GREEN BAY, Wis. — The locker room was mostly empty except for Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney. It was his first press conference since signing as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers last offseason.
But from the moment Jacobs and McKinney stepped into Lambeau Field, less than two months later, they sensed what was about to happen. They could feel the Packers’ last-minute playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Divisional Round oozing off the walls.
But as disappointed as everyone in the organization was with the loss, there was a sense of a window into the future for the NFL’s youngest team, led by rising star quarterback Jordan Love.
“It’s been talked about since day one,” Jacobs said of the loss shortly after arriving in Green Bay. “It’s been talked about just between the two of us.”
In 2010, during quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ first playoff appearance, a few months after the team lost 51-45 in overtime to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Wild Card Game, players who had just joined the Packers. There was a similar atmosphere between them.
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“You could tell that was a little bit of a driving force,” said Packers tackle Brian Bulaga, who joined the team as a rookie first-round pick in 2010. “It seemed like the driving force was more that we could go further, and we know we can do more. I didn’t really understand that because I was a rookie, but I think the other players think this team is that way. You know what I was feeling.”More. “
The 2010 team won Super Bowl 45. Can this Packers team follow the same path to a championship? The 2009-10 and 2023-24 Packers have a lot in common.
Both were young quarterbacks looking to reach the postseason for the second year in a row. Both were wild-card teams, and few considered them Super Bowl favorites. Both had young rosters. The 2010 team played in every playoff game and won the championship. This year’s team, the No. 7 seed, begins its quest on the road against the No. 2 seed Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Wild Card Round (4:30 p.m. ET, Fox).
“When you go through something like that, and with that young team, you go through that kind of experience and you go through that losing part. It helps you learn,” said safety McKinney, who signed with the Packers. said. Off season.
“It’s not necessarily that they lost, it’s that they learned from the situation. The next time a problem comes up, you know how to deal with it and you know how to deal with it.” .That added fuel to the fire. I think adding me and Josh’s parts to what they already had going on really helps bring it all together.”
The 2010 team had a strong run in the playoffs, needing to win their final two games to advance to the postseason, but this season’s team has been limping along with back-to-back losses.
The 2009 playoff opener, a 51-45 overtime loss to the Cardinals, is the highest-scoring postseason game in NFL history. The game ended when Rodgers took a hard hit from Cardinals cornerback Michael Adams, and the ball flew into the hands of linebacker Carlos Dansby, who tucked it in for the winning touchdown.
“I think there were a lot of players who still had the scars of that,” Braga said. “The way that game ended still affected them in a negative way.”
Rodgers and Co. will have to wait another year before playing a second playoff game.
Love and the Packers played two playoff games last season. They opened the postseason by defeating the Dallas Cowboys 48-32 in the Wild Card Round, but lost to the 49ers 24-21 in the Divisional Round. San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey scored the winning touchdown with 1:07 remaining, and Love threw an interception seconds later to end the game.
“I saw it,” said Jacobs, then a member of the Las Vegas Raiders. “They should have won.”
Both the 2010 and current Packers teams featured rosters loaded with young players. Rodgers is in his third season as a starter. Love is second to him. In 2010, the team’s opening day roster had an average age of 25.5 years, making it the fifth-youngest team in the league. This season, the Packers became the NFL’s youngest player for the second consecutive year at 25.1 years old.
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But the 2010 team had some veteran players who had been chasing the Super Bowl for years. Cornerback Charles Woodson was in his 13th NFL season, receiver Donald Driver was in his 12th year and offensive tackle Chad Clifton was in his 11th year. The 2010 team was also plagued by injuries throughout the season, with 15 players placed on injured reserve by the time they reached the Super Bowl.
This season’s team has only two players over the age of 30. One of them, kicker Brandon McManus, has already won a Super Bowl title with the Denver Broncos.
“We had more veteran leadership in 2010 than we do now,” said Braga, who still follows the team closely as a radio analyst for ESPN Wisconsin. “But the most impressive thing for me is that they were still young players – not just me, but in 2010 there were a lot of injuries that forced a lot of young players to sit out. Ta.
“It’s not like the (2024) team is forced to play younger players because of injuries, it’s just that it’s a young team and they have a lot of experience from the previous year and that will help them going into the playoffs. I guess.”
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The 2010 team needed to win its final two games of the regular season to make the playoffs, and this team clinched a playoff spot on Christmas Day.
The 2010 team proved its mettle in the regular season against the teams it faced in the postseason. The season opened with a road win against Philadelphia, the team they would beat in the wild card round to start the postseason. They defeated their opponent, the Chicago Bears, in the NFC Championship Game. In the divisional round game against the Atlanta Falcons, they lost on a last-second field goal.
“As the old saying goes, just as losing becomes a habit, so winning becomes a habit,” said quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, who was the only member of the current staff to be with the Packers in 2009-10. said. “So if you’re winning near the end of the year, you feel like your trends are trending in the right direction and then you go into the playoffs and give it your all.”
The 2024 team opened the season with a loss to the Eagles and went winless in four games against the NFC North leaders Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings. Their only win in the NFC playoff qualifiers came in Week 5 against the Los Angeles Rams, who were depleted by injuries midway through a 1-4 start.
“It’s not about who we can beat or who we can’t beat,” Packers cornerback Keyshawn Nixon said. “We can beat anyone. If we find a way to finish it, we can win the game.
“It’s playoff time. Win or go home. So either figure out how to finish it or go back to the crib.”
In the playoffs, the problem often comes down to the quarterback. And players with playoff experience usually have an advantage. He is the first quarterback to win a Super Bowl in his first season as a full-time starter since Tom Brady in 2001.
When Rodgers made his first start in the playoffs, it took him a while to get used to it. His first pitch in a 2009 loss to the Cardinals was intercepted. Two plays into the Packers’ next possession, Driver lost a fumble and the Packers were quickly down 14-0. It was Rodgers’ fumble in overtime that scored the winning goal.
Love’s first foray into the playoffs went much more smoothly. The Packers got off to a strong start, with Love scoring three touchdowns and no interceptions in a win over the Cowboys. However, Love’s last-minute interception halted his first postseason appearance in the divisional round against the 49ers.
“It didn’t work out, but it just helps everyone who was a young player at the time to experience what it’s like to be in the playoffs and then experience what it’s like to lose in the playoffs, because you remember that. ” Clements said when asked how Love could benefit from his first postseason experience. “It’s a lot more fun to win than it is to lose, and I think everyone remembers that.”
Even players who didn’t participate last year, like Jacobs and McKinney, are feeling it.
“These are veteran players,” Bulaga said. “So it’s something that allows them to read the room very well.”