Packers Will Be Challenged to Keep No. 1 Seed

Here's the latest on the NFC playoff race and what's ahead for the four challengers.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The No. 1 seed for the Green Bay Packers is within reach.

Thanks to their blowout victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday night and the Los Angeles Rams’ upset victory at the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night, Green Bay is atop the NFC standings.

Green Bay, Tampa Bay and Arizona are 10-3, with Dallas one game back at 9-4. The Packers hold the tiebreaker based on conference record. They are 8-2 in NFC play while Arizona and Tampa Bay are 6-3. The Packers also have the head-to-head tiebreaker vs. Arizona in their back pocket.

Thus, so long as the Packers keep winning, they’ll get to stay home for the playoffs. That won’t be easy, though. The Packers have three tough games coming up, starting on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore and Cleveland have winning records, and Minnesota beat Green Bay a few weeks ago.

“I feel good, man,” receiver Davante Adams said about the state of the injury-plagued team on Sunday night. “It’s tough to go out and win a game with everybody healthy, let alone when everybody’s kind of falling apart. It gets harder every week, every time you lose somebody that’s vital to the team, but we’ve got a really close-knit team. No one’s confidence wavers when somebody goes down. We’re not looking like, ‘Oh, this guy’s got to come in.’ We expect them to get it in and as soon as they get in and get a fist bump, it’s ‘Let’s get to work.’ I think that brings a little bit of comfort to them and allows guys to play loose.”

Tampa Bay has the easiest of the remaining schedules, with no teams with a winning record on the docket. Arizona faces two teams with winning records along with Seattle, which has won two straight.

The No. 1 seed, obviously, doesn’t guarantee anything. Green Bay lost to Tampa Bay in last year’s title game. However, Green Bay and Tampa Bay are both 6-0 at home and 4-3 on the road. Arizona, on the other hand, is 7-0 on the road and 3-3 at home.

Here are the final schedules for the top four in the conference.

No. 1 Green Bay: at Baltimore (8-5), vs. Cleveland (7-6), vs. Minnesota (6-7), at Detroit (1-11-1). Total: 22-29-1. Home-Away: 2-2. Winning records: 2.

No. 2 Tampa Bay: vs. New Orleans (6-7), at Carolina (5-8), at N.Y. Jets (3-10), vs. Carolina (5-8). Total: 19-33. Home-Away: 2-2. Winning records: 0.

No. 3 Arizona: at Detroit (1-11-1), vs. Indianapolis (7-6), at Dallas (9-4), vs. Seattle (5-8). Total: 22-29-1. Home-Away: 2-2. Winning records: 2.

No. 4 Dallas: at N.Y. Giants (4-9), vs. Washington (6-7), vs. Arizona (10-3), at Philadelphia (6-7). Total: 26-26. Home-Away: 2-2. Winning records: 1.