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Tampa's defense is what overcame the picks and drops. Every team in the league can make the case for better players at certain positions, but a lack of talent wasn't the reason the Packers lost on Sunday- mistakes and squandered opportunities did that.

Dougherty made a comment in his chat today that I completely agree with- Packers lost their offensive identity in the fourth quarter by abandoning the run (unclear whether it was MLF, AR or a combination). Six plays after the two picks by Jaire with six passes attempted and zero first downs.

@DH13 posted:

Those guys were good enough against almost everybody but TB.  And guess who they had to beat to get to the SB.  The consensus among the team, fans and much of the media before the game was that the WK06 was an "anomaly".  Nope.  No it wasn't.  It was exactly what it was.  Out schemed/coached and out played.  Would a legit #2 WR have helped in the red zone?  I don't know how he wouldn't have.

It’s a fair point of view, I just disagree with it.

To me, Packers were the better team, and Rodgers played superior to Brady by a country mile. The Packers way more lost that game than Tampa won it, at least in my view. Their best players failed to come through in 3 critical moments. Take Rodgers missing Adams on the 12-man play out- the Packers still win if Jones doesn’t fumble and Adams catches that TD. You can put the blown coverage in that category too, I suppose. The game was decided on 3 plays that gave Tampa 2 TDs and took one away from GB- an 11 point swing in a 5 point loss.

Last edited by Music City

One thing that GB did not experience this year or last year was any real adversity, and adversity can help build toughness and character. Two relatively easy 13-3 years will do that. We talk about playing "soft," but I think Sunday was more a between-the-ears issue than a physical issue. The Bucs finished 11-5, went the wild-card route, and were just mentally so much tougher. Brady gave up three interceptions and yet his D stepped up and capitalized -- they didn't moan or panic, they just got tougher. We got near the EZ, had some mistakes, and folded. We had the interceptions and instead of pushing down the field and driving the knife home, we folded. Yes, MLF probably should have stuck more to the run to try to build some toughness and establish some control, but you can see TB is just mentally a tougher team. We don't have that "I'm going to cut your heart out and eat it in front of you" attitude.

KC will have trouble with that same toughness. KC will be balanced out by Mahomes' ability to somehow pull a rabbit out of his helmet, but he hasn't played as well this year. What KC does have is a team-first attitude. After Mecole Hardman gave Buffalo that TD on the muffed punt, he was so upset he hid under a coat, and then Mahomes, Kelce, and others came over to tell him he was going to be needed and to take the adversity and shove it right back. Contrast that to how King acted and how his teammates treated him...

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