If Nothing Changes, This Phrase Will Be Written on Packers’ 2025 Tombstone

What a disaster.

All the Green Bay Packers had to do to beat the Chicago Bears on Saturday night was recover an onside kick. Such a task is not improbable. In fact, it’s almost a formality these days in the NFL. Going into Saturday’s fateful bounce of the ball, NFL teams were recovering onside kicks at a clip of 92 percent.

Instead, Romeo Doubs bobbled the ball and started a collapse of epic proportions.

The collapse finished with Caleb Williams throwing a 46-yard dagger to D.J. Moore to hand the Packers a defeat after victory was almost assuredly in their hands.

What happened was not just the end of a game. It felt like the end of any legitimate chance the Packers have to compete for a Super Bowl.

Maybe those chances went down the drain when Micah Parsons left the field in Denver with a torn ACL. Some of the fears about the defense, however, looked to be quelled for the first 58 minutes. Chicago’s offense was mostly inept through the night and unable to move the ball with any consistency.

Combine that defensive effort with an offense that has struggled in the red zone recently but continues to move the ball, the Packers had the makings of a good group on offense and defense.

“Just too many critical errors in critical moments,” coach Matt LaFleur said.

He was putting it lightly.

Had the Packers finished off the Bears, they’d have grabbed the NFC North lead and had the inside track of getting the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs.

Getting the two seed would mean the Packers would have the potential to host two playoff games before a potential road trip for the NFC Championship Game.

Of course, if the NFC’s top seed were to trip up in the divisional round, the road to the Super Bowl would run through Lambeau Field.

That’s all but gone now. Saturday’s loss means the Packers need to win the remainder of their games and get some help from the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions.

The Fox broadcast noted that the loser of Saturday’s game had a 14 percent chance to win the division. That’s not quite the Lloyd Christmas-level of chance, but it’s a significant drop considering the Packers were just mere moments away from walking out of Chicago with a big boost to their chances of winning a division title.

Instead, if the Packers manage to get into the playoffs, it’s far more likely than not that it will be as the seventh seed. That would be the third consecutive year that has happened with LaFleur and Jordan Love at the helm.

The immense likelihood is the Packers will only play one more game at Lambeau Field this season. That will be Saturday against the Baltimore Ravens.

There will be comparisons made to the 2010 team that won three straight road games to get to Super Bowl Sunday before bathing in green and gold confetti in Arlington, Texas. Spare me those comparisons. That team had stars at all three levels of their defense, and they all made big plays in the postseason.

This Green Bay defense is good, but it doesn’t make nearly enough big plays, and it certainly will not make enough big plays with Parsons on the sideline.

In fact, even when they do make a big play, it gets taken away, as evidenced by Warren Brinson’s sack of Caleb Williams getting wiped away due to Brinson’s facemask penalty.