Green Bay Packers played to avoid defeat, and lost

The Green Bay Packers awoke this morning into the bitter reality left by their monumental collapse against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship game. Green Bay had caught Seattle on the rarest of occasions: a bad day. Their path to Super Bowl was freshly paved and lined with blinking arrows, but instead of accelerating, the Green Bay Packers gazed at the passing scenery, eased their foot from the pedals and began to coast.

This is not a eulogy. The Green Bay Packers pushed what could be the best football team on the planet to overtime in their own home, and for 55 minutes on Sunday appeared to be the greater power. With 5:04 remaining in the game, ESPN win probability gave the Packers a 96.1% chance of victory. Green Bay is now left to be haunted and forever mindful of that 3.9%.

Green Bay played the most convincing half of their season to begin the game, and the charge was surprisingly led by the defense. I wrote in the days leading up to this game that the Packers must pressure Russell Wilson, and they did exactly that. Julius Peppers, on his 35th birthday, rushed like a stallion from the outside while Clay Matthews moved blockers and disrupted plays through the middle of the field.

Three of the Packers four interceptions came in the first half, along with a fumble recovery on a kick return by Doug Baldwin. Life, and football, seemed easy. Coming away with just 16 points on offense, though, is something that the Packers will live to regret.

On their first two possessions, Green Bay chose to kick field goals from the doorstep of the end zone instead of going for a touchdown on fourth down. Hindsight has shaded these as poor decisions, which they very well may have been. All game long, the Green Bay Packers left bits and scraps on the table. Each equal, each damning.

Regardless of the missed opportunities, a 16-0 halftime lead at CenturyLink Field in the NFC Championship belonged to Green Bay. When the Packers took the field for the second half their strong play continued, but their strategy had changed. Instead of standing tall and trading punches with Seattle, Green Bay held up both hands to protect their face, hoping that they had done enough in the first 30 minutes to survive whatever fate the latter 30 would hold.

This allowed the Seattle Seahawks to play their brand of football: winning football. Green Bay’s relentless pass rush was replaced with three-to-four man blitzes that could not penetrate the Seahawks’ line. In clear passing situations, especially on third and long, the Packers shifted into a terribly cautious “prevent” defense, sending just three rushers as the secondary leaned back onto their heels, hoping their luck had not run out just yet.

As the 5:00 mark came and went in the fourth quarter, Seattle clicked. Russell Wilson became Russell Wilson, but even then, the Green Bay Packers were afforded every opportunity to pull their parachutes and stop the free fall. In a game of ten thousand moments one cannot be blamed alone, but there are two that will live in the heads of Packers fans for years to come.

First, following the go-ahead touchdown by Seattle, the Seahawks attempted a two-point conversion which would put them up by three points. Russell Wilson was chased from the pocket before heaving an arcing, last-gasp prayer across the field. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix was in the perfect position to knock down the pass, but watched on, mesmerized by the choreography of his own defeat.

“I was just thinking about everything — everyone in Green Bay, my family” – Brandon Bostick

Following this, Packers’ K Mason Crosby could only tie the game with his 48-yard field goal, a kick that could have sent the Packers to Arizona.

The greatest heartbreak for Green Bay, however, came on the play just prior that allowed for Seattle’s final touchdown drive to take place. Down five points, the Seahawks attempted an onside kick. The ball bounced high in the direction of Jordy Nelson, whose role is to jump and receive the onside kick behind the Packers line of blockers. Instead, Brandon Bostick saw his opportunity to win the game. To be the hero.

Bostick forewent his blocking assignment in front of Nelson and shot into the air before him. His timing was perfect, as was his positioning, but as it often happens, a cruel, complex and winding season can be lost with the simplest of failures. Bostick’s hands closed empty, as the ball deflected off his helmet and directly to the man he was supposed to be blocking.

It’s impossible not to feel for the young Tight End. He should never have broken the scheme, but could just as easily have awoken today as the hero for his bold move late in the game. When Aaron Rodgers or Peyton Manning loses a game, it’s digestible. They are paid to be the hand that pushes their team over the top with the understanding their great responsibilities will often be the team’s downfall. For a player like Bostick, though, who lives near the bottom of Green Bay’s roster, heartbreak is too simple a word.

“I was just thinking about everything — just the game and just my teammates, just everyone in Green Bay, my family,” Bostick said to Rob Demovsky of ESPN following the game. “I feel like I let everyone down.”

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Those two moments stand out among the many, along with Mike McCarthy’s conservative play-calling throughout the game. The narrative of the Packers handing this game to the Seattle Seahawks isn’t something I stand behind, though. Green Bay gave the Seahawks the opportunity to take this game away from them. Seattle took that opportunity, kicked in the door and played Championship football.

Losing such an important game has enough of an impact on it’s own, but the fashion in which Green Bay managed to lose could cement this as the franchise’s most crippling playoff defeat. The Packers will carry on, though, as they always have, and the immediate future could be as bright in Green Bay as it will be anywhere in the NFL.

The immediacy of Twitter and the modern world have fostered the necessity for each event to be met with a knee-jerk reaction. Gone are the days when one’s thoughts must be collected, written sensibly onto paper and carried away with the postman the next morning. Calls for Mike McCarthy’s job or sweeping changes to personnel are rushed, and mostly illogical. This roster needs tinkering, and yes, it must improve, but no significant changes are absolutely necessary. In-house moves should be the organization’s primary concern, with pending free agents such as Randall Cobb and Bryan Bulaga.

Aaron Rodgers will return in 2015 still firmly in the prime of his career, surrounded by a young offensive core and an offensive line that played brilliantly late this season. This loss to the Seattle Seahawks will be muttered between profanities under the breath of Packers fans for years, but the future is not without hope.

Green Bay is now left in the quiet void that follows an NFL season. It is too early to forget how they arrived here, but also too early to look ahead to the NFL draft and coming offseason with any level of excitement. Today, Green Bay may only look to the phrase that comforts all but one team in each professional sport at the end of each season: “There is always next year”. If everything goes as planned, there will likely be another year to follow that one, as well.

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