MILWAUKEE- Even the comforts of home can’t help the Packers climb atop the NFC.
For the fourth time in the last four tries the Packers fell short of the ultimate goal of appearing in a Super Bowl, falling to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-26.
After Sunday’s loss, Aaron Rodgers intimating that he may not be suiting up for the Packers again.
LIVE: Aaron Rodgers meets with the media following #TBvsGB 🎥 https://t.co/J2r4owTYLt
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) January 24, 2021
“A lot of the guys futures, you know, are uncertain. Myself included,” Rodgers said during his postgame video conference. “I’m going to have to take some time away, for sure, and clear my head and see what’s going on with everything. It’s pretty tough right now.”
The Packers spotted the Buccaneers an 18 point lead early in the second half before a furious comeback attempt drew them within eight points with just over two minutes to go. On 4th down with eight yards to get to paydirt, head coach Matt LaFleur ultimately made the call to kick a field goal to decrease the deficit to five and trusting his defense to get one final stop on Brady and the Bucs offense. The decision ultimately backfired, the defense failed to get a stop and the Buccaneers were able to run out the clock.
Coach LaFleur defended the decision to go for 3 instead of the potential game tying touchdown.
“Anytime it doesn’t work out you always regret it, right?” LaFleur said. “It was just circumstance of having three shots and coming away with no yards. And knowing that you not only need the touchdown but you’d need the 2-point. The way I was looking at it is we essentially had four timeouts with the 2-minute warning, we knew we needed to get a stop.”
When asked about the decision to kick the field goal, Rodgers deflected and said ultimately, it wasn’t his call, “I understand the thinking — above two minutes with all of our timeouts — but it wasn’t my decision.”
Sunday’s loss marked the 4th consecutive NFC title game failure for the Packers. They lost in 2014 to the Seahawks, 2016 to the Falcons, 2019 to the 49ers and last night to the Buccaneers.
Voice of the Packers Wayne Larrivee weighed in on the game and the comments made afterwards. Listen to the full interview from Wisconsin’s Morning News in the player above.