Why do the Packers typically lose close playoff games?
After the Green Bay Packers lost the 1960 NFL championship,head coach Vince Lombardi told his team that they would never lose another championship game.
He was right. Lombardi and the Packers won their next nine postseason games.
Under current head coach Mike McCarthy,the Packers have lost seven playoff games. Of those defeats,five have come on the game’s final play.
When it comes to postseason success,McCarthy is no Lombardi. But are the Packers playoff shortcomings – especially in close games – really McCarthy’s fault? Would Lombardi have fared different if he were transplanted to the modern era and roamed the sidelines during each of the Packers heartbreaking playoff defeats?
I have no idea. But I do know this: The Packers shortcomings during clutch playoff situations is maddening. Even after another miracle Hail Mary on Saturday night,in the back of my mind,I kept thinking,“That was awesome,but the Packers typically don’t win these types of games. Things will go south in overtime.”
Unfortunately,my negative mindset proved to be correct. Why have the Packers typically come up short when it matters most in the playoffs under McCarthy? Let’s try and figure it out.
Coaching
We’ve touched on it a bit already,but is McCarthy the one to blame?
I pointed the finger at the coach after last season’s NFC title game meltdown. I’ve also been critical of McCarthy after other playoff defeats,but what coach isn’t going to face criticism after his team loses in the playoffs?
There wasn’t much to be mad at McCarthy about following the loss to the Cardinals. He added a few wrinkles to his normally static game plan that helped keep his team in it despite a long list of injuries.
I believe any criticism of McCarthy cannot be strictly based on his postseason results. What gets me frustrated at McCarthy is his stubbornness,unwillingness to make pass-protection adjustments in-game and set-in-stone pass concepts that don’t adjust to the personnel available to him or what the defense is doing.
When those criticisms carry over from the regular season to the postseason (and sometimes they do),then McCarthy definitely shares in a big chunk of the blame for the Packers playoff failures. But to say these problems are exclusive to McCarthy’s playoff game plans and that they happen every single playoff game is shortsighted.
Young roster
The Packers typically have one of the youngest teams in the NFL. Does youth and inexperience contribute to late-game postseason meltdowns?
Maybe. But look closer at who’s been screwing up in the big spots during these nail-biting contests.
· On Saturday,Sam Shields – a veteran – dropped three interceptions that would have wiped 10 points off the board for Arizona.
· In last season’s NFC title game collapse,Morgan Burnett (veteran) picked off a pass late,then followed the instruction of Julius Peppers (another veteran) to kneel down despite a wide open field in front of him.
· In 2013,Micah Hyde had a game-winning interception slip through his hands late in the game. Hyde was a rookie,so maybe we can chalk that mistake up to youth.
· The overtime period of the 2009 wild-card game loss to Arizona saw Aaron Rodgers – in only his second season as a starter but his fifth season overall – overthrow an open Greg Jennings for a touchdown,then fumble on the game’s final play to give the Cardinals the win.
· Finally,it was Brett Favre – the most veteran of veteran players – who threw the overtime interception that cost the Packers the 2007 NFC title game against New York.
Obviously,there were more plays that led to each Packers loss in the aforementioned games than the ones I’ve highlighted,but it’s been more than the Packers young guys messing up when the game is on the line.
Injuries
Nobody likes to use injuries as an excuse,but do the Packers have a case?
On Saturday,the Packers top four receivers when training camp opened were hurt. Rodgers was,basically,playing on one leg against Seattle in 2014. The 2013 loss to San Francisco featured a laundry list of injured Packers.
Every team is banged up when January rolls around,but the Packers seem to always be a little more banged up than others.
Bad luck
Whether it’s the regular season or the postseason,almost every NFL game comes down to a handful of key plays. For some reason,with the exception of the 2010 Super Bowl run,most of these plays have not gone the Packers’ way.
Was it luck that the Cardinals got two first downs by a single chain-link on Saturday night? Or that Russell Wilson’s desperation heave in 2014 on a late two-point conversion was caught by one of his own players instead of Ha Ha Clinton-Dix? Or that Arizona got away with an obvious offensive pass interference on their last regulation touchdown on Saturday and a facemask on the game’s final play in 2009?
When the ball bounces late in these playoff games,it typically doesn’t bounce the Packers’ way (Saturday’s Hail Mary being a major exception,of course).
All of the above
If the Packers struggles could be tied to just one issue,they probably would have solved it by now. Unfortunately,it’s not that simple.
Everything I’ve mentioned here,and likely several other issues I haven’t even thought about,contribute to the Packers late-game postseason shortcomings.
Is this something that can be fixed? Can a study be conducted and specific changes made that will turn things around? Or is it just a matter of players stepping up,the coaches coaching better and the Packers’ late-game luck turning around?
That’s a question McCarthy will have to address this offseason. Maybe he needs to try a Lombardi-style speech where he tells his team that “They will never lose another postseason game on the final play again.”
Whatever might work,I’m all for it. We’re all sick of seeing the Packers walk off the field in defeat after another late-game playoff loss.
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