The Green Bay Packers lost in Minnesota against the Vikings, 17-24 on Sunday Night Football. A lot of bad calls, another mistake made by the head coach, missing inches during catches, etc. In short, that was the game in Minneapolis. But that really isn’t the worst part of the story.
Being defeated in the prime time is not what worries Packers fans. It’s the current playoff picture.
Green Bay has 4-6-1 at the moment, which places them at the 10th place when looking at the overall standings in the NFC. Washington Redskins, who are currently occupying the last wild card position have 6-5. It would have been a lot easier for the Packs if they won at least one of the previous two road games, against the Seahawks and the Vikings, who are their direct rivals for the place in the postseason. And they had chances to do so.
But, Aaron Rodgers has a plan on how to overcome this crisis. It is really simple. He put it this way.
“So we just got to go back home, get some rest, beat Arizona,” said Packers No.12, and then continued. “and then come back and beat Atlanta … then go to Chicago, a place we’ve won a number of times, beat them” and continued again. “go to New York around Christmas, beat them …and then come home against Detroit, beat them. ”
While saying these lines, one of the best quarterbacks in the history was calm. Calm enough for the reporters to look at each other and wonder what’s this all about. Is he maybe kidding?
Two seasons ago, Rogers was speaking about “turning the table” when Green Bay faced a similar situation to the current one. Back then his team was 4-6. Still, Packs reached the playoffs. Many people hope for the history to repeat itself once again.
But even if they win all the games, according to Rodgers, some extra help has to come from other teams. He obviously thought that their rivals would have to lose some games.
“We’re going to need some help from some teams and then we’ve got to take care of our own business, you know?”
There is no room for mistakes no more, and four wins are not going to do the work — only all five.
“You can crunch the numbers there,” Rodgers said. “I can tell you 8-7-1 won’t get in, though. I don’t think.
The Packers are playing way below their expectations. Before the season, this franchise was one of the potential Super Bowl winners, strengthened with Jimmy Graham, and loaded with youth and energy from this year’s draft. However, all those big plans crushed.
Boys from Wisconsin still haven’t won a game this season outside of their state. With 0-6 on the road, they are the only team besides sorry 49ers without a victory away from home. Now that is something which hasn’t been seen in a long time.
Another negative thing might appear after a long time. A playoff drought. If by any chance Green Bay doesn’t reach the offseason, that would mean that they came short of doing so two seasons in a row. Since Rodgers became a starter, back in 2008, that didn’t happen.
LIVE: Aaron Rodgers' postgame press conference. #GBvsDET https://t.co/171wVLPSBl
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) October 7, 2018
For him, the upcoming five weeks will define the Packers. Either they rise to the occasion and win all those matches, or they fall apart. There is no other way according to AR 12.
“We’ll see what we’re made of the last five weeks,” Rodgers said. “Are we going to stick together in these tough times, or are we going to start splintering? I’d like to think the leadership is in place that we can stick together through whatever happens, but these five weeks will show it.”
Then again, his composure brings back hope for all the Packers fans, particularly after these words.
“We’ve done it before. We just have to find a way.”
Green Bay hosts Arizona Cardinals next week and after that the Atlanta Falcons. If they win both, anything is possible.
Especially with Rodgers on board.
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
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