Forget the wildcard for a minute, what about the division?

[RepStar15]

Even with the Seattle loss to the Eagles, stars seem to be aligning for the pack. I am going to make a big and bold statement. The Packers are the best team in the NFC with Aaron Rodgers. I do think if the stars align and they get in, they will go to the Super Bowl, AS LONG AS, they do not face the Atlanta Falcons. If another team can knock Atlanta out of playoffs, I think that is the only team (match-up wise) we cannot beat. I know it is a big statement, but I think if this team gets in, we can win 3 straight road games.

 

[TouchdownPackers]

Who cares?

Packers fans, of course.

 

[TouchdownPackers]

Even with the Seattle loss to the Eagles, stars seem to be aligning for the pack. I am going to make a big and bold statement. The Packers are the best team in the NFC with Aaron Rodgers. I do think if the stars align and they get in, they will go to the Super Bowl, AS LONG AS, they do not face the Atlanta Falcons. If another team can knock Atlanta out of playoffs, I think that is the only team (match-up wise) we cannot beat. I know it is a big statement, but I think if this team gets in, we can win 3 straight road games.

With Aaron Rodgers we were nowhere near the Eagles.

 

[swhitset]

With Aaron Rodgers we were nowhere near the Eagles.

Did you watch the Eagles last night?.... Yes they are a good team. Yet they lost to a team that the Aaron Rodgers led Packers beat on opening day. The Seahawks are now missing several key defensive players and yet they beat the Eagles. I'm not saying the Packers would dominate the Eagles, but the claim that we were "nowhere near them" is ridiculous. Btw before Rodgers went down each team had exactly 1 loss. Now tell me... which one of the teams that beat us post Rodgers would have done so if Aaron had been playing? All of those games were winnable with good QB play.

 

[RepStar15]

With Aaron Rodgers we were nowhere near the Eagles.

The Eagles are the Cowboys of last season...

 

[pfcmsh]

I absolutely disagree. A bunch of doubters never thought they would run the table last year either. The next two games are winnable with Hundley if he plays like he did Sunday. The rest are very winnable with Rodgers.

I agree that Hundley played better, but who, on our remaining schedule, is going to play as poorly as The Buccaneers did?

 

[rmontro]

I agree that Hundley played better, but who, on our remaining schedule, is going to play as poorly as The Buccaneers did?

The Browns, hopefully.

 

[adambr2]

If we win out, we need 2 of the following scenarios to occur to make the playoffs:

1) Rams: Lose 3 of final 4 games (vs. Philly, @Seattle, @Tennessee, vs. San Francisco). Unlikely. The finale vs. the 49ers is a near gimmee. The other 3 are loseable games but odds are they take one.

2) Seattle: Lose 2 of remaining 4 games (@ Jacksonville, vs. Rams, @ Cowboys, vs. Cardinals). Possible. Whether or not they win in Jacksonville on Sunday may decide it. Zeke will be back for Dallas in their game.

3) Carolina: Lose 2 of remaining 4 games (vs. Minny, vs. GB, vs. Tampa, @ Atlanta.)
Very possible. Our win would take care of half the problem. Yes, we need to root for Minnesota on Sunday. Not that 9-7 is likely to be good enough anyway, but losing in Carolina would make it nearly impossible which is why Rodgers returning on time is so crucial.

4). Atlanta: Lose 2 of remaining 4 games (vs. New Orleans, @ Tampa, @ New Orleans, vs. Carolina). Possible. Again, this Sunday is likely crucial for this possibility. We will know a lot more about our odds after this next week.

We also cannot afford New Orleans slipping to the Wild Card as they are not winning less than 10 games and we do not control a tiebreaker against them. It's too early to try to figure out any complicated 3 way tie scenarios, but head to head, 10-6 tiebreakers will favor us against the Rams, Seahawks and Panthers, and not favor us against the Falcons or Saints.

What the Lions and Cowboys do is of no consequence to us if we win out.

 

[PackAttack12]

If we win out, we need 2 of the following scenarios to occur to make the playoffs:

1) Rams: Lose 3 of final 4 games (vs. Philly, @Seattle, @Tennessee, vs. San Francisco). Unlikely. The finale vs. the 49ers is a near gimmee. The other 3 are loseable games but odds are they take one.

2) Seattle: Lose 2 of remaining 4 games (@ Jacksonville, vs. Rams, @ Cowboys, vs. Cardinals). Possible. Whether or not they win in Jacksonville on Sunday may decide it. Zeke will be back for Dallas in their game.

3) Carolina: Lose 2 of remaining 4 games (vs. Minny, vs. GB, vs. Tampa, @ Atlanta.)
Very possible. Our win would take care of half the problem. Yes, we need to root for Minnesota on Sunday. Not that 9-7 is likely to be good enough anyway, but losing in Carolina would make it nearly impossible which is why Rodgers returning on time is so crucial.

4). Atlanta: Lose 2 of remaining 4 games (vs. New Orleans, @ Tampa, @ New Orleans, vs. Carolina). Possible. Again, this Sunday is likely crucial for this possibility. We will know a lot more about our odds after this next week.

We also cannot afford New Orleans slipping to the Wild Card as they are not winning less than 10 games and we do not control a tiebreaker against them. It's too early to try to figure out any complicated 3 way tie scenarios, but head to head, 10-6 tiebreakers will favor us against the Rams, Seahawks and Panthers, and not favor us against the Falcons or Saints.

What the Lions and Cowboys do is of no consequence to us if we win out.

Well put.

Our best bet is for the division leaders to remain the same (Philly, Minny, LAR, NO) and obviously win out. And then of the three current wild card contenders you alluded to (Seattle, Carolina, Atlanta), I would say Carolina is the most likely to break our way. And I still think Seattle is vulnerable especially away from home. They have 3 tough ones coming up.

And we will definitely know more after this weekend. The entire outlook of the playoff picture could break favorably to the Packers if Atlanta loses to New Orleans, Carolina loses to Minnesota, and Seattle loses to Jacksonville. All three are more than possible.

We also know that either Atlanta or Carolina has a guaranteed loss left on their schedule, as they play each other in week 17.

 

[TouchdownPackers]

Did you watch the Eagles last night?.... Yes they are a good team. Yet they lost to a team that the Aaron Rodgers led Packers beat on opening day. The Seahawks are now missing several key defensive players and yet they beat the Eagles. I'm not saying the Packers would dominate the Eagles, but the claim that we were "nowhere near them" is ridiculous. Btw before Rodgers went down each team had exactly 1 loss. Now tell me... which one of the teams that beat us post Rodgers would have done so if Aaron had been playing? All of those games were winnable with good QB play.

I did not watch the Eagles/Seahawks game. The one that tells me we probably would lose to Philadelphia is their Denver game. They scored 51 points against Von Miller, Derek Wolfe, and the No Fly Zone. Can our defense prevent that offensive output?

I read former Packer Doug Pederson made some very questionable decisions that cost the Eagles a win at Seatle. How much of the loss was not his fault?

 

[swhitset]

I did not watch the Eagles/Seahawks game. The one that tells me we probably would lose to Philadelphia is their Denver game. They scored 51 points against Von Miller, Derek Wolfe, and the No Fly Zone. Can our defense prevent that offensive output?

I read former Packer Doug Pederson made some very questionable decisions that cost the Eagles a win at Seatle. How much of the loss was not his fault?

I'm not going to go into details of every particular game... the bottom line is that the Eagles can be beaten ... Obviously so can the Packers ... however since the discussion was about the Packers with Rodgers... again we had the same record when Rodgers went down.. and based on how the Packers games went sans Rodgers I would be very surprised if the records were much different between the two teams of Rodgers had not been hurt. The Packers with Rodgers are definitely in the same league.

 

[Mondio]

I watched some of it. Had a questionable challenge early and lost it. Then in what I thought was a forward pass beyond the LOS they didn't challenge it. Replay shows they would have won that. That was a big play. But I did t watch it all so I'm not saying it was a win or lose play at all. Just a big one I saw

 

[rmontro]

The one that tells me we probably would lose to Philadelphia is their Denver game. They scored 51 points against Von Miller, Derek Wolfe, and the No Fly Zone. Can our defense prevent that offensive output?

I was looking at the standings the other day and I noticed that Denver has given up more points than we have. I know they're having a down year, but considering the reputations of their defense and ours, I thought it was surprising.

 

[PikeBadger]

With Aaron Rodgers we were nowhere near the Eagles.

The Injury riddled Seahawks found a way to shut them down. Other NFL teams will surely take notice. It remains to be seen how the Eagles adapt to that. Exposure in December is bad news for the team exposed with a 2nd year QB.

 

[Alex]

The Eagles are the Cowboys of last season...

So Alshon won't catch it?