The Packers Are Good But Don’t Seem Good Enough
GREEN BAY, Wis. – For the Green Bay Packers, good has been good enough.
But when good simply won’t be good enough, are they capable of reaching greatness?
For the second consecutive week, the Packers escaped with a victory. The script on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns was a lot like the one against the Baltimore Ravens last week. The Packers started slowly and regrouped. They pulled away but they couldn’t put away. And they needed their on-the-ropes defense to save their butts at the bitter end.
Against the Ravens, they needed Darnell Savage and Eric Stokes to break up the go-ahead two-point conversion with 42 seconds remaining. Against the Browns, they needed Rasul Douglas’ interception with 43 seconds remaining.
At 12-3, the Packers have the best record in football and are on pace to get the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. Aaron Rodgers is now the heavy favorite at FanDuel to win MVP honors. Coach Matt LaFleur tied the NFL record for most wins in his first three seasons, Rodgers broke the franchise record for touchdown passes and Adams made history, too.
Despite all that greatness, there is an obvious problem. This is not a great team. Yes, I get it, a win is a win is a win. LaFleur was right when he said, “We’ll never apologize for winning games.”
This is a really good football team. But, even if it earns the No. 1 seed, will it be good enough to beat three teams that, if we’re being honest, will have more talent?
Let’s be real here. What the Packers are doing is amazing. They are beat to hell and keep winning. When the Packers were establishing themselves as an elite team in October and November, the talk was about the boost they’d get once All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander and Pro Bowl outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith returned to the lineup.
But here we are in late December and they haven’t returned to the lineup. Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t.
The Packers have won without them. Just take a step back and think about what they’ve accomplished. Without arguably the best offensive lineman in football, one of the best cornerbacks in football and one of the best pass rushers in football, the Packers are 12-3. They’ve won without those three stars. They’ve kept winning without another great player, Elgton Jenkins. They’ve won without Robert Tonyan. And Randall Cobb. And Billy Turner. And Marquez Valdes-Scantling. It’s preposterous, really.
With that, is it any wonder why the Packers are having problems putting away teams? The Ravens, the most-injured team in the NFL, almost beat the Packers with a backup quarterback and no starters remaining in the secondary. The Browns, even at minus-3 in turnovers before their final drive, had a chance to beat the Packers. The median scoring margin this season in plus-3 games is 15 points; the Packers needed Baker Mayfield’s fourth interception to clinch the win.
“To a certain extent, we got lucky,” Adams said.
Joe Barry’s defense has hit the skids. Following a 17-0 shutout of Seattle on Nov. 14, the Packers were third in the NFL with 18.0 points allowed per game. Over their last four games, they’ve given up 27.5 points per game, which ranks 26th.
They gave up only 22 against the Browns thanks to the takeaways but yielded 408 yards. Even with the Browns’ offensive line down three starters, Nick Chubb rushed for 126 yards and Cleveland finished with 219 rushing yards and an 8.8 average. In LaFleur three years, that was Green Bay’s worst regular-season game by 21 yards and 1.20 yards per carry.
What’s going to happen against high-quality running teams in the playoffs? What’s going to happen against quarterbacks who are far less giving than Mayfield?
Suddenly, this team looks no different than just about every other team during the Rodgers era. The defense isn’t good enough. The special teams isn’t good enough. The offense has been excellent for most of the last five games, but is there enough talent to support Rodgers and Adams against better defenses?
By going 12-1 in Rodgers’ last 13 starts despite all those injuries, the Packers have outplayed all reasonable expectations. It’s been good enough against the likes of Chicago, Baltimore and Cleveland the past three games. But can the Packers beat the likes of Tom Brady, Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford with the lineup they rolled out on Saturday? Or will the cold reality set in that not even the all-time greatness of Rodgers and Adams will be able to drag all the backups and injured players over the finish line in Los Angeles on Feb. 13?
Unless Barry can find some answers, the offense can find a killer instinct and some reinforcements arrive to help with the final push, another crushing January loss seems almost inevitable. And at that point, the longest, coldest offseason in franchise history could await.
