Sunday afternoon’s stage will be familiar for the Green Bay Packers.
It won’t be for the Detroit Lions.
The Packers are set to host the NFC North Division championship game on Sunday at Lambeau Field, a year after winning a similar matchup in Chicago. If the Packers win Sunday, it will be their fourth straight division title.
The Packers’ experience in playing for championships might be their biggest advantage against the Lions on Sunday.
“I don’t know how much it’s going to help us win the game,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said, “but I think the experience, that we can probably draw from more on an individual basis.”
The Lions haven’t had that experience. Detroit hasn’t won a division title since the NFL realignment changed the old NFC Central into the NFC North in 2001. Division crowns have been rare for the Lions, who have only won the division three times since the 1970 merger. Detroit’s last NFC Central title was in 1993.
Since the Lions last won the NFC North, the Packers have won 10 division titles, including three in a row from 2002-2004 and the last three seasons. The Packers also won three in a row from 1995-97.
If the Packers win Sunday and take their fourth straight division championship in a row, it would be mark the longest streak atop the division for the Packers, and the third longest streak in the division’s history. Chicago won five titles from 1984-88 and the Vikings won six in a row from 1973-78.
Midway through last season, with the Packers struggling without the services of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the Lions looked like the team to beat in the NFC North. A late-season collapse — six losses in their final seven games — left the Lions out of the playoffs and watching as Chicago and Green Bay dueled for the title in the final week of the season.
Detroit showed coach Jim Schwartz the door and brought in Jim Caldwell.
“Jim’s an excellent coach,” McCarthy said. “This is the second time he’s been a head coach. Very consistent and I think his teams play that way.”
This season the Lions avoided the losses that plagued them a season ago by engineering fourth-quarter comebacks in five games, the most in the NFL.
The Lions biggest test, though, will come Sunday in Wisconsin, where the Lions haven’t won in 23 years and the Packers are undefeated this season.
“This game is about the mental preparation,” McCarthy said. “It’s a division game, the second time around. I think it’s pretty clear what’s in front of us.”
Add in the extra incentive of a first-round bye in the playoffs and a brand new fan engagement effort by the Packers with their “Get Loud Lambeau” campaign, and the atmosphere should be one of the toughest the Lions have faced at Lambeau Field.
“The fact of the matter is that we’re playing in a playoff-type game, I think is exactly the way you want to go into the playoffs,” McCarthy said. “The fact that Detroit and our records are the same and that we’re playing for the title, yeah, I think this is exactly how you would want it.”
If the Lions want the crown, they’ll have to take it from the current kings.
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