Packers fall short of the Super Bowl once again
The Packers fell to the Buccaneers 31-26 in a frustrating end to their season.
The Packers, hosting the NFC Championship Game for the first time in 13 years and the first time since Aaron Rodgers became the starter, fell behind early. They had a chance to go into halftime down only four points, but they gave up a long touchdown pass right before the half ended. They made it a one-score game, but they couldn’t get into the endzone or get that critical stop when they needed it. Now the Bucs are going to be the first team to play in the Super Bowl in their home stadium.
There are so many things that went wrong for GB. There were too many sacks and too many shortcomings in the red zone. Aaron Jones, perhaps playing in his final game in a Packer uniform, fumbled twice, losing one. That touchdown before the half for TB was inexcusable. Kevin King didn’t have a good afternoon. When they did get interceptions off Tom Brady, they couldn’t capitalize on it on the last two of his three picks. It looked like Rodgers could have taken off and run into the endzone on third down late in the game. They instead settled for a field goal and never got the ball back.
Let’s now get into the controversial part of this game:
The officiating was awful. I really hate to point the finger at the officiating, but it was terrible. TB was getting away with holding and pass interference the whole game, including on the interception by Rodgers. On the most critical point in the game, they threw a flag on GB on a pass that was probably uncatchable, to begin with. I’m sure GB got away with holding and PI a few times, but the calls in TB’s favor seemed to hurt more.
When all is said and done though, the Packers didn’t do themselves any favors. They fell way behind and needed to play some great football to come back. They came close but couldn’t finish the job. It was a disappointing end to what otherwise was a great season.
They did a lot of good things this year to put themselves in this position, but they fell short of their ultimate goal once again. There is only one winner at the end of the season and the Packers will not be it.
Thank you to all of you who supported us on our site and supported the Packers all season long. We obviously wish it could end better than this but we appreciate your contributions.
Another season has gone by without Rodgers getting his second Super Bowl appearance. I still think they have a great chance for him to get his second ring in Green Bay before he moves on. We will see how they approach free agency and the draft. They have a lot of decisions to make.
It doesn’t matter too much now, but I’m sure many of you are with me in hoping the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl once again this year. It’s not so much sour grapes, but I’ve never been a fan of Tampa Bay, especially now that they have Tom Brady and even worse, Ndamukong Suh. I hope they fall flat down in Tampa.
Take care Packer fans! Thank you for everything! We’ll make another run at it next year.
Go Pack Go!
@DieHardPackrFan #DHPF #GregGoshaw @gg901
