As we first began discussing last month, the Green Bay Packers entered Super Bowl XLV on the verge of an accomplishment more rare than a championship itself. Now it's time to make it official.

The Packers never trailed in their 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, making them the first NFL team in 48 years to play an entire season without trailing in a game by more than seven points. Coincidentally, the last team that did it was another current NFC North team: the 1962 Detroit Lions.

There are plenty of ways to view this milestone. For me, it mitigates most suggestions that the Packers were a wild-card team that simply got hot in the playoffs. It means they were every bit as good as they appeared over the past month and finally found a way to hurdle the close-game obstacle at the right time.

Although the Packers finished the regular season 10-6, they maintained competitive on all 20 weekends of the year. Their average margin of defeat was 3.3 points, and they were the first six-loss team in NFL history to lose every game by four points or fewer.