No Six-Pack for Green Bay in New York
By Eric Goska
Lukas Van Ness led Green Bay with nine combined tackles
including stuffing Jets running back Braelon Allen on
fourth down late in the fourth quarter.
(photos by Eric Goska)
Fortunately for Cheeseheads everywhere, the Packers kicked
the habit in the Big Apple Sunday with a 20-17 overtime win against the New
York Jets at MetLife Stadium.
Green Bay entered the matchup riding a five-game losing
streak (regular-season only). Had it faltered, the team from Wisconsin would have
dropped more than a sixth straight game; it would have seen one of the longest
streaks in NFL history come to an inglorious end.
Six straight losses. That’s a snootful. No coach or player
wants to go there.
But for three quarters, that’s the direction in which the
Packers were trending. Whether penalties (14 for 133 yards), fumbles (five with
one lost) or third-down efficiency (1 for 9 for 11%), Green Bay appeared destined
to start the 2026 season 0-2.
That outcome appeared even more inevitable after Jason
Sanders booted a 32-yard field goal to put New York up 17-7 with 11 minutes,
four seconds left in the fourth quarter. For the Packers, engineering a comeback
under those conditions had become a distant memory.
In dropping five straight prior to Sunday, the Packers had all
but ceded the final 15 minutes to the opposition. The Broncos, Bears, Ravens
and Vikings (twice) had outgained them 479 yards to 267 and had outpointed them
65 to 9.
Why should the Jets not follow suit?
Simply put, New York ran up against a Green Bay defense that,
having played well throughout, took control. The unit gave up 41 yards on 18
plays (2.28 average) in the fourth quarter and overtime. More importantly, Lukas
Van Ness and Co. did not allow a third- or fourth-down conversion during that
stretch.
That late-game chokehold is even more impressive given the
length of time Green Bay’s defense spent on the field. The Jets ran 22 more offensive
plays than did the Packers (72 to 50) and had the ball for almost 11 additional
minutes (37:40 to 26:57).
But Green Bay’s defense didn’t wilt, and the Green and Gold
now have their first win since Dec. 7, 2025. Further, the team extended its
all-time NFL record of 565 consecutive regular-season games without a six-game
losing streak.
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| Wideout Matthew Golden caught four passes for 58 yards for Green Bay. |
No more so than Arizona or Cleveland. The Cardinals have endured
14 six-game losing streaks during Green Bay’s run of avoidance and the Browns 15.
One of Arizona’s and four of Cleveland’s flings with futility stretched into double
digits.
That just doesn’t happen in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Some may not remember the last time the Packers lost six or
more regular-season games in a row. George H.W. Bush (the first Bush) was
president. The price of gas was just over a dollar a gallon. Social media as we
know it today did not exist.
Green Bay, under head coach Lindy Infante, closed out the
1990 season with consecutive losses to Minnesota (7-23), Seattle (14-20), Philadelphia
(0-31), Detroit (17-24) and Denver (13-22). In opening the 1991 campaign, the team
fell to the Eagles (3-20) and Lions (14-23) before squeaking past the
Buccaneers 15-13 to end a seven-game skid.
In the time since, the Packers have suffered through three
five-game losing streaks. In addition to the one they just ended, the Green and
Gold bungled five straight in 2008 (games 11-15) and 2022 (games 5-9).
But that’s all in the past. Having dispatched the Jets, Green
Bay has again put winning on the table. Packers fans can only hope victory
becomes habit and not a one-time affair.
Most consecutive games between losing streaks of six or more games (regular season only).
565 Packers 1991-2026 348-214-3 (.619)
553 Dolphins 1967-2003 345-204-4 (.627)
480 Bears 1929-1968 302-155-23 (.653)
424 Steelers 1999-2026 267-154-3 (.633)
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