After weeks of searching for answers, maybe the postseason can jump-start Green Bay’s once vaunted offense. The defense knocked away a desperation pass in the end zone from Aaron Rodgers on fourth down as time expired.
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Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy is entering his eighth playoffs as a head coach.
The upstart Vikings made those plays.
The Packers will play the Redskins at FedEx Field in the final game of Wild Card Weekend, kicking off Sunday afternoon at 3:40 PM CST.
Arizona is set to play the NFC South and the AFC East. They will, as always, play six division games and then the other two games are the two first place teams from the NFC East and NFC North – the Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings. However, without their top receiver, a healthy offensive line and multiple key defenders, the team that almost toppled the Seahawks in the conference title game looks like a pedestrian unit. In his two-plus decades in the NFL, Zimmer has learned that opportunities like the one the Vikings now have in front of them can be few and far between and they should not be taken for granted.
It was the third straight loss for the Giants (6-10) and finished a third straight losing season and a fourth straight year out of the playoffs. “You know, we started out two years ago trying to build something special”.
Packers kicker Mason Crosby forced a fumble on Cordarrelle Patterson’s potentially field-flipping 70-yard kickoff return with 5 minutes, 21 seconds left.
With less than 30 seconds left in the game, Rhodes noticed a quick pass into the flat for Green Bay tight end Richard Rodgers.
“We’ve got to put that one behind us”, receiver James Jones said. “That drought is over”. Just two years after going 5-10-1, Minnesota is back in the playoffs under second-year coach Mike Zimmer. We’ve got to figure out the root of that and fix it quickly. “Like I said, its a week-to-week league”. “I don’t know, maybe”. They won the division winner-take-all game over the Packers 20-13 because they stopped Aaron Rodgers every time they had to. The result was 10 fourth-quarter points but also an interception in the end zone on fourth-and-13 with 2:09 remaining (when a field goal might have been a better choice).
Teddy Bridgewater had just 99 passing yards and threw an interception.
“It wasn’t fun, to be honest with you”.
Zimmer said the video will be examined when the team returns to practice on Wednesday. The Vikings got on the board first with a Blair Walsh field goal from 39 yards out.
But a slow start doomed the Packers once again, as did a sluggish running game.
Running back Eddie Lacy has averaged 107 yards rushing on 23 carries in five career games against Minnesota.
In the AFC the Cincinnati Bengals will play host to the division-rival Pittsburgh Steelers in a Wild Card Weekend matchup, with the Bengals having lost 33-20 at home to the Steelers as a 1-point favorite when they last met in Week 14. “You think about it. We’re a young team that’s been to a Super Bowl”. On 3rd and 3 from the GB 18 yard line, Griffen got around the corner and chased Rodgers until the end dove and grabbed the legs of Rodgers, with the latter going down in a heap.
NOTES: Peterson said he had an X-ray taken of his back to make sure there was nothing wrong with his spine.
The defense sacked Bridgewater three times and intercepted him once.
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4 The Panthers are getting very thin at cornerback, enough so that they may be starting a player in Robert McClain who wasn’t even on the team until mid-December.
