Packers’ Playoff Chances Better Than You Think After Loss to Buccaneers

The Green Bay Packers aren’t dead in the NFC playoff race just yet, despite upset losses to the Giants and Buccaneers.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – One of the classic movie lines of all-time is the Jim Carrey character in “Dumb and Dumber” saying “So, you’re telling me there’s a chance” when the love of his life says there’s only a one-in-a-million chance of them becoming a couple.

The Green Bay Packers’ playoff chances are considerably better than one-in-a-million following Sunday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

While their playoff prospects aren’t on life support, the heart’s not beating especially strong, either.

According to The New York Times’ latest “Path to the Postseason,” the Packers have a 22 percent chance of snaring one of the final couple spots in the NFC playoffs.

The Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions are locks for four spots, and the NFC South winner – Tampa Bay is the front-runner after beating Green Bay 34-20 – will secure a fifth spot. 

In the race for the final two spots in the NFC field, the Los Angeles Rams are 72 percent, the Seattle Seahawks, who upset the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night, are 49 percent and the Minnesota Vikings are 47 percent. .

However, by the Times’ computer simulation:

- If the Packers beat the Panthers on Christmas Eve, that will go to 32 percent.

- If the Packers beat the Panthers and then beat the Vikings on New Year’s Eve, that will improve to 65 percent. The Rams' destruction of the Saints on Thursday night knocked that down from 68 percent.

- If the Packers run the table by winning at Carolina and Minnesota before beating the Bears at Lambeau Field in the finale, that will move to 95 percent. The Rams' win trimmed that from 98 percent.

So, the Packers have much more than a snowball’s chance of getting to the playoffs. They just have to win games, which has proven to be Mission Impossible against the Giants’ Tommy DeVito and the Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield the last two weeks.

Those losses have pushed Green Bay all the way to 11th place in the NFC standings.

In the latest betting odds at DraftKings Sportsbook, the Packers went from +100 last week to +250. By implied probability, that means from 50.0 percent to 28.6 percent.

Is it possible to bounce back after two crushing losses wiped away the good vibes of beating the Chargers, Lions and Chiefs?

“It’s what we’ve been doing the whole season,” quarterback Jordan Love said. “How do we respond? How do we bounce back? Starts getting back to work tomorrow, coming in, watching the film, learning from obviously the mistakes, things like that, finding ways to get better.

“And then onto the next week, focus on that and make sure we go get a win. But going forward, it’s a playoff. Same thing we’ve talked about the weeks before. We’ve got to win every game. So, I don’t think we’ll have any problem in the locker room being able to bounce back and respond right now.”

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