NFL Playoffs Wildcard Betting Thread- The gang's all here edition

I will do a cathartic Packers post-mortem.

They ended up as the B-tier team who can easily beat worse teams and somehow lose every single time to anyone operating a tier higher (and then also the Bears). Staying competitive with top tier teams is nice, it's normally as good of a sign as a loss can be, but consistently losing those games means you're securely the lil-bro right now. This was only made worse by both the Lions and Vikings deciding they would be the top of the NFC this year.

Lots of Packers hopium depended on 1. the Defense getting better and 2. Later season 2023/aka Toyotathon J Love becoming the norm and 3. Josh Jacobs & Xavier McKinney being worth their weight in their contracts. 4. Finding a fricking kicker (Post-Mason Crosby, the Packers have been terrorized by kickers who can not be relied on for even routine 30-50 yard kicks.).

3. Happened big ups for signing these guys. 4. Happened, McManus broke a streak of several kickers who simply couldn't make it and of course he missed one in the Philly game to mock my trust in him. 1. For sure happened, but considering most of that defense were the same people as last year, the Jeff Hafley experiment worked. Basically every Packers game including that wildcard game, were made winnable by the Defense. Offense just didn't show up against good opponents; to break it down: the run game, lead by Jacobs absolutely showed up (but RB's 2-4 Wison, Brooks, and Loyd (& like 4 other receivers who get used as occasional RBs) all came through especially in 2.5 games when J Love was out and the offense was 70-80% running/screens). ##2## was the problem. This was not completely J Love problem. Packers receivers are nearly all on rookie contracts, they are young and also had a pretty high drop rate. They've also been often beaten up meaning WR1 is a revolving door that seems to depend on the game, whose playing and who happens to be hot that week. It's a strength because defenses don't know who to cover, but it's also a weakness because none of these guys seem to be consistent super heroes, they're going to miss passes, sometimes critical passes. The other side of ##2## is obviously Jordan Love dishing those passes accurately. He's got a better than most line keeping people out of his face, and he frustratingly wasn't that next-level toyotathon accurate and safe guy the offense needed him to be to actually compete in the playoffs.

Brass tax, the Packers were not winning a single game, much less actually competing unless J Love turned up to last year's end of the season/playoff mode. He was not the danger he was last season at this time despite having a better defense, a better run game, but also easily a tougher opponent. These Packers were a better team than last year and being a threat relied on him, he didn't show up and he didn't in several big games this year.

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Bears twitter is already in "Here's how the North is ours next year" mode (they always do that, but they're more delusional than usual and earlier). Truly a titanic L.