Packers delighted to get 1st-round playoff bye

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Packers delighted to get 1st-round playoff bye

By Rob Demovsky
rdemovsk@greenbaypressgazette.com

ST. LOUIS – The Green Bay Packers wrapped up the NFC North last week and a first-round bye today.

What’s next? The No. 1 seed in the NFC and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs perhaps.

It’s still possible after a day in which everything that needed to fall the Packers’ way did.

Even before they had finished off their 33-14 rout of the injury-plagued St. Louis Rams at the Edward Jones Dome, the Carolina Panthers had completed an unlikely 13-10 win over the NFC West-leading Seattle Seahawks. That combination assured the Packers of one of the top two seeds in the NFC, a first-round bye and a home divisional playoff game on either Jan. 12 or Jan. 13.

Then, as the Packers were flying home from St. Louis, the Philadelphia Eagles were busy shocking the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium. The Eagles’ 10-6 win in Irving, Texas, left the Cowboys and Packers with matching 12-2 records.

Because the Cowboys hold the head-to-head tiebreaker thanks to their 37-27 win over the Packers on Nov. 29, Dallas would need to lose at least one more game than the Packers over the final two weeks of the regular season in order to earn the top seed.

Dallas plays at Carolina on Saturday and at Washington on the final day of the regular season, while the Packers play at Chicago on Sunday and close at home against Detroit on Dec. 30.

“It means we’re that much closer to the Super Bowl, honestly,” Packers linebacker Nick Barnett said. “We’ve only got to play two (playoff games) instead of three (to reach the Super Bowl), and we get one of those games at Lambeau. It’s huge. I don’t remember when the last time the Packers have been 12-2 and had a first-round bye. It’s a huge accomplishment, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Barnett probably doesn’t remember when the Packers last had a first-round bye because it was 10 years ago, when he was in high school. In 1997, they went 13-3 and were the No. 2 seed in the NFC. They beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the divisional round at Lambeau Field and then won the NFC championship game at San Francisco before losing in Super Bowl XXXII to the Denver Broncos.

In their last four trips to the playoffs, the Packers have been relegated to the wild-card round and in two of the last three postseason appearances, they lost home wild-card games (including their most recent playoff game in 2004 against the Minnesota Vikings).

“I’ve never been able to be part of a first-round bye,” said Packers right tackle Mark Tauscher, an eight-year veteran. “But it’s something that’s a big advantage when you can sit back and watch your opponent and have a week off to recover. Especially at this time of the year, that’s huge. And then to be able to play at home, it’s a big, big advantage.”

With the No. 1 seed still up for grabs, Packers coach Mike McCarthy shouldn’t have to wrestle this week with the difficult decision of whether to rest some of his starters to ensure their health for the postseason.

The Packers also still have a chance to win a team-record 14 games. This comes two years after a 4-12 season and a year after the Packers had to win their last four games to finish 8-8.

“With free agency and the salary cap, you know you’re going to dip,” Packers chairman Bob Harlan said. “It’s going to happen. The key is that you just don’t let it last. This really proves that we’ve bounced back so fast from 4-12.”
How did it happen?

“It starts with the scouting department,” veteran long snapper Rob Davis said. “They went out and scouted a lot of young talent. We’ve got more athletes around here than I can remember in the 11 years that I’ve been here. And everybody’s buying into what (McCarthy) is talking about.”