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Juli
2019

minutes remaining in the game and Green Bay needing another

With a win Monday night Oren Burks Jersey , the Packers put themselves squarely back in the NFC playoff picture if only by virtue of record. For much of the game, and frankly much of the season, Green Bay has not played like a playoff team. If the offense is clicking, the defense can�t get a stop. If the defense is getting stops, Aaron Rodgers can�t get on the same page with his receivers or the playcalling bogs down. And even when some combination of those things do work in conjunction, the special teams remains an indefatigable trash fire. Sign up for FanPulse, our weekly Packers surveyWith five-game stretch upcoming featuring the two best teams in the league plus trips to Minnesota and Seattle on a short week, the Packers needed to beat the 49ers or risk the season falling off the proverbial cliff.Until the fourth quarter, Mike McCarthy�s team didn�t play like a team with that much on the line. They rightfully believe the offense will get going. Two straight 500-yard games suggests that�s a fair assumption to make. The defense, play-to-play, has been solid but can�t stop giving up big plays, though a young secondary should improve as the season wears on. A come-from-behind win, in which an inferior opponent out-efforted the Packers most of the night, leaves Green Bay at a junction point: use this 49ers game as a catapult to be the team your talent say you can be or it will ultimately become evidence this team remains too reliant on Aaron Rodgers, lacks defensive playmaking, and ultimately needs a new voice in the locker room. In 2016, the Packers infamously started 4-6, then famously finished Running the Table鈩? where their magical run ended with the Falcons debacle in the NFC Championship Game. This team could easily be 4-6-1 by mid-November. If they are, we�ll likely know this comeback win was fun but hollow, simply putting off the inevitable decline of a team that simply isn�t very good. Then again J�Mon Moore Jersey , we thought that about the �16 team after the offense looked lethargic and out of sorts for nearly all of 2015. Offensively, the Packers really are getting close. Plenty of teams with worse quarterbacks and worse numbers would say they�re already there. Green Bay sits 6th in offensive DVOA, even with a sluggish start from Rodgers and the injuries to key weapons like Randall Cobb and Geronimo Allison. After all, this team put up over 1,000 total yards in two games starting Davante Adams and three rookie receivers. Given that they�re still just 11th throwing the ball, if these rookies continue to improve and Rodgers gets healthy, this offense should absolutely inch up toward the top 3-5 in total offense. On the other side of the ball, Mike Pettine�s group clearly misses Jaire Alexander�s speed and playmaking. Fellow rookie Oren Burks flashes, but hasn�t put things together yet, playing beside Blake Martinez who is having a major regression season. But even for their struggles, this defense is one of the best in football at forcing punts and three-and-outs. They�re getting sacks and blitzing effectively. If they could cut down the big plays (Alexander�s athleticism would help) this defense could be solid. But we can�t expect any of these improvements. If if�s and but�s were candy and nuts etc. The Packers have struggled on both sides of the ball in the red zone, giving up too many touchdowns and not scoring enough themselves. That, perhaps above all else, must change. With Aaron Rodgers under center, the offensive part has a good chance. The defense, coming off one of the worst defensive performances in the red zone last season, may not. Over the next month and a half, we�ll find out if Rodgers� virtuoso comeback performanceforeshadowed greatness to come � a team coalescing and making another run at the conference � or if it was an aesthetic win for the record. It�s a performance Packers fans won�t soon forget and, for that, they should be thankful. But if the game becomes a footnote on another underwhelming season Marquez Valdes-Scantling Jersey , big changes could be coming this offseason with coaches and marquee players being shown the door. If the slow starts and inconsistent play becomes a hallmark of this season rather than just a rusty start, the answer to which it is will become clear in the coming weeks. The 2018 Packers have a clear choice: use this win as a springboard and the bye week to clean up some of the problems that have plagued them to become a contending team, or let their dramatic win be wasted with another season coming up short. Mason Crosby redeemed himself with the walkoff win. Can Green Bay redeem itself by making the same kind of turnaround the reason of the season? Mike McCarthy�s in-season firing is just one surprise of many in the last 12 months."Back on April 1st, the writers at APC shared laughs centered around April Fool�s Day jokes from twitter handles across NFL circles. While Tom Brady took the prize for his retirement tweet prank, it made plenty of us wonder about the unbelievable headlines seen by Green Bay Packers fans over the past year. While April Fool�s Day has since passed, here are several of APC�s own articles that probably would have been met with skepticism last April but became real storylines.Mike McCarthy fired as head coach of the Green Bay PackersMany fans may have pined in previous seasons for McCarthy to be fired after years of coming up short in the playoffs, but how many actually could have foreseen the Packers making a head coaching change in 2019? And how many would have seen the move coming prior to the end of the regular season? Suggesting either of those scenarios was probably considered to be more click-bait than anything of substance.Of course, the stories that have come out in recent weeks have suggested there was turmoil within the organization and lack of accountability for quite some time. But the road to the departure of the Packers� Super Bowl winning coach was rather quick once Green Bay�s losing stretch began. The Packers began a change of organizational direction with a general manager transition in June 2018 and continued it with a coaching change not long after.Packers make free agent signings of Smith, Smith, Amos, & Turner officialMost people can agree that the Packers� past several drafts failed to produce talent with longevity. Heading into the offseason, it seemed likely that Green Bay would make a splash in free agency, particularly to acquire a pass rusher. And they did with Za�Darius Smith. But then they kept going.In the team�s most active and expensive offseason, the Packers added four free agents on one day. They shattered all expectations by adding not one pass rusher but two, while also signing Adrian Amos and Billy Turner to fill other remaining holes. While all four deals could be justified, it was as uncharacteristic a second day of free agency that the franchise and its fans have ever witnessed. On the surface level, the four contracts totaled out to a staggering $184.1 million with $57.5 million guaranteed.By all accounts, the Packers had an �are you serious?� kind of day.Reliving the five best moments of Aaron Rodgers� miracle comebackRodgers signed the largest contract in NFL history (at the time - see Russell Wilson) prior to the start of the season. He then came out in week one on Sunday Night Football and planted a spear in the hearts of the Chicago Bears - on one leg.All hopes for the 2018 season seemed to be dashed in the first half of the first game as Rodgers had to be carted off the field. Reported to have a knee injury, Rodgers� return to the game and the season was in jeopardy as Packers fans watched the Bears take a 10-0 halftime lead and silence filled Lambeau Field.But then with just over nine minutes left in the third quarter, Rodgers re-took the field and led Green Bay to a wild comeback victory. With limited mobility JK Scott Jersey , the Packers� offense looked as sharp as it would all season with Rodgers firing quick throws and connecting for touchdowns with Davante Adams, Geronimo Allison, and Randall Cobb. In fact, Cobb�s game-winning 75-yard score late in the fourth quarter took the team just 26 seconds.The emotional swings of Green Bay�s improbable win were as high as any game in recent memory, and almost losing Rodgers for the season again - in the first game - looked to be as bitter a joke as imaginable.Packers lose to Lions as Mason Crosby misses five field goalsThe special teams unit was a weekly issue for the Packers in 2018, but nothing compares to the struggles of Mason Crosby in Detroit. Crosby�s unfathomable four missed field goals and missed extra point single-handedly prevented the Packers from a win.For one of the NFL�s more consistent kickers, it was an almost unprecedented bad day for a placekicker. Crosby missed just seven field goals and two extra points all season. His �anomaly in life� accounted for nearly all of his misses on just one day. However, he righted the ship immediately the next week and returned to his usual self.At the end of the day, Packers fans could only sit back and watch in depressing, yet humorous, amazement over the awful luck that had transpired.The best thing for Ty Montgomery and the Packers is for the team to move onIt would not have been the most surprising headline had the Packers moved on from Ty Montgomery after the preseason due to the emergence of Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams. Carries and snaps figured to be limited for the the three backs sharing the load. But how the split came to fruition was as abrupt and unpredictable as any fans have seen.While Green Bay�s decision to move Ha Ha Clinton-Dix before the trade deadline was a product of performance and criticism over time, the build up to a trade of Montgomery was less than 48 hours in the making. A costly fourth-quarter Montgomery fumble on a kickoff return doomed the Packers in Los Angeles, but that was only the beginning. With just over two minutes remaining in the game and Green Bay needing another miraculous drive to win, Montgomery was reportedly instructed to take a knee and reserve the two-minute warning. Instead, he defied orders and tried to be a hero. After the game, interviews with other players revealed a disgruntled Montgomery, a player wishing to be a bigger part of the offense. Fast forward to that next Tuesday and Montgomery was shipped to Baltimore for little in return. A highly unusual span of events led the Packers to avoid more negativity in the locker room and cut ties with a player that had never been in the news for the wrong reasons before.