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Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — The Green Bay Packers are running out of chances to beat one of the NFC’s top-tier teams, and their next chance could be their last if things don’t change.
Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium — close as it may have been after a furious fourth-quarter comeback made it 27-25 before the home team ran out the final two minutes and 18 seconds without the Packers getting the ball back — left the Packers winless in five tries against the NFC’s upper crust.
Two games against the Vikings (14-2), two losses. Two games against the Detroit Lions (13-2), two losses. One game against the Philadelphia Eagles (13-3), one loss. The Packers are 11-0 against the rest of their schedule with only next weekend’s regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears (4-12) left before the playoffs.
“We’ve got to take it upon ourselves to change that narrative,” Packers safety Xavier McKinney said after Sunday’s loss. “We can’t just sit up here and talk about [it]. Like we already went through this feeling. Either we change it or we don’t. If we don’t, it’s not gonna be good for us.”
The Packers, as a wild-card playoff team, might be able to avoid one of the top-tier teams if they secure the No. 6 seed. That would likely mean a playoff opener at either the NFC West or NFC South winner.
If they fall to the seventh and final seed, the Packers would open against the second-seeded Eagles. Either the Vikings or the Lions will earn the top seed with the other getting the top wild-card berth.
“I think there absolutely is a belief that we can win one of these games,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “We’ve got to go do it, bottom line. And we’ve got to earn the right to play these guys again. And it ain’t going to be easy. It’s going to be a tough road. But I think it’s a challenge that we’ll gladly accept.”
To get to the Super Bowl, they’ll have to win more than one of them, but at this point, one would be a good place to start.
“For us, we’re not going to say, ‘Oh, we’re not a great team because we didn’t play good,'” said Packers running back Josh Jacobs, who lost a fumble early in Sunday’s game. “We’re just going to lock in and figure it out.”
Sunday’s game followed a familiar script. A slow start put the Packers in a 20-3 hole. It was much the same in the Week 4 loss at Lambeau Field to the Vikings, who led that game 28-0 only to hang on for a 31-29 win.
Or the Week 9 loss to the Lions, who led 24-3 on the way to a 24-14 victory. Or the Week 14 loss to the Lions, who led 17-7 on the way to a 34-31 win.
Still, there was not a so-close-yet-so-far-away feeling after yet another loss to one of the top teams in the conference. It prompted this assessment from quarterback Jordan Love on the difference between his team and the others: “Ah, not much. Not much.”
Love wasn’t sharp early. He started 10-for-19 passing for 64 yards through 2½ quarters before finishing 19-for-30 for 185 yards and a touchdown.
“We know [it] wasn’t good enough in a lot of areas tonight,” Love said. “You know, off to a very slow start. Obviously, not putting up any points early on didn’t hurt, help us. But yeah, I mean, obviously we know what type of team we are, and there’s just a lot of stuff to clean up.”
The loss dropped the Packers to 1-4 in NFC North games. If they beat the Bears in the finale, they will be the first team since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger to win 12 games and have a losing record in division games.
If they lose to the Bears, they will have the worst division record of any 11-win team since the merger, according to ESPN Research.
It’s possible the Packers could open the playoffs at the Rams (10-6), who might be the best team the Packers have beaten this year. However, the Rams were riddled with injuries at the time.
“I don’t think that’s true,” Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon said, disputing the notion that they haven’t beaten any good teams. “The Rams will be in the playoffs, we beat them. We lost to Philly by what, three points? We lost to Minnesota by two. We lost to Detroit by three. We’ve just got to finish. It’s not about who we can and can’t beat. We can be everybody. If we figure out how to finish, we’ll win games.
“It’s playoff time now. It’s win-or-go-home. So either we figure out how to finish or we go back to the crib. We have to figure it out.”