By Eric Goska
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| A winner in the regular season, Matt LaFleur is just 3-6 in the postseason. (photos by Eric Goska) |
How can a team with an 18-point halftime lead be behind?
Ask the Green Bay Packers.
Up 21-3 as the second quarter came to a close, the Packers of
2025 imploded against the Bears in a wild card playoff game at Soldier Field. In
falling 31-27 to Chicago, Green Bay squandered a lead as never before in franchise postseason
history.
How could Matt LeFleur and his coaching staff not have not
seen this coming? How could they not have repeatedly stressed that Chicago
would throw everything short of the Willis Tower into the mix down the stretch?
More importantly, how could LeFleur and the brain power on
his side of the field not have prepared something – anything – to counter the
second-half onslaught that was predictably heading their way?
I could sense a tsunami was coming. I knew what was brewing four days before
the game kicked off.
Here, verbatim, is a snippet from a Jan. 6 email I sent to
my good friend and rabid Bears fan T.J. Troup. Go ahead. Call me Nostradamus!
“I can all but guarantee that the Packers and Steelers will
NOT advance. GB has given up 26 points in the first quarter and 133 in the 4th.
That's a league-leading negative difference of 107.”
Translation: the Green and Gold can’t finish.
This was supposed to be a column about how Green Bay had corrected
its red zone woes. How the club – 2 for 12 in the final four games of the
regular season – bounced back with the season on the line.
I would lead off by noting how seriously lacking that
2-for-12 number truly was. Only one other time in the last 90 years have the
Packers come away with just two touchdowns in the red zone in the final four
games of a season, that in 1974 when Dan Devine’s final aggregation went
2-for-10.
I would then give credit where credit was due. Green Bay went
3-for-3 against the Bears in the red zone, its best mark since going 4-for-4 in
a 27-20 win over the Giants in mid-November.
Issues fixed. Deficiencies corrected. Congratulations!
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| Jordan Love threw four TD passes in Chicago. |
Except all this took place in the first half. When Green Bay was setting up a yet another lead Chicago could overcome in the fourth quarter.
Prior to this meltdown, the Packers had played in 64 postseason
games. They had battled through 256 quarters, not counting overtime periods.
Only once in that time, a run that started in 1936, had the
Green and Gold surrendered more than 20 points in any one quarter. And that
came against – you guessed it, the Bears in 1941.
Chicago erupted for 24 points in the second quarter that
afternoon. Norm Standlee (two) and Bob Swisher scored touchdowns. Bob Snyder
booted a 24-yard field goal.
Poof! And just like that, Green Bay’s puny 7-6 first-quarter
lead was toast. The Bears romped 33-14 and then went on to defeat the New York
Giants in the NFL championship game a week later.
Saturday, the Bears went one better. They exploded for 25
points in the fourth quarter with D’Andre Swift, Olamide Zaccheaus and DJ Moore
reaching the end zone. Cairo Santos started the feeding frenzy with a 51-yard
field goal early in the period.
And like that effort at Wrigley Field some 30,708 days ago,
it was game, set, match!
If so moved – and we are not – a masochist could recite the litany
of plays that contributed to Green Bay’s downfall. But we all saw what unfolded
and need no reminders. This was a collapse of epic proportions.
Where to rank it? Was it worse than the 28-22 loss to
the Seahawks in 2015 where Green Bay blew a 16-point lead. Was it more
infuriating than 4th-and-26 against the Eagles in 2004?
You make that call. I made mine four days ago when I
predicted the Packers’ would wind up losers in Chicago.
The most points opponents have overcome to defeat the Packers in the playoffs.
Pts. Team Date
18 Bears Jan. 10, 2026
16 Seahawks Jan. 18, 2015
14 Eagles Jan. 11, 2004
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