For the second straight season, the Green Bay Packers find themselves in a win-and-in situation against a division rival who is mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.
This time though, Green Bay hosts the Chicago Bears, rather than the Detroit Lions, which defeated the Packers and crushed their playoff dreams last season.
“We understand what we have in front of us, and it really means nothing unless we take care of business next week in Lambeau,” said Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, after the Week 17 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. “We were in a similar situation a year ago and couldn’t get it done, so we know it is going to be a tremendous challenge.”
While the circumstances are eerily similar, many things about the 2023-24 Green Bay Packers are different compared to the 2022-23 Green Bay Packers.
First of all, there is a different quarterback attempting to lead the team to the Super Bowl. While the team is in the same spot as it was last year, there seems to be a different aura surrounding this year’s team. All of last season, the Packers were expected to make the playoffs, as everyone knew what Aaron Rodgers could do on a football field. This season though, that feeling changed. Nobody knew what Jordan Love could do on a football field.
All season, it really seemed like the Packers were a team that could maybe win some games, but once again did not have expectations. While every team’s goal is to win a Super Bowl, this Packers’ season was really to see what Love could do. Yes, there is still a lot of work to do, but the question on if Love can actually be the starting quarterback of the Green Bay, seems to somewhat be answered. Instead of this being a “let’s see what we have” season, it has quickly turned into a “win-and-we-are-in” season.
That really started to become a reality on Christmas Eve. After Green Bay lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, its last hope was really to win the remainder of its games to make the playoffs, with a little help from other teams. But, as fate would have it and just like the previous season, the teams that needed to lose lost and Green Bay beat who it needed to beat to set themselves up with a prime opportunity.
Along with Love having question marks surrounding himself, the offense as a whole had those same question marks. General manager Brian Gutekunst assembled the youngest offense in the NFL this season and with injuries surrounding Christian Watson and inconsistency surrounding Romeo Doubs, fans were wondering who would be the player that could break out on the Packers.
“Even though we had a lot of young guys coming into the start of the season, you could just see how many playmakers we had on offense and how deep our skill positions were,” said Love, reflecting on training camp. “I was excited about it, so that is exactly why I said that the sky’s the limit. We had no expectations, and the main thing is that we continue to work every day and find ways to improve.”
Players like Jayden Reed, Tucker Kraft, Bo Melton and Love were not playing for the team last year, and it has become increasingly obvious that they have become the go-to guys in this offense. With help from Aaron Jones, Dontayvion Wicks and Malik Heath, this Green Bay team certainly looks like it has a better opportunity to make the playoffs than the team last year.
Much like last season, a Green Bay Packers season that looked like it was doomed in the middle of the season has all of a sudden turned into basically a playoff game in Week 18. This season’s team has already exceeded expectations, but if it can beat Chicago on Sunday, the 2023-24 season may go down as one of the most memorable in Packers’ history.
“We know that it is going to be a great challenge. We know that we are going to get (the Bears) best shot, and I am sure that they would love nothing more than to knock us out of the playoffs,” said LaFleur.
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