DETROIT – Whether the Green Bay Packers want to admit it or not – and most if not all of them fall into the latter category – they have a problem. And that issue was dressed in Honolulu blue and silver Thursday night.

The Detroit Lions didn’t just win the season with their exciting 34:31 win at Ford Field. It was their sixth win over the Packers in the last seven meetings. It is a run that extends to the regular season finale in 2021.

This came after Packers coach Matt LaFleur won his first five games against Detroit. Lions coach Dan Campbell has turned that divide on its head with his aggressive approach.

However, LaFleur left his team this message in the visitors’ locker room: “I told our team, I mean, we have to earn the right to potentially come back here and it’s not going to be easy.” And we still have a lot of work to put in, but I’m confident that our group is resilient and that they will continue to fight and push each other to get better and stay connected because I think we have a pretty good team, good football team.

However, after what happened on Thursday, this is a team that may have to play on the road in the playoffs. The NFC North is now all but lost for the Packers, who at 9-4 are three games behind the Lions (12-1) and would lose the direct tiebreaker. The Vikings (10-2) are sandwiched between them.

“We lost by three points,” Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark said. “We played good football, we played good games. They’re not a team we’re afraid of at all.”

Clark is right: It was a game that could have gone either way.

Still, it was a familiar result, due in part to several factors:

• A slow start, with the Packers losing a punt, a punt and a fumble (by receiver Christian Watson in Lions territory) on their first three possessions.

• An offensive pass interference on Watson led to a touchdown catch by running back Josh Jacobs off the field in the fourth quarter, giving the Packers a field goal. LaFleur called it a “bad decision” and Watson said, “I just have to find a way to avoid it.”

• Lions quarterback Jared Goff’s perfect fourth quarter in which he completed every single pass he threw – 10-for-10, including a 16-yarder to Amon-Ra St. Brown on 2nd-and-17 from the 37 -Packers yard line with 1:27 remaining. Cornerback Keisean Nixon said St. Brown should have been called for offensive pass interference because he “just pushed with two hands at the top of the route and they didn’t penalize it.” Two plays later – including a gutsy fourth-and-1 conversion by running back David Montgomery – the Lions were in position to win with a chip-shot field goal as time expired.

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The Lions’ 4th-down gamble sets up the game-winning FG

The Lions convert on 4th-and-1 and set up an easy kick for Jake Bates, defeating the Packers 34-31.

“It’s just a handful of plays that separate these types of games,” LaFleur said.

So close and yet so far from a potential rematch that likely wouldn’t happen until the second weekend of the playoffs or perhaps a week later in the NFC Championship Game.

“That’s one thing we just have to take every week, something we always talk about,” said Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who is 1-3 as a starter against the Lions and whose only win here in 53 weeks comes on Thanksgiving . “Obviously we’ve got a few games left here and we’re trying to finish on the right note and win the last few games, take care of business, take it one game at a time and of course we’ll see what happens. “Time after the season.”

If a rematch does happen, the Packers will surely lean on the sports cliché that it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season.

“We’ll be fine,” Packers safety Xavier McKinney said. “We’ll probably see her again. I don’t think it’s a psychological thing. Those two games, you look at those games and it’s right there. It’s just little things. It’s not even like they do things to necessarily beat us.” “We beat ourselves.”