The Green Bay Packers won four straight games to get to 8-8 and improbably created a scenario in which a win in the regular season finale would have clinched a playoff berth after a 4-8 start. Despite an unfortunate ending on Sunday night, no one in the building at Lambeau Field is going to apologize (or needs to apologize) for winning football games and giving the team a chance to punch a ticket to the postseason.
The problem created is now clear with the power of hindsight. Thanks to a 20-16 loss to the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field, the Packers ended up with the season’s worst possible outcome given the 4-8 start.
Matt LaFleur’s team missed out on the postseason, will pick in the middle of the first round in the 2023 draft and got precious few snaps with Jordan Love under center.
This was a nightmare season by Green Bay standards, especially after three straight 13-win seasons. Aaron Rodgers played all 17 games and the Packers still finished 8-9, with a 1-7 stretch and Sunday night’s stunning loss to the Lions sandwiching the mirage of a four-game winning streak.
A playoff appearance was a prize worth chasing, even for an inconsistent Packers team. Green Bay was the team capable of beating just about anyone but also losing to just about anyone, regardless of venue. Get hot, catch a few more lucky breaks, and who knows what can happen? It might have been fool’s gold in the end, especially with a trip to San Francisco on the line on Sunday night. But no one should fault the Packers for going for it. A winning culture demands a commitment to winning. Always.
But in some cases, that chase leads to poor outcomes, and there’s no denying this is a poor one.
The Packers aren’t playoff bound. They don’t have a high draft pick in April (possess No. 15 pick). And they didn’t get a meaningful in-game look at Love, who could be the future at quarterback as soon as the start of 2023.
Most years, the Packers would have been truly dead at 4-8. It took the Commanders and Seahawks both collapsing like a house of cards for the Packers to have a chance, and even after a 4-0 run, Green Bay couldn’t finish the deal at home against a team with nothing to play for but pride.
There’s so little to take away from this lost season. The Packers tried to run it back after last year’s flameout in the postseason but instead endured a cruel twist: a fantastically mediocre season with little learned and little earned besides the emergence of Christian Watson as a future star at wide receiver. Love played 26 total snaps, and his two series to finish the game in Philadelphia represented the only real and fair look at him all season.
I doubt the Packers would do anything different even with the power of hindsight. This team lived on the edge of elimination for a month but never crossed over, and it never wavered from trying to win games and stay alive even against improbable odds. Rodgers recovered from injuries, and the Packers kept winning. A move to Love never made sense given the circumstances each week.
The Packers did the right thing by chasing wins, but Sunday night’s loss provided a cruel twist ending and the worst possible outcome to a thoroughly disappointing season in Green Bay.
