Detroit Lions knock Packers from playoff berth, 20-16, earn 1st winning season since 2017

GREEN BAY, Wis. — They didn’t make the playoffs, but the Detroit Lions might have accomplished something more important Sunday.

The Lions beat the Green Bay Packers in the final game of the NFL regular season, 20-16, in what could go down as a torch-snatching game in the NFC North.

With nothing to play for but pride, and to keep the division’s most dominant team for the past three decades out of the playoffs, the Lions rallied for their eighth win in 10 games behind a record-breaking performance from Jamaal Williams.

At 9-8, the Lions finished with a winning record for the first time since 2017. They won eight of their final 10 games after a 1-6 start, and with a young roster and two first-round picks in April’s draft, should enter the 2023 season as most pundits’ favorite to win the division.

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Williams ran for two touchdowns, including the game-winner with 5:55 to play, to break Barry Sanders’ franchise touchdown record, became the first Lions running back to top 1,000 yards in nine seasons, and did it all against his old team.

Williams scored the game’s first touchdown with 8:05 left in the third quarter after a defensive struggle in the first half.

The Lions and Packers traded field goal attempts in sub-freezing temperatures for the first 30 minutes, with Green Bay taking a 9-6 lead into halftime.

Williams scored on the Lions’ second possession of the second half, after Packers coach Matt LaFleur made the risky decision to try a 53-yard field goal.

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Mason Crosby, who narrowly made 48- and 49-yard field goals in the first half, missed his kick short off the crossbar, giving the Lions the ball at their own 43-yard line.

Williams ran for 13 yards on the next play, Jared Goff followed with a 43-yard bomb to Kalif Raymond to the 1-yard line, and Williams plunged across the goal line on the next play for a Lions touchdown.

Aaron Rodgers, the Packers’ aging four-time MVP quarterback, answered with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Allen Lazard to give Green Bay a short-lived 16-13 lead. But the Lions took the lead for good three possessions later with a 13-play, 75-yard touchdown drive.

Williams ran three consecutive times after the Lions first-and-goal at the 5, scoring on a 1-yard run for his 17th rushing touchdown of the season.

Sanders, the Lions’ Hall of Fame running back, scored 16 touchdowns in 1991, his third NFL season and the last season in which the Lions won a playoff game.

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Along with Williams, the Lions got big contributions Sunday from rookies Aidan Hutchinson and Kerby Joseph. Hutchinson had two sacks to finish with 9.5 for the season, second-most by a rookie in Lions history, behind Ndamukong Suh, and Joseph, who got beat on Rodgers’ touchdown to Lazard, picked off a Rodgers heave to Christian Watson with 3:27 to play.

Joseph had two interceptions on Rodgers in the Lions’ 15-9 win over the Packers at Ford Field.

The Lions ran the final 3:27 off the clock and closed the game with a kneel-down snap after converting a fourth-and-1 from the 15-yard line with a 9-yard Jared Goff pass to DJ Chark.

After the play, Amon-Ra St. Brown ran on the field for the final kneel-down snap waving his right hand good-bye to the Packers, who missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and just the fourth time in Rodgers’ 15 seasons as starters.

The Packers (8-9) would have qualified for the postseason with a win Sunday, after the Seattle Seahawks beat the Los Angeles Rams in overtime to eliminate the Lions from playoff contention.

Rodgers, who won MVP awards each of the past two seasons, failed to win in the final game of the season with a playoff berth on the line for the first time in four tries in his career, and the Packers will enter the offseason with myriad questions about their roster, including whether Rodgers will return for a 19th season and if he does, what to do his understudy, Jordan Love.

Williams finished with 16 carries for 72 yards and had a career-high 1,066 yards on the season. Goff finished 23 of 34 passing for 224 yards and became the seventh quarterback in NFL history to go more than 300 straight pass attempts without an interception. Rodgers was 17 of 27 for 205 yards for the Packers.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.