Win and They're In

Aaron Nagler
December 25, 2025

What Is A Successful Season For Green Bay ?

As the 2025 regular season rounds the final corner of this eighteen week marathon, it’s time for every team in the league to get a little existential.

For some teams, it’s an exercise in wondering “What went wrong?”. They’ve likely already known that this season would end in failure for months. In Las Vegas, the Raiders are probably wondering why they drafted a running back instead of a foundational offensive tackle, or why they hired a 74 year old head coach. The Arizona Cardinals are staring the prospect of diving head first into yet another full on rebuild, complete with another QB and Head Coaching search. The Minnesota Vikings might be scratching their heads about how they let not one, not two, but three starting QBs slip through their fingers (Darnold, Jones, and Rodgers), in favor of their JJ McCarthy experiment, in spite of their Super Bowl aspirations.

While the Packers are very much alive in the grand scheme of things, they aren’t immune from this kind of reckoning. It’s a very different area though, one that is deep within the DNA of sports itself. The spirit of competition demands winning: winning in the playoffs against the highest of competition in your sport, and ultimately of course, climbing the lofty peak of championships.

For 90% of the season, it’s been clear that a championship is the goal.

General manager Brian Gutekunst, it’s fair to say, held up his end of the bargain. In the ultimate “All In” move, he acquired Micah Parsons at the eleventh hour of the offseason, and the rest is history. The Packers were suddenly “Super Bowl or Bust”. Whether that idea is fair or not, that was the expectation, and it was the answer to the central idea mentioned earlier. “What does a successful season look like for the Packers?”

116 days later, the Packers stand on the precipice of making the playoffs with another Green Bay win or Lions loss, but injuries all across the roster have stunted the lofty expectations that were created on that fateful day. Now, at the risk of getting too existential about this silly little game we all love too much, where does the team stand now? What can we, as fans, reasonably expect out of the Green Bay Packers? There’s a number of ways that the season can end from this point on. Well, four to be exact.

Are you a Die Hard fan? You’ll love our Die Hard Level!

Exclusive to Die Hard Members:

~ Weekly post-game analysis by former Packers broadcaster Ken Lass.

~ Free access to join other Die Hard fans in the weekly CHTV Happy Hour

~10% off anything in the CheeseheadTV merch store.

You can get all of these exclusive benefits for just $5 per month as a Die Hard Member.

You can sign up right here!

Backup Plan - Packer Transplants Live 317

Welcome back to Packer Transplants Live with Aaron Nagler in New York and Corey Behnke across the street from Lambeau Field, bringing you everything you need to know as the Packers try to regroup after a brutal loss to the Bears and prepare to take on the Baltimore Ravens at Lambeau.

— (@)

Packers Must Respond to Two Straight Losses

The Green Bay Packers enter its Week 17 game against the Baltimore Ravens with a goal of responding to one of the worst six day periods in its recent history. The Packers lost back-to-back games in the final five games of the season for the third straight season, but these two felt much worse.

The Packers had two-score leads in the second half, on the road against two playoff teams, the Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears. The Week 15 loss to Denver brought the catastrophic injury to star defensive end Micah Parsons as well as the short-term injuries to two other important players: right tackle Zach Tom and strong safety Evan Williams.

However, the loss that followed against the Bears this past Saturday night evoked memories of the darkest day in the franchise’s history this century. The Packers held a 10-point lead with under 3 minutes to play, but couldn’t finish the game. Botching an onside kick, giving up a touchdown on 4th and 4, fumbling its chance to score on the first drive of overtime, and then allowing a 40-yard walkoff touchdown pass.

Even before watching replays of D.J. Moore’s catch against Keisan Nixon, it looked eerily similar live to Tramon Williams giving up a touchdown catch to Jermaine Kearse in the infamous “Seattle Game.”

So how do the Packers respond?

— (@)

There’s Plenty of Blame to Go Around for the Packers

“It’s hard to sleep at night when you have a game like that."

Fans, coaches, players... There are plenty who can relate to Matt LaFleur's statement on Monday. LaFleur's comments came less than 24 hours after the epic collapse that happened in Chicago Saturday night. The Packers led by ten points with 5:03 left in the game, but a series of blunders and self-inflicted wounds led to the Packers losing the game by a score of 22-16. Despite losing Jordan Love in the second quarter and playing without multiple key starters, the Packers were in a strong position to beat their division rivals. They had multiple opportunities throughout the game, particularly in the fourth quarter, to secure a victory. They just were unable to finish. Unfortunate turnovers, ill-timed penalties, cornerbacks who didn't communicate, and special teams gaffes all reared their ugly heads in critical moments. The game was eerily similar to the disastrous 2014 NFC Championship game.

Saturday's loss stung. It was one of the biggest collapses Green Bay has had in recent memory. But as deflating as the loss to Chicago was, everything for the Green Bay Packers is still right there in front of them. Thanks to Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers, the Packers still have a 94% chance to make the playoffs, per the New York Times Playoff Simulator. One win and they're in. If they win their final two games, they might still have a chance to win the division, but Green Bay would need to win out and have Chicago lose their final two. Although it may seem unlikely, it remains a possibility. There's still a lot of football left to play.

The last six days of Green Bay Packers' football have been depressing, to say the least. This loss may go down as one of the worst regular-season losses in over a decade. The Packers had an opportunity to seize hold of the division on the road, and they had it right there for the taking. They just didn't do it. "It's never about just one play. Every phase contributed to that loss," LaFleur said. "We had a turnover in the red area. We went 0-5 in the red area. And then you got them third and 20, and we have a penalty. It's crazy to think they had nine points with two minutes left in that football game." As LaFleur said, the finger can't be pointed at just one person.

There's a lot of blame to go around. Let's break it all down…

Ahead Of The Pack: Cold weather, heavy runs, and big predictions

As the holidays roll in, so does a fascinating late-season matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the Baltimore Ravens. With uncertainty at quarterback, chilly-but-manageable weather, and both teams leaning heavily on the run, this one feels like a grind-it-out kind of game. Camille Davis, Monte Moore and Dan Kotnik break it all down on the latest episode of Ahead Of The Pack.

Tough Night For Keisean Nixon

Keisean Nixon followed up a poor performance against the Broncos last week with another game to forget versus the Bears, allowing the two touchdowns which ultimately gave Chicago the win. Nixon was set up for success with Micah Parsons in the fold, as he was able to play more aggressively, but he needs to make an adjustment and find a new way to succeed in the coming weeks. His season overall has been good, but the last two games are certainly concerning, and Nixon needs to bounce back quickly.

Be sure to check out four more takeaways from the loss to the Bears.