Can the Packers shock the world again?

Packers Past Success in Wild Card Round

With its 2024 appearance in the NFL playoffs, the Green Bay Packers will be playing in their 16th Wild Card playoff game since the NFL expanded the playoffs in 1990. To advance to a fifth divisional playoff round game in the last seven seasons, Green Bay will need to win as a road underdog, something they’ve done under all three of its starting quarterbacks since 1992: Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love. The other road underdog Wild Card playoff wins were: 1993 at Detroit, 2010 at Philadelphia, 2015 at Washington and 2023 at Dallas.

Last season, in its decisive 48-32 win over the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay got out to a big lead early behind the legs of Aaron Jones. Jones had two touchdown runs to give the Packers a 14-0 lead, and Jones finished with a career playoff-best 118 yards rushing. Jones would get a third touchdown run in the third quarter, equaling Ryan Grant’s team record for postseason rushing touchdowns in a game with three. Jordan Love would compliment Jones with three passing touchdowns.

This Sunday should be no different with Josh Jacobs entering the game on a streak of eight-straight games with a rushing touchdown. In the last eight games, Jacobs has rushed 156 times for 662 yards and 12 touchdowns.

The Packers are 5-2 when Jacobs scores a touchdown in the first or second quarter. To knock off a team with an explosive offense like the Eagles do, relying on Jacobs to keep the chains and clock moving will likely be a high priority from the Packers offense. And he’s also been the key to improving a once dormant red-zone offense.

If Jacobs does run well on Sunday, the Packers have a good chance to improve their Wild Card record 11-5.

Biggest Winners, Losers, and Surprises from the Packers regular season

The Green Bay Packers are yet again dancing in the postseason following a 2024 campaign that saw a remarkable defensive turnaround, an explosive offense, and too many self-inflicted blunders.

It was far from the season many thought coming into the year, after last season's playoff push led many to pick the still youngest team in football, the Packers, to be a Super Bowl favorite this season.

Regardless how the postseason plays out, this team looks and feels a year away until their young talent hits the stride that many forecasted they'd hit this season. After all, this is a team mostly comprised of second or third-year players who haven't entered their prime years and showed this year that development is still needed to sure up some funny business.

Through it all, there were some surprise performances and players who stood out for better or worse. Let’s take a look.

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Giving Games Away

Sunday’s game was bad for a lot of reasons. Chicago had all of minus-4 yards of total offense after the first quarter but still maintained a 7-3 lead. The Bears only averaged 4.9 yards per pass attempt, to Green Bay’s 8.2. The Packers racked up 183 rushing yards compared to Chicago’s 83.

After listing all of those things, one would think the Packers won, claiming their 12th straight win over their neighbors to the south. However, the Bears pulled a victory out of the jaws of defeat by winning 24-22 on a 51-yard field goal by Cairo Santos as time expired. With the Bears clinging to a 21-19 lead with 1:49 left, Carrington Valentine forced Chicago wideout D.J. Moore to fumble on a wide receiver screen. Three plays later, Malik Willis led the Packers to the Chicago 37. On fourth-and-4, the Packers’ sideline looked confused. Packers coach Matt LaFleur called a timeout and special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia pushed for Brandon McManus to kick the field goal.

If the Packers don’t call timeout right away, they could’ve bled the game clock to under 30 seconds. That would’ve given the Bears less time to work with as opposed to the 48 seconds that Caleb Williams started with on first down at their own 20. Six plays later, the Bears kicked the game-winning field goal, handing LaFleur his first loss against Chicago. This was supposed to be a get-right game for a Packers offense that hasn’t been consistent all season. Jordan Love was inefficient and inaccurate before suffering a right elbow contusion and not returning. When Willis came in, the play-calling was different. Love has been sitting back in the pocket, maybe moving a little and throwing an off-balance pass. Willis, on the other hand, had more play-action and he was more willing to use his legs to scramble. Willis only completed three more passes than Love, but passed for 67 more yards

The Packers should’ve beat the Bears on Sunday, but when offense, defense, special teams and coaching all fail, there’s no way.

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Staying Positive in a Sea of Packers Pessimism

Two years straight now, the youngest team in football has made the playoffs. That team is the Green Bay Packers. Many of these young players will be under contract still 2-3 years from now. It's wildly underestimated the benefit of growing up in the NFL within a winning culture. Ask the Packers' top free agent signees of the past year the difference that makes as with their previous teams, they each only made the playoffs once in four and five years. Packers second-year players are looking at their second playoff birth. When you know your team can get it done, it instills confidence that they can keep it going. If the Packers fire head coaches, fire GMs, release or trade players that have pushed to stay healthy and on the field, that sends the wrong message to the locker room. It creates a sense of failure in a less-experienced crowd.

Now we know that this is TitleTown and we expect Super Bowls, not just playoff berths, but to get to that Super Bowl, you have to make the playoffs first. As we saw in 2010/2011, all it takes is a team getting hot at the right moment and we're bringing home Lombardi. Some of those teams heat up weeks before the season ends, and some heat up in the playoffs. We know this year it seems bleak, but enjoy the ride anyway. Try not to be part of the "I hope I'm wrong" crowd. Be a part of the "I had their back regardless" crowd. That makes the moment when you do win so much sweeter.

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