The Green Bay Packers have 80 years of NFL divisional playoff experience in their history books. We review all 19 previous games to help prime you for Sunday’s contest against the Seattle Seahawks (13 hours of coverage starting at 11 a.m. on WTMJ and worldwide on desktop and laptop ).
In 1941, the NFL didn’t regularly hold divisional playoffs. But when the 10-1 Packers and 10-1 Bears finished their regular seasons, the NFL had them play a contest at Wrigley Field to determine the western champ. It didn’t go so well. George Halas’ Bears scored 30 consecutive first half points and boat-raced the Packers 33-14. (Getty Images)
The Packers got away with one. Or so the Baltimore Colts thought. In a game with both Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas injured, the defenses dominated before Don Chandler kicked a field goal in the final two minutes of the game to send it to overtime. But the Colts didn’t think so, believing the kick went wide. In an era without replay, the call stood and Chandler kicked a sure-and-true 25 yard boot in the 5th quarter to give the Packers a 13-10 win in the 1965 Western Division playoff. The Packers would win the NFL Title seven days later over Cleveland. (Photo: Getty Images)
No one gave the Packers a chance. Except those men in Vince Lombardi’s locker room. The 9-4-1 Packers hosted the 11-1-2 Rams in the 1967 Western Conference Playoff at Milwaukee County Stadium. Los Angeles had beaten the Packers 14 days beforehand. But Lombardi’s motivation (based off one of St. Paul’s epistles) and innovation (changing much of his offensive strategy) led to his Packers dominating Los Angeles 28-7, starting the Packers’ three-game playoff run to an unmatched third straight NFL title. (Photo: Getty Images)
The Packers couldn’t pass, and George Allen knew it. Washington, the NFC representative in Super Bowl VII, knew Scott Hunter’s passing was no threat, and he set Washington up in a five-man line to halt the charges of John Brockington and MacArthur Lane in a 16-3 Washington win in the 1972 NFC Divisional Playoff. (Photo by Nate Fine/Getty Images)
The 1982 Packers were Bart Starr’s only playoff team in nine years at the helm of the Packers. But they ran into Tom Landry’s perennial playoff powerhouse and lost 37-26 in the 1982 NFC Divisional Playoff. (Photo by Jay Dickman/Getty Images)
The first foray for Brett Favre’s Packers in the divisional playoffs was a painful one. The defending and eventual Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys used the 1993 NFC Divisional Playoff to continue their reign of dominance over Green Bay when the teams met on North Texas soil in a 27-17 win for Dallas that wasn’t that close. (Photo by Joseph Patronite/Getty Images)
Again. And again. The Packers’ frustration continued in Dallas as the Packers got completely dominated in all phases of play in a 35-9 Dallas triumph in the 1994 NFC Divisional Playoff. It was part of a nine-game losing streak for the Packers at Texas Stadium. (Photo by Joseph Patronite/Getty Images)
What a coming out party for the Packers as a contender. The 1995 NFC Divisional Playoff in San Francisco turned into a surprisingly easy demolition of the defending champion 49ers. Brett Favre’s 299 passing yards and a Craig Newsome fumble return took care of San Francisco in a 27-17 win that finally got Mike Holmgren’s Packers over the hump after two divisional playoff failures. (Photo by Allen Kee/Getty Images)
“Suddenly, the Packers lead!” The words of Jim Irwin after Desmond Howard took the first touch of the football for the Packers 71 yards for a punt return touchdown. He had 144 punt return yards in the first quarter alone in a 3-14 triumph over San Francisco to kick off the 1996 Packers run to a win in Super Bowl XXXI. (Photo by Ronald C. Modra/Getty Images)
Defense. The theme of the day in chilly Green Bay when the Packers hosted the up-and-coming Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1997 NFC Divisional Playoff. Reggie White and company held Tampa Bay to just 290 total yards and forced two interceptions in a 21-7 win. (Photo by Allen Kee/Getty Images)
Brett Favre just threw another interception. That phrase was uttered too many times for Packers fans’ liking in the 2001 NFC Divisional Playoff. Favre threw six of those interceptions in the St. Louis Rams’ 45-17 blowout of the Packers. (Photo by James V. Biever/Getty Images)
A day of regret and what if in Philadelphia in the 2003 NFC Divisional Playoff. Not going for it on 4th down with two minutes left. 4th and 26. And Brett Favre’s ill-advised pop-fly interception in overtime leading to a 20-17 overtime loss. ©Josph V. Labolito / NFL Photos. (Photo by Joseph Labolito/Getty Images)
It was perfectly ideal. Snow globe conditions and a hot Green Bay Packers team as they scored 42 straight points en route to defeating the Seattle Seahawks in the 2007 NFC Divisional Playoff, 42-20. Little did the fans at Lambeau Field know it would be Brett Favre’s last win as a Green Bay Packer. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Preparing for doom. That’s what this Atlanta Falcons safety experienced as Aaron Rodgers prepared his teammates in the 2010 NFC Divisional Playoff. Rodgers had maybe the best day of his career – 31-36, 366 passing yards, three touchdown passes and a scoring run in a 48-21 thrashing of the Falcons en route to their win in Super Bowl XLV. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
They were supposed to win it all, dominate while doing it and go down as maybe the greatest Green Bay Packers team of all time. But the New York Giants had other ideas in the 2011 NFC Divisional Playoff, and their front four dominated Aaron Rodgers and company in a 37-20 upset win at Lambeau Field. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
By himself, Colin Kaepernick embarrassed the Green Bay Packers in the 2012 NFC Divisional Playoff. He produced 444 combined passing and rushing yards and four total touchdowns as the San Francisco 49ers knocked Green Bay off 45-31 in a game that wasn’t even that close. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images)
Dez caught it – at least according to the eye test – but the NFL rules didn’t say so, and the Packers took advantage in their 2014 NFC Divisional Playoff against the Dallas Cowboys. The ruling, on a fourth down play with less than five minutes left, kept the Packers in a 26-21 lead which they held on to in advancing to the NFC Championship Game. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)
Two Hail Marys answered, but not enough for victory. Aaron Rodgers and Jeff Janis combined to complete two Hail Mary throws on the Packers’ final drive of their divisional playoff against the Arizona Cardinals. One was a fourth-down throw. The other reached the end zone at the final gun to tie the game at 20. But the Packers wouldn’t touch the ball again, as Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald touched it twice and took care of all 80 yards on the first drive of overtime to beat Green Bay 26-20. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
For the fifth time, the Packers and Cowboys met in the divisional playoffs when they went at it in 2016. Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott held a day-long quarterback duel, while Mason Crosby engaged in a duel of 50-plus yard field goals in the final minutes. But Crosby booted the last salvo, a 51-yarder at the final gun to launch the Packers into an unlikely appearance in the NFC Championship Game. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)