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Will Jordan Love and the Packers comply with Aaron Rodgers’ Super Bowl path in Year 2?

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GREEN BAY, Wis. — The locker room was principally empty, apart from Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney. It was their first information convention after signing as free brokers with the Green Bay Packers final offseason.

Yet, from the second Jacobs and McKinney stepped inside Lambeau Field, they might sense what had occurred lower than two months earlier. They felt the Packers’ last-minute playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers within the NFC divisional spherical seeping from the partitions.

But as disenchanted as everybody within the group was in regards to the loss, there was a sense a window had been opened to the longer term for the youngest group within the NFL, led by a rising star in quarterback Jordan Love.

“From day one, it has been talked about,” Jacobs mentioned of the loss, shortly after he arrived in Green Bay. “Just between the blokes, it has been talked about.”

In 2010, there was the same temper amongst those that had simply joined the Packers, months after the group misplaced an NFC wild-card sport, 51-45 in time beyond regulation, to the Arizona Cardinals throughout quarterback Aaron Rodgers‘ maiden journey to the playoffs.

“You might inform it was just a little little bit of a driving issue going into it,” recalled Packers deal with Bryan Bulaga, who joined the group in 2010 as a rookie first-round choose. “It appeared prefer it was extra of a driving issue that we might go additional, and we all know we will do extra. I did not actually know that, as a result of I used to be a rookie, however you may inform different guys felt like this group had extra.”

That 2010 group went on to win Super Bowl XLV. Can this Packers group comply with the identical path to a championship? The 2009-10 and 2023-24 Packers have a lot in frequent.

Both had a younger quarterback heading to his second straight postseason. Both had been wild-card groups that few on the skin thought of a Super Bowl favourite. Both had younger rosters. The 2010 group received a championship by occurring the highway for each playoff sport. This 12 months’s group, the No. 7 seed, begins its quest on the highway towards the second-seeded Philadelphia Eagles within the NFC wild-card spherical (4:30 p.m. ET, Fox).

“When you undergo issues like that — and a younger group at that — you may have these experiences and also you undergo the dropping a part of it. That helps you be taught,” mentioned McKinney, the protection who signed with the Packers through the offseason.

“It’s not essentially that they misplaced, you are studying from that scenario. Next time when it pops up, you understand how to deal with it and you understand how to go about it. …That added gas to the hearth. And simply including items — myself, Josh — to what they’d already occurring, I feel actually helps put all of it collectively.”

Though the 2010 group went into the playoffs on a excessive be aware, having to win their final two video games simply to get into the postseason, this season’s group has limped in with back-to-back losses.


THE 51-45 OVERTIME loss to the Cardinals within the 2009 playoff opener stands because the highest-scoring postseason sport in NFL historical past. It ended when Rodgers was hit by blitzing Cardinals cornerback Michael Adams and the ball popped proper into the palms of linebacker Karlos Dansby, who walked it in for the game-winning landing.

“I feel there have been lots of guys that also had some scar tissue from it,” Bulaga mentioned. “How that sport completed, it nonetheless rubbed them the mistaken method.”

Rodgers & Co. must wait one other 12 months to play their second playoff sport.

Love and the Packers performed two playoff video games final season. They opened the postseason by trouncing the Dallas Cowboys 48-32 within the wild-card spherical earlier than the 49ers knocked them out 24-21 within the divisional spherical. San Francisco operating again Christian McCaffrey scored the go-ahead landing with 1:07 to play, and the sport ended seconds later when Love threw an interception.

“I did [watch that],” mentioned Jacobs, who was a member of the Las Vegas Raiders on the time. “They ought to’ve received.”

Both the 2010 and present Packers groups featured rosters loaded with younger gamers. Rodgers was in his third season as a starter. Love is in his second. The opening day roster of the 2010 group had a mean age of 25.5 years, making it the fifth-youngest group within the league. This season’s Packers had been the youngest within the NFL for the second straight season at 25.1.

But the 2010 group had a few veteran gamers who had been chasing a Super Bowl for years. Cornerback Charles Woodson was in his thirteenth NFL season, receiver Donald Driver in his twelfth and offensive deal with Chad Clifton in his eleventh. The 2010 group additionally was riddled with accidents all through the season, leaving 15 gamers on injured reserve by the point it reached the Super Bowl.

This season’s group has solely two gamers age 30 or older. One of them — kicker Brandon McManus — already received a Super Bowl title with the Denver Broncos.

“There was extra veteran management again in 2010 than what we see proper now,” mentioned Bulaga, who nonetheless follows the group carefully as a radio analyst for ESPN Wisconsin. “But the factor that stands proud to me probably the most is that they nonetheless had been younger rosters — not simply myself, however there have been lots of accidents that occurred in 2010 that pressured lots of younger guys into motion.

“Not that accidents have pressured [the 2024] group to play younger guys. It’s only a younger group, and these guys have lots of expertise from the prior 12 months, which goes to assist them going into these playoffs.”

Though the 2010 group wanted to win its closing two regular-season video games to make the playoffs, this group wrapped up its playoff berth on Christmas Day.

The 2010 group additionally proved its mettle within the common season towards groups it might face within the postseason. It opened the season with a highway win over Philadelphia, the identical group it might beat within the wild-card spherical to start out the postseason. It beat the Chicago Bears, the group it might face within the NFC Championship Game. And it misplaced on a last-second area purpose on the Atlanta Falcons, the group it might meet within the divisional spherical.

“The previous saying [goes], successful turns into a behavior, identical to dropping can grow to be a behavior,” mentioned quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, the one member of the present workers who was with the Packers for 2009-10. “So in case you’re successful close to the tip of the 12 months, you’re feeling such as you’re trending in the best route, and you then get into the playoffs, and you then give your finest shot.”

The 2024 squad opened the season with a loss to the Eagles and went winless in 4 video games towards NFC North-leaders Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings. Their solely win over an NFC playoff qualifier got here towards the Los Angeles Rams in Week 5, when the Rams had been depleted by accidents on the best way to a 1-4 begin.

“It’s not about who we will and might’t beat,” Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon mentioned. “We can beat everyone. If we determine the right way to end, we’ll win video games.

“It’s playoff time now. It’s win or go house. So both we determine the right way to end or we return to the crib.”


OFTEN IN THE playoffs, it comes all the way down to the quarterback. And the sting normally goes to the one with some playoff expertise. Not since Tom Brady in 2001 has a quarterback received a Super Bowl in his first season because the full-time starter.

It took Rodgers some time to settle in throughout his first playoff begin. His first throw of the 2009 loss to the Cardinals was intercepted. Two performs into the Packers’ subsequent possession, Driver misplaced a fumble and the Packers had been rapidly down 14-0. And it was Rodgers’ fumble in time beyond regulation that clinched it.

Love’s first foray into the playoffs went far more easily. The Packers began quick, and Love completed with three touchdowns and no interceptions within the win over the Cowboys. But it was Love’s last-minute interception that ended his preliminary postseason run within the divisional spherical towards the 49ers.

“It did not work out, however it will possibly solely assist everybody who was a younger participant at the moment to expertise what it is like within the playoffs, after which to expertise what it is prefer to lose within the playoffs, since you do not forget that,” mentioned Clements, when requested how Love may benefit from his first postseason expertise. “It’s much more enjoyable to win than lose, and I feel everybody remembers that.”

Even those that weren’t a part of it final 12 months, reminiscent of Jacobs and McKinney, really feel it.

“Those guys are veteran gamers,” Bulaga mentioned. “So that is one thing the place they’ll learn a room very well.”

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