Packers Waste Another Season With Playoff Loss to Eagles

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers were eliminated from the NFL playoffs by the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, a dreadful first half leading to a 14th consecutive season in which the Lombardi Trophy will not be returning to Titletown.
After last year’s red-hot finish continued into the playoffs, expectations were sky high for this year’s Packers.
Jordan Love, after a sensational second half to last season, signed a contract extension.
The youngest roster in the NFL – the youngest roster to win a playoff game since the 1970 merger – was back with a year of pressure-cooker seasoning.
A hot-shot young receiver corps had grown up alongside Love.
The Packers weren’t just running it back, though. General manager Brian Gutekunst signed running back Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney in free agency, plus had five picks in the first three rounds of the draft. Coach Matt LaFleur made big changes at defensive coordinator and with his strength and conditioning staff.
The Packers went from nine wins to 11 in the regular season, but they probably ended this season further from winning a championship than they were 12 months earlier.
What a waste of a season.
Love was a mediocre 11th in passer rating, his 96.7 on par with last year’s 96.1. His completion percentage was down from 64.2 percent to 63.1, and he went from 2.91 touchdowns per interception to 2.27.
Love is not a bad quarterback. But will he ever be $220 million worth of greatness? He certainly was not against the Eagles.
Love was joined in the NFC playoff field by Jared Goff, Jalen Hurts, Baker Mayfield, Matthew Stafford, Sam Darnold and Jayden Daniels. If you needed to win a game today, next week, next month or next year, would you take Love over any of the other six?
Gutekunst hit a home run with Jacobs. His 1,329 rushing yards were the second-most of his career, and he set a career-high with 15 touchdowns runs. He was fantastic all season, and was again on Sunday.
In the biggest picture imaginable, did it matter?
Gutekunst hit a home run with McKinney. He had eight interceptions this season, as many as he had in four seasons with the Giants, to earn first-team All-Pro honors.
In the biggest picture imaginable, did it matter?
They met – even exceeded – expectations, but the Packers wasted McKinney’s career season and put another 337 touches on Jacobs’ body and got a one-and-done playoff to show for it.
They also wasted the inexpensive seasons of their free-agent contracts.
LaFleur made two impressive hires with defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and strength and conditioning coordinator Aaron Hill.
With Hafley’s major schematic changes, the Packers finished fifth in total defense, sixth in points allowed, third in yards allowed per carry and fourth in takeaways.
With Hill’s major changes, the Packers were one of the healthiest teams in the league. Only two starters were out of the lineup against the Eagles.
The rookie class as a whole was underwhelming, but second-round linebacker Edgerrin Cooper was so good that he received an All-Pro vote and fourth-round safety Evan Williams was an impact player when healthy.
And yet – for all the superb contributions made by McKinney and Jacobs, Hafley and Hill, Cooper and Williams – the Packers were eliminated from the playoffs one stage earlier than last year.
Going 0-6 against the NFC’s top three teams – going 0-2 against the Eagles, Lions and Vikings – was bad enough.
Imagine adding McKinney, Jacobs and Cooper and yet almost losing every game in the division. That would have been the Packers’ fate had Karl Brooks not blocked a field goal at Chicago.
That sentence, in particular, is going to haunt LaFleur all offseason.
How are the Packers going to be the top team in the NFL if they are closer to being the worst team in the NFC North than the best?
The Packers were overmatched against the Lions and the Vikings. While all four final scores were close, the Packers were outscored 103-44 through three quarters.
What really made this a wasted season was the door was wide open for the Packers.
The Lions, who almost reached the Super Bowl last year, emerged as the most dominant team in the league but were obliterated by injuries.
The 49ers, who have been a thorn in the side of the Packers for years, had a crash-and-burn season.
Instead, the Lions swept the Packers, and the Vikings and Eagles raced past them.
How will the Packers return to the top of the NFC North? According to OverTheCap.com, they have the 12th-most cap space in the league. That’s the good news. The bad news is the Vikings rank fifth, the Bears seventh and the Lions eighth in cap space.
A huge offseason awaits. The Packers do have plenty of cap space, but Gutekunst needs a cornerback or three, a pass rusher or three and a high-impact player on offense.
That’s an extensive to-do list. LaFleur has one, too.
He must figure out how to get Love to take that big step forward that was expected this year.
He must figure out how to get past the Lions’ Dan Campbell, whose team has won six of the last seven matchups.
He must figure out how to get past the Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell, whose team went 3-0 against the Packers with his starting quarterback the last two years.
He must figure out how to stay ahead of the Bears, who have plenty of talent and will have a new coach to put it all together.
LaFleur has done nothing but win during his six seasons in Green Bay. He ranks 13th in NFL history in winning percentage, which is an astounding feat. But the secret sauce to consistently win big games – or big games, period, in 2024 – has been elusive. What happened last week against the Bears, in particular, was an Eberflusian botching of the clock and situation.
Green Bay is called Titletown for a reason. It’s not Wildcardville. Or Seventh Seed City.
When the Packers walked off Levi’s Stadium after last year’s playoffs, the future looked impossibly bright and a Super Bowl appeared to be within reach.
As the Packers walked off Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, saddled with a three-game losing streak, the future doesn’t seem quite as bright and a Super Bowl appears to be more than a bit more distant.
Yes, the Packers are still the youngest team in the NFL. Yes, the core will return mostly intact.
But that the Packers didn’t take a step forward, even with monster seasons by their free-agent additions, is troubling.
A season that started with such promise, that included players openly talking about the Super Bowl, ended in a one-and-done postseason.
What a waste.
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Thanks to @bookies, here's a look at the ages of the NFL playoff rosters, with some pertinent comments on the topic from the #Packers' locker room yesterday.https://t.co/NP6x3MElmj
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) January 9, 2025
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