight end Tyler Higbee when Green Bay notched a 24-19 win.

The Packers’ seven other wins have come against mediocre teams such as Miami (6-7), Indianapolis (6-7), Arizona (6-7) and San Francisco (6-8), along with bottom feeders Chicago (4-9), Tennessee (3-10), Jacksonville (3-10).

“I think in the NFL, any win is a pretty good win because it’s hard to win in the NFL,” linebacker Quay Walker said. “It’s so easy to overlook that and say we haven’t played teams that have a winning record. It’s easy to say that, but I think any win is a good win and all of our losses have just been on us.”

The Packers will get two chances in the next three weeks to defeat high-level — even elite — teams.

Seattle (8-5) has won four straight games to surge to the top of the NFC West. As it stands today, the Packers would also travel to Seattle for the first round of the playoffs.

Green Bay then gets a second chance against Minnesota (11-2) on Dec. 29. When the teams met in Week 4, Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love was playing his first game since suffering a knee injury on the season-opener. The Packers fell in a 28-0 hole that day, before rallying back and dropping a 31-29 decision.

“It’s always nice to get a win against a team that has a better record than us,” linebacker Isaiah McDuffie said. “Those are always more fun. But our goal is to win out. Everyone here believes we can do that.”

If that somehow happens, the Packers would have posted two of their most impressive wins of the year — and would be headed to the postseason on a roll.

Which is just what Green Bay might need to make a deep playoff run.

“Right after that Detroit game ended, everybody in the locker room said, we’re going to be back here,” Stokes said of Green Bay’s 34-31 loss at Detroit on Dec. 5. “We said, ‘you see this locker room and you see this field? Remember it because we all know we’re going to be back here.’

“I know we haven’t beat teams like that yet, but we all know we can do it and we want another chance to do it. So, that’s our mindset right now.”