NFL Playoff Picture 2017: Updated AFC, NFC Wild-Card Bracket Ahead of Week 17

All eyes will be on the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions when they meet at Ford Field in Detroit Sunday night.

These two teams will be fighting for the NFC North title, and while the game will be played at the Lions’ home field, the Packers appear to have the momentum.

The Lions have dropped back-to-back games to the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, while the Packers have put together a five-game winning streak and appear to have gotten their act back together after a horrific run in the middle of the season that saw them drop four in a row and give up 38.3 points per game over that span.

From the outside, it appears there is a cloud of doom hanging over the Lions, but that observation may not be accurate. They have not won their division since 1993, and the franchise history is quite bleak since Hall of Fame quarterback Bobby Layne was under center in 1957. The Lions won their last NFL title that year, overwhelming the Cleveland Browns by a 59-14 margin.

There are those who may want to compare the Lions to the pre-2016 Chicago Cubs in that they are always doomed to see their season end in some combination of failure or heartbreak.

But that may not be the way this game goes. The Lions lost to the two teams with the best records in the NFC, and they are not necessarily going to fold.

Lions head coach Jim Caldwell told Justin Rogers of the Detroit News that his team can still take care of its business. 

“The most important thing is we have a job to do. We have a mission to complete,” Caldwell said. “We haven’t completed that …

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