Packers Past Success in Wild Card Round
Packers running back James Starks had a career day in Green Bay's last visit to Philadelphia for a playoff game, a 21-16 win in January of 2011. Starks finished with 123 yards rushing, it would turn out to be the second most in his seven-year career.
With its 2024 appearance in the NFL playoffs, the Green Bay Packers will be playing in their 16th Wild Card playoff game since the NFL expanded the playoffs in 1990.
To advance to a fifth divisional playoff round game in the last seven seasons, Green Bay will need to win as a road underdog, something they’ve done under all three of its starting quarterbacks since 1992: Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love.
The other road underdog Wild Card playoff wins were: 1993 at Detroit, 2010 at Philadelphia, 2015 at Washington and 2023 at Dallas.
On this day in 1994:
Brett Favre hits Sterling Sharpe for a 40 yard TD pass with under a minute to go, leading the Packers to a WC victory over the Lions.
This was Favre’s first ever playoff win and the Packers first playoff win since 1982.
— GBP Daily - Rob Westerman lll (@GBPdaily) January 8, 2021
In the previous 15 Wild Card contests, the Packers have a 10-5 record; 3-1 under Mike Holmgren, 2-2 under Mike Sherman, 4-2 under Mike McMcarthy and 1-0 under Matt LaFleur.
In road wild card games, these Packers teams are 4-2 overall (losses to San Francisco in 1998 and Arizona in 2009).
To continue the success in this round, this year’s Packers will likely need a script out of the playbooks of previous teams to get upset playoff wins.
In the last three road wild card wins for the Packers, they relied on the running game to wear down the home favorite. In the 2010 playoffs, James Starks had the second best rushing performance in his entire career with 123 yards, which helped Aaron Rodgers throw three touchdown passes in beating Philadelphia, 21-16. The Packers ran for 138 yards in the game.
Packers are a Commanders win in Dallas away from starting their playoff road in Philadelphia pic.twitter.com/Jih9wEZpll
— Aaron Nagler (@AaronNagler) December 30, 2024
In the 2015 playoffs, it was the two-headed attack of Eddie Lacy and Starks which led a comeback-victory over the Washington Redskins. After trailing 11-0 early in the second quarter, Rodgers had a pair of second quarter touchdown passes, one to Randall Cobb and the other to Davante Adams. But it was the running attack of Lacy and Starks which led the way in the second half. Lacy finished with 63 yards and Starks had 53 yards and both had second-half touchdown runs. Overall, the Packers ran for 141 yards in the 35-18 win.
Today in 2016: Packers topple Washington in 35-18 Wild Card win. After trailing 11-0, Green Bay scores on five-straight possessions, including TDs from Randall Cobb, Davante Adams, James Starks, and Eddie Lacy. Nick Perry collects 2.5 of Green Bay's six sacks of Kirk Cousins. pic.twitter.com/tXOdLNB6av
— Packers History (@HistoricPackers) January 11, 2024
Last season, in its decisive 48-32 win over the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay got out to a big lead early behind the legs of Aaron Jones. Jones had two touchdown runs to give the Packers a 14-0 lead, and Jones finished with a career playoff-best 118 yards rushing. Jones would get a third touchdown run in the third quarter, equaling Ryan Grant’s team record for postseason rushing touchdowns in a game with three. Jordan Love would compliment Jones with three passing touchdowns.
We’ve seen this before from Aaron Jones.@Showtyme_33 loves playing in Texas against the Cowboys.
🏈Jones’ hat trick today ties a #Packers playoff record
🏈7 career rush TDs in the playoffs is the most in franchise history
🏈9 TDs in 4 games vs. Cowboyspic.twitter.com/yIksy3jFiG https://t.co/vADmT6ixGF
— Andy Morgan (@AndyMorganTV) January 15, 2024
This Sunday should be no different with Josh Jacobs entering the game on a streak of eight-straight games with a rushing touchdown. In the last eight games, Jacobs has rushed 156 times for 662 yards and 12 touchdowns.
That's eight straight games with a rush TD for Jacobs, a franchise record!#CHIvsGB pic.twitter.com/nxLqgDwMdc
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) January 5, 2025
The Packers are 5-2 when Jacobs scores a touchdown in the first or second quarter. To knock off a team with an explosive offense like the Eagles do, relying on Jacobs to keep the chains and clock moving will likely be a high priority from the Packers offense. And he’s also been the key to improving a once dormant red-zone offense.
If Jacobs does run well on Sunday, the Packers have a good chance to improve this Wild Card record 11-5.
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Mitch McLaughlin is a Packers fan and shareholder residing in Sacramento, California. He will be writing Packers stories each week on Cheesehead TV. He can be found on Twitter: @McLaughlinMitch
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Comments (9)
dblbogey
January 07, 2025 at 07:39 pm
Starks was really, really good during his time with Green Bay.
stockholder
January 07, 2025 at 08:45 pm
The Past means Nothing.
The team that wants it more always wins.
So the packers must show they
know what they're doing.
Or the Super-Bowl window shuts!
Mitch = You've shown a past of leadership.
Losing will show how far a franchise has Fallen.
Gute decided Loyalty means nothing.
His Miss -steps have shown his mistakes.
Regardless how we match-up.
Winning is everything now.
No Mercy!
LLCHESTY
January 07, 2025 at 10:13 pm
Why do the Packers have to show they know what they're doing as long as they want it more?
Could it be you're just full of BS?
SicSemperTyrannis
January 08, 2025 at 02:12 am
Consider his deluded ramblings like a crossword puzzle. (One I never try to complete)
jannesbjornson
January 08, 2025 at 07:57 am
The want to may be replaced by the injury report and the coaching....
Cheezehead72
January 08, 2025 at 05:38 am
On offense the Packers need to run the ball and Love needs tolet it all hang out. He needs to go out there and just play the game. Yes that means taking chances and yes there might be INTs. Go out there and be a gamer. Play the game like Favre. It appears that he has been tentative. Love go get the game.
murf7777
January 08, 2025 at 08:38 am
Run the ball effectively and stop the run is the recipe to beating the Eagles. GPG.
Packerlifer
January 08, 2025 at 10:31 am
The Packers have far and away the best Wild Card record in the league. Tennessee and Seattle are next in line with 9 wins each. Only 3 or 4 clubs even have a record above .500. (Philly btw is 8-11)
The Packers would probably be 2 games better and undefeated in road Wild Card games if not for two of the most undeniable, egregious officiating errors against them.
The Jerry Rice fumble that was wrongly called an incompletion gave the Niners the chance to zip the game winner in the final seconds in '98.
The no call facemark of Aaron Rodgers produced the winning td in the OT at Arizona in '09.
They don't give out trophies for being a Wild Card champion but if they did the Packers would have the most.
Leatherhead
January 08, 2025 at 12:21 pm
'''''The Packers are 5-2 when Jacobs scores a touchdown in the first or second quarter''''
To add to the Jacobs minutiae, the Packers are 8-0 when Jacobs gets 20 or more touches. The team is 3-6 when Jacobs doesn't get 20 touches.
If there's a pathway to victory this Sunday, it's going to have to involve Jacobs getting the ball a lot and having a good day. It'll need to include not turning the ball over, or dropping passes that kill drives. I think we need to aim to score 30 and hope that's enough. That's 4 TD drives in maybe 11 possessions.
He's our engine. He gets the ball about 1/3 of the time, and if he's gaining yardage, it keeps us on the field and opens up the play action. And we win.