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Green Bay Packers: Playoff picture following Week 15 win over Bears

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 12:13 a.m. ET

Fansided, Freddie Boston/FanSided via Lombardi Ave

The Green Bay Packers no longer need any help.

Win out and Green Bay will be crowned winners of the NFC North and will host a first-round playoff game. The Packers won a fourth straight in a frozen Chicago on Sunday to ensure they control their own destiny.

The NFC playoff picture remains crowded. There aren’t enough spots for everyone, but only two games remain. As things stand, the Packers would miss the playoffs. But there’s a lot of football to be played.

Let’s make sense of the NFC.

The division

A lot of change took place inside the NFC North on Sunday. First, the Minnesota Vikings were eliminated from contention in the division. The once 5-0 Vikings can still make the playoffs via a wild-card berth, but a home playoff game will belong to either the Lions or Packers.

Detroit can win the NFC North in Week 16, but would need to beat Dallas with Green Bay losing to Minnesota. If at least one of either Detroit loses or Green Bay wins this week, the NFC North title will be decided at Ford Field in the season finale.

The Packers can actually enter Week 17 in first place of the division, should they win and the Lions lose on Christmas Eve.

Week 16

Detroit at Dallas

Minnesota at Green Bay

Week 17

Green Bay at Detroit

The wild-card race

Dallas Cowboys

12-22

Seattle Seahawks

9-4-13

Atlanta Falcons

9-54

Detroit Lions

9-55

New York Giants

10-46

Washington Redskins*

7-5-1

In the hunt

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

8-68

Green Bay Packers

8-69

Minnesota Vikings

*Washington plays on Monday Night Football

Dallas and Seattle have clinched a playoff berth. The Cowboys are yet to secure the NFC East title, but would do so with a win over Detroit this week. Seattle can’t be caught in the NFC West, and is now playing for a first-round bye and home game in the divisional round.

Atlanta opened up a one-game lead over Tampa Bay in the NFC South. The Falcons beatdown the 49ers, while the Bucs lost in primetime to the Cowboys. Atlanta can clinch the NFC South with a Week 16 win at Carolina paired with a Tampa loss at New Orleans.

At the time of writing, Washington owns the sixth seed but would drop out with a loss to Carolina on Monday Night Football.

If Green Bay beats Minnesota and Washington loses to either Carolina or Chicago, the Packers would sit no lower than the sixth seed entering the final week, but potentially as high as the fourth seed. The Packers would hold the strength of victory tiebreaker of the Buccaneers, regardless of their result with the Saints.

It’s essentially division-or-bust for Green Bay. Winning out would wrap up the NFC North title, but losing one would likely keep them out of the postseason.

Minnesota faces an uphill battle to grab a wild-card berth. The Vikings need to win out, which would put them higher than the Packers, and hope both Washington and Tampa Bay fail to hit the nine-win mark.