Is the Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game the start of a budding NFC North rivalry?
GREEN BAY – It never was an easy game. When two rivals hold opposite places among the NFL’s landscape, opposite ends of the hierarchy, the rivalry’s prominence tends to be lopsided.
For the Detroit Lions, the Green Bay Packers have long been a singular target. Something less significant than a Super Bowl, but a game the Lions could hang their season on. Beat Green Bay, and the Lions would have something. Beat Detroit, and the Packers’ sights on a playoff chase are unchanged.
When Kenny Clark arrived in Green Bay as a rookie before the 2016 season, the Lions were in the midst of a brief resurgence. It wouldn’t last. The Lions finished the 2019 season with a 3-12-1 record. Only one team, the 2-win Cincinnati Bengals, had fewer victories.
They weren’t much better in 2020, finishing 5-11. Or in 2021 when they finished 3-13-1.
But the Lions and Packers have an even 8-8 record in Clark’s eight seasons.
“I feel like the Lions always played us tough throughout the years,” Clark said. “Since I’ve been here, wherever the season was, I feel like they played us pretty tough. It’s always been a rivalry game since I’ve been here, whatever the record was, if we won the division or they were losing at the time, whatever the case may be. Regardless of the stakes of the game and all that kind of stuff, I feel like they’ve always pretty much played us tough.”
The Packers were the impetus for this latest Lions resurgence. Midway through the 2022 season, the Packers traveled to Detroit to play what from the outside appeared to be the same, old Lions. In their first seven games that season, the Lions were 1-6. They beat the Packers 15-9 on their home field.
It was a shell-shocking loss.
“We can’t lose a game like that against that team,” former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said after the game.
Except the Lions’ victory ushered in an unprecedented window of contention. The Lions finished 2022 with an 8-2 record in the final 10 games, including a 20-16 win inside Lambeau Field that prevented the Packers from punching a ticket to the playoffs. They won the NFC North last season with a 12-5 record, their first division championship since 1993.
It isn’t hard to figure out what changed on the other end of this longtime-lopsided rivalry.
“They’ve got better players,” said left guard Elgton Jenkins, who has been with the Packers since 2019. “That’s one. They’ve got better players, and they’re more motivated. I feel like their coaching can get them going on that level, and they’re playing with a lot of energy compared to when I first got here. They had good players, but obviously not better than they’ve got now. And they weren’t playing with as much juice. But now they believe they can do something.”
The Lions overhauled their roster before the 2021 season, starting with the acquisition of quarterback Jared Goff, who arrived in Detroit in the Matthew Stafford trade with the Los Angeles Rams. On a loaded offense, receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown, running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, and tight end Sam LaPorta were added since Goff arrived. So have defensive tackles Levi Onwuzurike and D.J. Reader, linebackers Alex Anzalone and Jack Campbell, defensive backs Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch, and injured pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson.
The Packers roster is also unrecognizable from the rivalry of old after undergoing a youth movement the past few seasons, highlighted with quarterback Jordan Love replacing Rodgers. The infusion of talent on both sides added flavor to a rivalry that badly needed it.
When the two teams took center stage on Thanksgiving in Detroit last season, in what ended as a signature Packers victory, it was clear playoff implications were on the line.
“Last year was a big one,” Clark said. “We needed that win on Thanksgiving. It was a win that we needed to stay in the playoff race. We went up there knowing it was going to be a battle and stuck it out, ended up pulling that game off. I would say last year, for sure, was one of the biggest games that we’ve played the Lions, them being the team that they are, and us being the team that we are.”