How it’s Done

I just finished watching the NFL playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills. Certainly a game that will go down in history as one of the greatest of all time. First Buffalo scores to go ahead by 3 with a 2-point conversion. Then KC scores a touchdown to go ahead by 4. Then Buffalo scores a TD with an extra point to go up by 3. Then KC kicks a field goal as time expires to tie it. Then KC wins the toss and scores a touchdown to win.

An incredible and exciting game where both teams played their hearts out with one thought in mind – to win.

And that’s how it’s done.

As a Green Bay Packer fan, of course the loss to the 49ers yesterday stings. But, also as a Packers fan, it was not unexpected. The Packers have perfected the art of dominating a football season only to lose in the playoffs. It’s been a regular thing since their lone Super Bowl win under Rodgers. Always skating through the season, but then, facing a team that knows it’s “win or go home,” losing.

You could look at yesterday’s loss and come up with a few reasons – and not all of them special teams (I’ll get to them later). Don’t worry – they’re number one, but two other reasons are tied for second. The first – and this because he’s the common denominator over the past 11 years (since that Super Bowl win) – is Aaron Rodgers. I’m not saying it’s entirely his fault. I’m just saying that it seems the Packers are content to sit around and watch him play rather than playing themselves.  I couldn’t understand while watching the game and seeing Davante Adams double-teamed constantly why other receivers weren’t beating their guys and getting open. And I’ve seen this before. The game plan is “Aaron’s gonna throw it to Adams, so the rest of you guys just mill around and look busy.” No urgency in all in their play. It should be a switch that’s turned on all year long, but it’s not.

And that leads to the second reason. Yeah, a lot of people are calling for Matt LaFleur to be coach of the year, but he’s got a problem. He gets conservative. He lacks creativity. He can’t adjust when he needs to. Yesterday’s game plan was obvious from the starting drive – Rodgers to Adams. And then we’ll run some too. But when the opposing team actually makes in-game adjustments and shuts down Adams, LaFleur just can’t come up with a solution. He’s mired in his original plan.

And a lot of this goes back to Aaron Rodgers. During the regular season, a lot of this was covered up by Rodgers’ ability to improvise – to be a coach on the field. But against a playoff-caliber team that’s hot and has been playing playoff-level football for weeks, this isn’t going to work. Especially when your QB is drilling the ball at his receivers’ shoe-tops for most of the game.

But the real bottom-line here is that it is on the coach to prepare his team – to get them playing playoff-caliber football. To make sure they know that if they lose, they’re out. To instill that sense of urgency with which the opponent has played for weeks. It’s a hard thing to do. If you remember, the Packers won that Super Bowl against Pittsburgh on a 10-6 record as the number 6 seed. That means every team they played in the playoffs that year was “better” than them. And this has pretty much been the Packers’ problem since then – going 13-3 (or 4) over the past 3 seasons. Going 15-1 one year. Basically dominating through a lot of those seasons.

2011 – 15-1, lost to the Giants in the divisional playoff

2012 – 11-5, lost to the 49ers in the divisional playoff

2013 – 8-7-1, lost to the 49ers in the wild card game

2014 – 12-4, lost (famously collapsed) to the Seahawks in the NFC Championship game (in OT)

2105 – 10-6, lost to the Cardinals in the divisional playoff (in OT)

2016 – 10-6, lost to the Falcons in the NFC Championship game

2019 – 13-3, lost to the 49ers in the NFC Championship game

2020 – 13-3, lost to the Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game

2021 – 13-4, lost to the 49ers in the divisional playoff

And then, of course, there’s the special teams unit. There’s a guy named Rick Gosselin who tracks this using 22 different metrics to measure overall special team’s effectiveness. From 1 – 31, the average point difference is 6.5.  Yeah, there are some gaps larger than others. From 1 to 2 is 30.5…but that’s the second-largest gap. The largest, (of course), is between 31 and 32 – the Chargers and the Packers – at 38.5. So not only are the Packers the worst in the league, they’re so bad they’re in an entirely different group. A podcaster I listen to has been saying over the past several weeks that it was only a matter of time before the Packers lost a game because of their special teams play, and they did. At the worst time.

And this, again, goes to coaching. Because while the unit was being so horrendous throughout the year, and with the constant clamoring of (apparently only) the fans, the Packers did nothing to fix the problem. As a matter of fact, it was so bad that even the 49ers blocking a field goal at the end of the first half apparently did not prompt the coach to pull his guys together and say “listen, we cannot have this happen again.” No. It was the same old reaction. “Oh well. Maybe next time.” Except in this case, next time will be next season.

It is only fitting then that the game ended as it did – on a special teams play. And, true to form, they performed as advertised. Not in that Gould made the kick – it was quite unlikely that the special teams would have done anything to change that. No. What was really telling was that on that play — the last play of the Packers’ 2021-22 season; the most important play of the year for them; on a field goal to win it by the 49ers…the Packers only had 10 players on the field.