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<\/p>\nGREEN BAY, Wis. \u2014 The Green Bay Packers couldn\u2019t finish games, so now their season is finished.<\/p>\n
Green Bay\u2019s inability to protect second-half leads all season proved costly when the Packers lost 31-27 to the Chicago Bears in an NFC wild-card playoff game that they\u2019d led 21-3 at halftime and 21-6 through three quarters.<\/p>\n
This marked the fourth time they lost a game they had led by at least nine points in the second half. That doesn\u2019t even include a 40-all tie at Dallas in which they led 13-0 in the first half.<\/p>\n
Two days after that playoff collapse, the Packers (9-8-1) packed up their things Monday saying they must develop more of a finishing instinct to avoid continuing this habit of early playoff exits.<\/p>\n
This pattern started when Green Bay followed up two impressive wins to start the season by giving up 13 straight points in the last four minutes of a 13-10 loss at Cleveland. The Packers blew three more late leads during their five-game skid that ended the season.<\/p>\n
They led 23-14 in the third quarter of a 34-26 loss at Denver in which All-Pro defensive end Micah Parsons tore his anterior cruciate ligament. They allowed 10 straight points in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter of a 22-16 overtime loss at Chicago last month. They blew an even bigger lead at Chicago in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Chicago won its past two meetings with the Packers despite never running an offensive play while ahead in either game.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Green Bay Packers’ Christian Watson loses the ball as he tries to leap into the endzone after a catch during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Chicago Bears Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Chicago. Credit: AP\/Nam Huh<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everybody\u2019s got to look in the mirror, and we got to find ways to be able to dig deeper when (stuff) gets harder, because it\u2019s always going to get harder,\u201d safety Xavier McKinney said. \u201cIf you go deep into the playoffs, the deeper you go, the harder the games are going to be. You\u2019re going to have to play 60 minutes and find ways to scratch and claw and win these games.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaFleur\u2019s future<\/p>\n
Green Bay\u2019s second straight first-round playoff exit led to speculation regarding the future of coach Matt LaFleur. <\/p>\n
Both LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst have one year remaining on their contracts now that the season is over. New Packers president\/CEO Ed Policy said last summer he would prefer not having someone enter the final year of a contract without an extension.<\/p>\n
Packers players spoke out in LaFleur\u2019s support Monday. Wide receiver Christian Watson said LaFleur \u201c100%\u201d has built a championship culture.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Green Bay Packers’ Romeo Doubs celebrates his touchdown catch during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Chicago Bears Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Chicago. Credit: AP\/Nam Huh<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s definitely pushed me to be a lot better of a player,\u201d Watson said. \u201cHe\u2019s definitely a coach that I want to go out there and play for 100%.”<\/p>\n
Special teams breakdowns<\/p>\n
The Packers\u2019 longstanding struggles on special teams began long before LaFleur\u2019s arrival in 2019. Those issues proved particularly costly during Green Bay\u2019s late slide.<\/p>\n
With the NFC North lead at stake, Chicago beat the Packers in overtime last month only after Romeo Doubs\u2019 inability to recover an onside kick set the Bears up for their tying touchdown late in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
In Green Bay\u2019s playoff loss to Chicago, Brandon McManus missed an extra-point attempt as well as field goals from 44 and 55 yards. McManus had gone 13 of 13 on field goals over his last seven regular-season games.<\/p>\n
Running in place<\/p>\n
The Packers gained just 4.14 yards per carry in the regular season, down from 4.75 last season and their lowest average since 2012. That issue was magnified in their playoff loss.<\/p>\n
After rushing for 93 yards on 16 carries in the first half, the Packers ran for 6 yards on seven attempts in the second half. Only one of Josh Jacobs\u2019 seven second-half carries exceeded a single yard.<\/p>\n
One encouraging sign from Green Bay’s playoff loss was the emergence of quarterback Jordan Love. After throwing three interceptions without a touchdown pass in a 22-10 wild-card defeat at Philadelphia last season, Love threw for 323 yards and four touchdowns without an interception against the Bears.<\/p>\n
Injury updates<\/p>\n
Parsons said he hopes to be back from his torn ACL by the start of next season but noted that a return in Week 3 or Week 4 is more realistic. Tight end Tucker Kraft, who tore his ACL over a month earlier, hopes to be back for the season opener.<\/p>\n
Right tackle Zach Tom said Monday that a partially torn patellar tendon caused him to miss Green Bay\u2019s last four games. Tom said he\u2019s leaning toward undergoing surgery, which would result in a recovery period of about six months.<\/p>\n
Offensive lineman Sean Rhyan injured his knee near the end of Saturday\u2019s game. Rhyan said Monday that the knee was structurally sound and that he just had a bone bruise with some swelling.<\/p>\n
New-look Packers?<\/p>\n
The Packers enter an interesting offseason because they have so many players with expiring contracts. The list of Packers set to become unrestricted free agents includes Doubs, Rhyan, defensive lineman Kingsley Enagbare, linebacker Quay Walker, left tackle Rasheed Walker and backup quarterback Malik Willis among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREEN BAY, Wis. \u2014 The Green Bay Packers couldn\u2019t finish games, so now their season is finished. Green…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[391,7,41,345,2514,2513,6,428,2309],"class_list":{"0":"post-673131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-chicago-bears","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-green-bay","11":"tag-green-bay-packers","12":"tag-greenbay","13":"tag-greenbaypackers","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-packers","16":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115885906689919686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}