Another NFC Championship Game loss with a painful twist.
The Green Bay Packers were denied a trip to Super Bowl LV by falling to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-26 in a conference title game that took 13 years to return to Lambeau Field. That made the exit even more excruciating. It was the last advantage Aaron Rodgers was pining for after three straight Super Bowl hopes were dashed in Seattle in 2014, Atlanta two years later and San Francisco 370 days ago. That the Packers could not take advantage of that homefield advantage will rival that game in January of 2008 when the New York Giants intercepted Brett Favre’s last pass as a Packer and stunned the home side in overtime.
Listening to Rodgers after the game, you had to wonder if he’s seriously thinking about having thrown his last pass in the Green and Gold. More on that later.
Tom Brady, in his first year with Tampa after 20 glorious New England campaigns with a half dozen Super Bowl rings, has led his Buccaneers to the final game which for the first time ever, will be played on a team’s home field when they meet the Kansas City Chiefs, a 38-24 winner over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship as Kansas City tries to become the first repeat NFL champion since, yup, Tom Brady’s Pats did it 15 years ago.
After a couple of inches of newly fallen snow covered Titletown overnight, the skies actually cleared for the mild 29 degree temperature at kickoff.
The Bucs three consecutive third downs on the game’s opening series and on third and 7 from the 15, Brady found Mike Evans behind Kevin King who’s ill timed leap to get the ball resulted in the first touchdown four minutes in.
The Pack’s first series had an ominous finish as Rodgers was sacked by Shaquil Barrett to force a punt.
On the second snap of the second quarter, Rodgers went up top and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, haunted by up and down play most of the year, finished his season on a big upswing by beating Carlton Davis III on a 50 yard go route to tie the game at 7. MVS wound up with four catches, all important ones, for 115 yards.
Tampa quickly responded with a deep ball of their own as Chris Godwin outmaneuvered Darnell Savage for a contested 52 yard grab. On the very next snap, Leonard Fournette broke away from a pile of bodies up the middle, veered to his right and made Adrian Amos whiff on a twist allowing him to finish a 20 yard touchdown run and a 14-7 lead.
The Pack’s red zone efficiency all season was fabulous, 80 percent of the time inside the 20 they scored touchdowns but three straight incompletions, all targeting Davante Adams from the 6 led to Mason Crosby’s 24 yard field goal cutting the lead to 14-10.
Given a chance to double up before halftime, Rodgers throw down the middle for Allen Lazard was intercepted by Sean Murphy-Bunting near midfield, his third pick in as many playoff games. Tampa had only :28 with which to work and with :13 left in the half, Head Coach Bruce Arians called back his punt team. Brady converted a 4th and 4 with a 6 yard pass to Fournette. With only :08 remaining, the Packers inexplicably played man to man coverage and Scotty Miller ran past King for an easy, and crushing 39 yard touchdown with only a second remaining to give the Bucs a 21-10 lead at the break.
To start the second half, Aaron Jones gathered in a swing pass and was hit violently in the chest by Jordan Whitehead and the ball came loose. Devin White scooped up the ball and raced 18 yards to the 8 yard line. On the very next snap, Adrian Amos bit on play action and Brady lobbed and easy 8 yard touchdown to tight end Cameron Brate and it was looking bleak for the home team down 28-10. Jones would not return to the game after that hit.
Rodgers started to heat up, passing for the final 68 yards on a 75 yard drive capped by Robert Tonyan’s 8 yard scoring grab.
The Packer secondary then started making Brady look human. Amos picked off a deep pass midway through the third and the Packers cashed in with Adams catching a two yard strike to make it 28-23. Matt LaFleur decided to go for two and the play was there but Equanimeous St. Brown dropped the open conversion.
Tampa was driving again when Brady’s pass for Evans was bit high, glancing off his hands and into the arms of Jaire Alexander at the Green Bay three. He returned the ball to the 19 where the offense went stagnant with a three and out including a third down sack, the 4th of the day for Tampa’s pass rush.
Three plays later, Alexander came through again with a sideline pick but LaFleur called three more passing plays, Barrett collected his third sack of the day on first down and two incompletions later, J.K. Scott punted it away again.
Rob Gronkowski’s only catch of the game was good for 29 yards to set up Ryan Succop’s 46 yard field goal with only 4:42 to play.
An MVS 29 yard grab moved the ball into Tampa territory and the Packers reached the Bucs 8 yard line. On first down, Rodgers threw behind a slanting Lazard who wasn’t looking for the ball. On second down, he missed Adams over the middle at the back on the end zone. On third and goal, Rodgers bolted the pocket to his right, it looked like he had room to run but fired into traffic at the goal line for Adams without success.
Then came the big decision from LaFleur. He decided on the field goal from Crosby to make it 31-26 with 2:05 to play. He was planning on his defense getting one more stop with the two minute warning and all three time outs to play with. It looked like they had the stop when Brady’s pass over the middle went over the head of Tyler Johnson but a late flag was thrown. King was called for pass interference after tugging the back on Johnson’s jersey.
The Bucs were able to run out the clock from there and send the home team into a state of shock.
An ashen Matt LaFleur met the media:
Rodgers, who finished 33 of 46 for 346 yards and three touchdowns, with one interception, good for a passer rating of 101.6 had to deal with yet another lousy ending to what very likely will be his third NFL MVP season.
Rodgers also became very pensive talking about how the team, and more interestingly, he will move forward to 2021 and beyond.
It will take a long time to peel away that pile of bricks as the Packers did so much to earn the right to play at home, only to once again, not play well enough and it was the Pirates who came to Titletown and made the home team walk the plank allowing them to hoist the George Halas trophy and party on the tundra.
The end.
