Shawn Hubbard/Green Bay Packers
Jared Abbrederis stepped up for the Pack, but the team suffered from too many last-ditch efforts.
Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy probably is still trying to figure out what happened in Phoenix last Saturday night.
Despite starting as underdogs, the Packers tied the Arizona Cardinals in an instant classic NFC divisional playoff game with a Hail Mary pass from quarterback Aaron Rodgers to wide receiver Jeff Janis (and an extra point kick by Mason Crosby). But just three plays and 65 seconds later, the Cardinals scored a touchdown in overtime for the 26-20 win and a date with the 17-1 Carolina Panthers in the NFC Championship Game.
Here’s how we should sum up this frustrating season: The Green Bay Packers simply weren’t good enough. The best teams in the NFL don’t need to rely on Hail Mary pass completions to win or tie games.
Not only did the final seconds of regulation time in Phoenix recall what happened in Detroit on Dec. 3 — the famous Rodgers-to-Rodgers Hail Mary that saved Green Bay’s season — but it also continued the Packers’ streak of dramatic season-ending playoff games.
At many points throughout this season — when offensive starter after offensive starter went down with an injury, when running back Eddie Lacy lost his mojo, when McCarthy made the mistake of ceding play-calling duties to an underling or when a mid-season crisis threatened to derail a 6-0 start — a seventh straight playoff berth seemed unlikely.
Yet despite losing their final two regular-season games by a combined score of 58-21 — including a Dec. 27 blowout in the desert, when the Cardinals embarrassed the Packers, 38-8 — Green Bay still made the playoffs.
Why? Because this team never gave up. And that’s admirable. That doesn’t mean the Packers would’ve stood much chance against the Panthers this Sunday, though.
The season is done, and we all can exhale.
Another team that won’t be in the Super Bowl is the Seattle Seahawks, which I predicted a couple weeks ago would face the Denver Broncos. Former University of Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson nearly engineered an unprecedented playoff comeback last Sunday against Carolina, but Seattle fell short, 31-24.
Here’s my revised Super Bowl pick: Denver will still be there, but so will the Cardinals.
