2015 NFL Playoffs: What Went Wrong For the Packers?

No team in NFL history has won more league championships than the Green Bay Packers. They own a baker’s dozen when it comes to titles, four of those during the Super Bowl Era.

Owning a double-digit lead in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, it appeared the franchise might be in the running for a 14th championship and a sixth Super Bowl appearance.

But it simply wasn’t meant to be. In a game where the defending Super Bowl champions struggled to hold onto the ball, Pete Carroll’s club was rescued by its special teams and a resourceful performance by a quarterback that rallied from a forgettable day for a memorable 28-22 overtime victory.

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In the first half, the Pack owned a surprising 16-0 lead. Their much-maligned defensive unit had limited the Seahawks to a mere 59 yards of total offense. Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson, he of seven interceptions all season, was picked off three times in the first 30 minutes. And a team that had committed a mere 14 turnovers in their previous 17 games in 2014 (including playoffs) had given up the football four times in the first half.

But Mike McCarthy’s club failed to take true advantage of their good fortune and the Seahawks’ miscues. The Green Bay offense bogged down in the red zone twice and the team settled for field goals. On the Packers’ first series of the game, quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw an interception in the end zone, the first of two on the afternoon.

All told, the Seahawks would commit five turnovers by game’s end, four of those interceptions by Wilson.

But when things aren’t going well on offense, you have to find other ways to score. And the champs got untracked when they utilized a little trickery on special teams thanks to a 19-yard touchdown pass on fourth down from punter Jon Ryan to rookie reserve right tackle Garry Gilliam.

Huh?

Down 19-14, the Seahawks also recovered an onside kick to set up their first go-ahead touchdown of the game.

However, when it’s all said and done, the Seattle running game—ranked first in the NFL this season—was never abandoned. By game’s end, Carroll’s squad had totaled more rushing attempts (35) than the Packers (20). The Seahawks ran for 194 yards, 157 and a score by relentless Marshawn Lynch. And by the end of the extra session, Seattle had compiled 397 total yards (338 following intermission) to Green Bay’s 306 yards of offense. In fact, Dan Quinn’s defensive unit held the Packers to 128 total yards in the second half after giving up 178 yards in the first 30 minutes of play.

So here comes the first team to reach the Super Bowl in consecutive years since the New England Patriots a mere 10 years ago (2003 and ’04). And the team’s scintillating victory showed how a team can bounce back from playing its worse when they are bound and determined to remain the best.