5 X-Factors for a Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Run
By Paul Bretl
Green Bay Packers Playoff X-Factor: Mason Crosby
We can point to two games this year, one against Kansas City and the other against Minnesota in Week 11, where the Green Bay Packers field goal unit may have cost them the game. And they nearly did a third time in Cincinnati, but fortunately, they were able to pull that one out in overtime.
The special teams unit as a whole has had a plethora of mistakes this season, and truthfully, that entire unit could be listed as an X-Factor. But on the field goal unit specifically, we’ve seen a breakdown in blocking, poor snaps, questionable holds, and as a result, Mason Crosby is 25 of 34 this season on field goal attempts.
Now, Crosby is not above blame either; at the end of the day, he is the one kicking the ball. But overall, it’s been a complete operation failure at times for this field goal unit.
The good news is that the blocking has been much improved as the season went on, and since the bye week, Crosby has missed just one extra point while making everything else.
In the playoffs, where everything is magnified, the opponents are more difficult and the intensity is kicked up a few notches; a missed field goal — or even a missed extra point — could be the difference between a win and an early exit.