Packers’ Season Exceeded Expectations In Every Way
The Green Bay Packers met their maker on Sunday when their season came to a screeching halt. Regardless, it was still successful in almost every way.
Right when Packers‘ fans were beginning to get their hopes up, they came crashing down to reality. Following a strong victory over the Seattle Seahawks in the Divisional Round, Green Bay found the San Francisco 49ers directly in their path to the Super Bowl. Just as they knew they would be.
In many ways, this outcome was decided weeks ago when the 49ers whooped the Packers 38-7 earlier in the season. Green Bay seemed outmatched at that point and knew they had a ways to go to hang with the NFC powerhouse. They had five regular season games and one postseason contest to get things right. They knew they couldn’t go around, over or under the 49ers, they had to go right through them.
Unfortunately, the Packers were embarrassed once again, and Aaron Rodgers’ record in NFC Championship games fell to 1-3. San Francisco only had to throw the ball eight times on their way to dominating the Packers on the ground. Raheem Mostert rushed for 220 yard and four touchdowns and could hardly be touched, nonetheless, tackled.
Regardless of the sour ending, the 2019-20 season was still a successful one by every measurement.
After failing to make the playoffs two years in a row, Green Bay busted onto the scene by winning 13 of their 16 regular season games. That was far more than even the most optimistic Packers’ supporters could’ve imagined coming into the season. After all, this was a rebuilding team with glaring holes and a brand new head coach.
Green Bay proved to be better than expected and almost everything went their way. They were the healthiest they’d been in years with no major injuries outside of Davante Adams missing time in the middle of the season. They also won a bunch of close games and made critical plays late in games.
Although they didn’t have a dominant defensive or offensive unit, the two sides of the ball took turns locking down games. The defense started out hot and carried the team at the beginning of the season. When they slumped, the offense carried the load until the defense could get back on track for the stretch run.
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Winning 13 games, the division and earning a first-round bye is no easy feat and shouldn’t be taken for granted. There’s a lot more work to be done to turn this team into a championship contender. For now, though, let’s pause and reflect on the amazing season this was. A lot of things went right for Green Bay and, in the end, they came one game away from making the Super Bowl. Now that’s successful.