It Would Have Been Brutally Cold for Packers Playoff Game

By going a combined 0-6 against the regular season’s top three NFC teams, the Green Bay Packers wasted an opportunity to play at home this weekend.

Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur contemplates challenging a call during the 2021 playoff loss to the 49ers at Lambeau. / Mark Hoffman / USA TODAY NETWORK

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur, there’s no place like home.

“I think it just goes back to show you the importance of getting these homefield games, in my opinion,” LaFleur said after last week’s playoff loss at the Philadelphia Eagles.

Had the Packers hosted a game this weekend, it would have been incredibly cold.

On Saturday, when the No. 1-seeded Detroit Lions were upset by the Washington Commanders, it was 15 degrees with a wind chill of 1 at kickoff in Green Bay and 10 degrees with a wind chill of minus-7 for the fourth quarter.

That would have felt like Bermuda in comparison to Sunday.

The Eagles will host the Los Angeles Rams in the snow in the early game. What if the Packers had won enough big games to be that No. 2 seed? According to WBAY-TV meteorologist Keith Gibson’s forecast, the Green Bay forecast for the 2 p.m. kickoff will be 4 degrees with a wind chill of minus-13.

Cold weather used to be a huge advantage for the Packers. Not anymore.

Since the turn of the century, the Packers are just 1-5 in games with a kickoff temperature of 10 or colder. That includes 0-4 with a kickoff temperature of 5 or colder.

However, in theory, this year’s team should have been better suited for success in a cold-weather game because of the physicality of running back Josh Jacobs and the toughness of the run defense.

The weather for a hypothetical NFC Championship Game next weekend would have been much more comfortable for all involved with a high of 29 and a low of 15 and no chance for precipitation.

Unless the bracket is filled with upsets and chaos, earning a homefield playoff game or two will depend on the Packers winning the NFC North.

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This year, however, they finished third in the division. While the Packers finished 11-6, they went just 1-5 in the division including 0-3 at Lambeau Field. That lack of division success is why the Packers as the No. 7 seed had to play at the powerful Eagles in the wild-card round rather than playing at home, where teams are 37-19 since the NFL expanded the playoff field to 14 teams in 2020.

“We got a really tough division,” LaFleur said. “I’m hoping our guys use that for fuel this offseason, to dig a little bit deeper and come back a little bit better each individually, because collectively, that’ll make a huge difference. Obviously, we’ll comb through everything [as coaches].

“We’ve still got a young football team. I’m not making excuses or anything like that. We’ve got a young football team that, unfortunately, this is a tough lesson along the way and, hopefully, we can use this as fuel to get better and learn and be a better team next year.”

The Packers could hardly have been worse in going a combined 0-6 against the Eagles, the Vikings, who lost at the Rams last weekend, and the Lions, who were stunned by the Commanders on Saturday.

Week 1 vs. the Eagles: The Packers led 19-17 at halftime but managed only field goals after taking over in the red zone after two first-quarter takeaways.

Week 4 vs. the Vikings: The Packers trailed 28-7 at halftime (and after three quarters).

Week 9 vs. the Lions: The Packers trailed 24-3 after the first possession of the third quarter.

Week 14 at the Lions: The Packers trailed 17-7 at halftime.

Week 17 at the Vikings: The Packers trailed 20-3 after the first possession of the third quarter.

Wild card: Packers trailed 10-0 at halftime.

“I think everybody’s kind of gutted,” LaFleur said. “I think if you go out there and you play at your best and you come up short, there’s a different feeling.”

To get homefield playoff games for a potential run to the Super Bowl will require the Packers being much more competitive with those top teams.

“Last year, I think I was getting the same question about the 49ers, so it changes from year to year,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said. “Next year’s team is going to look different. And they’re going to have to grow together. I thought in 2023, I thought we were playing overall as a football team our very best football at the end of the season, which is very important to me. If we’re going to go chase championships, you’ve got to be doing that.

“And I think this year, in some areas we were but in some areas we weren’t. So, I think part of our goal, obviously, is with the new team we have next year is, again, you can’t skip steps. You’ve got to go through the work and to come together and be unselfish and commit to the team and then, hopefully, you get to the point at the end of the season where you’re playing your best football and then actually have a chance to make a run at it.”

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