Injuries, losing streaks, and a cold team. Can the Green Bay Packers' rollercoaster season lead to a playoff upset against their bitter rivals?
The Green Bay Packers have a chance, and supposedly that's all you can ask for.
Actually, it is all the Packers can ask for after this roller coaster of a 2025 regular season. The Packers, at times, looked like true Super Bowl contenders. There were other times, though, when they didn't even appear to be a serious team, let alone one of the most historic and popular franchises in all of sports.
That will happen when you lose star players like Tucker Kraft, Micah Parsons and Devonte Wyatt in a single season, but the Pack had been playing up and down football well before those injuries happen.
It sure doesn't help, losing star players, but this has absolutely been a hot and cold team.
They head into these playoffs at 9-7-1 and riding a four-game losing streak. So yes, all they can ask for is a chance, and they'll get that chance against their greatest rival.
The Packers head into the Wild Card round as the seventh seed and they'll head down south to the second city to play the Chicago Bears in what is effectively a rubber match.
The Pack are 1-1 against the Bears this season, having won at Lambeau and lost at Soldier Field. They can absolutely win this game, because they've beaten this version of the Bears in the recent past, but do they have what it takes to win this massive playoff game?
First of all, they're not fully healthy. Yes, Jordan Love, Josh Jacobs and Zach Tom are rested, but again, this team is missing several star players that have tilted the field in their direction this season. In particular, the losses of Parsons and Kraft were devastating.
The Packers also have zero momentum. As mentioned, they've lost four in a row and it's not just the losses, but how they've happened, that matter. They blew a lead in the second half against the Denver Broncos, they blew a lead with two minutes to go against the Bears, they got beaten up by the Baltimore Ravens and then they rolled over and played dead with Clayton Tune in at quarterback against the Minnesota Vikings.
This is a team that hasn't tasted a win in a while. Will that make them hungry against the Bears, or have they forgotten how to do it?
Andrew Kulha of PackersRoundtable and Anthony Moeglin of Roundtable Sports discuss all this and more on the latest episode of the PackersRoundtable podcast.
You can watch the full episode below: