The 2015 Packers Have a Familiar Feel To Past Teams
The Mike Sherman-led Green Bay Packers of the early 2000's had some good-to-great records, but they may have been overachieving with those rosters, as evidenced by their playoff performances. In my view, this year's Packers have that same sort of feel.
After the 28-7 win over the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay sits at 9-4 atop the NFC North division with a slim chance at earning the 2nd seed, while on track to win the North and earn the 3-seed. All this despite consistent offensive struggles and a defense that has been better than advertised.
In looking back at those Sherman teams, the offense was in the top 6 in scoring most seasons, but saw the defense being the problem - so the opposite of 2015. However, there were plenty of ups and downs in those years on both sides of the ball.
If you recall, the 2001 team (which may have been the best during that run) would win their first playoff game but, then fall to the "Greatest Show on Turf," the St. Louis Rams. The Packers were 12-4 division champs that year and had a nice balance overall - they just weren't elite.
Meanwhile, the Rams had the best offense (31.4 points/game) and record in football (14-2), and they had the largest point differential (230), nearly 100 points better than the next team. They were the clear favorite to win it all, but were upset in the Super Bowl by the New England Patriots.
While most people want to pick on Brett Favre's six interceptions as the reason, that was far from the truth (four INTs came in the 2nd half with Green Bay trailing by 21+ points). Regardless of those turnovers, St. Louis was simply a far better team and unlikely to fall that day.
**For the record, Favre was 32 at the start of that season. Aaron Rodgers is now 32 years old.**
The next three years saw Green Bay lose at home twice, and also fail in 2003 thanks to the 4th-and-26 conversion in Philadelphia. Like this year's team, injuries hampered the Packers during these years, and they played a bit over their heads for a variety of reasons.
Many tend to forget about those clubs, though a break here or there and they could have had a special ending to a couple of those seasons.
That brings us to the 2015 squad, winning 6 straight to start the year before dropping 4 of 5. Now, they're back to their winning ways with an extremely lucky victory in Detroit and a more dominating performance against a below-average Cowboys team.
Much like the early-century groups, the Packers are clearly a level below the 11-2 Arizona Cardinals and the 13-0 Carolina Panthers. In order to make it a truly terrific season, Green Bay would need to pull off upsets in one or both of those locations - and that's if they can win their first game.
Neither of those top NFC clubs are close to the 2001 Rams in terms of talent, yet they are more balanced, consistent and dominant than the Packers this year, making it necessary for the Green-and-Gold to play a near perfect game to knock them off.
It's all but guaranteed the Packers will be making the postseason for the 18th time in their last 23 seasons - a remarkable run; however, many complain that Green Bay has failed to reach the Super Bowl in 14 of those seasons.
So what does that mean?
Well, perhaps many of those seasons (this one included) the team was willed to victories by the talent and leadership of their Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks and other factors that indicated maybe they shouldn't have been in the playoffs.
Especially this season, for example, the NFC is rather poor, making an average team look great. You shouldn't expect the Packers to hold the Lombardi Trophy, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.
Again, with a few breaks or super-human efforts, it could happen. If it doesn't, understand that the greatness of this franchise has been reaching the postseason even when they shouldn't.
And that often leads to playoff disappointments.
**If you'd like to check out the Packers playoff losses - and discover why they lost so many times before reaching the Super Bowl - we're breaking down each year's defeats. Click here.**