The Green Bay Packers lost 24-17 to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday Night Football. The Packers are now 4-6-1. That’s the same record the Cleveland Browns have.
Believe it or not, the Browns and Packers have the same record (4-6-1).
— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) November 26, 2018
The Packers have Aaron Rodgers, arguably the best quarterback in football. The Browns are starting a rookie quarterback, fired their head coach in-season, and won zero games last year.
The Packers and Browns should not have the same record. But they do. That’s because the Packers are a very poorly coached team, and have a very flawed roster around Rodgers (as The Comeback’s Michael Grant wrote on Friday, the Packers continue to waste Rodgers’ time and talent).
The Browns certainly aren’t going to the playoffs, and Sunday night’s game makes the Packers’ chances of reaching the playoffs very small.
Five Thirty Eight currently gives the Packers just a 6% chance to reach the playoffs. That’s just reaching the playoffs via the NFC Wild Card; they’re not winning the NFC North (the Bears are 8-3, and the Vikings are 6-4-1 with a tiebreaker now over the Packers).
Yes, the Packers have an incredibly weak remaining schedule:
vs Arizona Cardinals (2-9)
vs Atlanta Falcons (4-7)
at Chicago Bears (8-3)
at New York Jets (3-8)
vs Detroit Lions (4-7)
If there's any solace for the Packers, it's that they are tied with the Rams for the easiest strength of schedule remaining based on opponents' current win-loss percentage at .382 https://t.co/MZ8ODUOfxj
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) November 26, 2018
Right now, the Packers would be favored in every game but the one in Chicago against the Bears, and the Packers beat the Bears in their first meeting in Week 1.
But this is a Packers team that barely beat C.J. Beathard and the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football at Lambeau Field. This is a Packers team that is now *0-6* on the road.
Packers 0-6 on the road pic.twitter.com/xEE83PUANl
— James Koh (@JamesDKoh) November 26, 2018
And we should assume that 8-7-1 isn’t enough to secure a Wild Card in the NFC. The Redskins, Seahawks, and Panthers are all tied for the second Wild Card at 6-5. The Redskins and Seahawks also have tiebreakers over the Packers due to head-to-head wins. And the Eagles have a better record than the Packers at 5-6. Nine NFC teams have a better record than Green Bay.
Even Rodgers knows the Packers will need to win out and get to 9-6-1, and possibly even get some help in order to clinch a playoff spot.
Aaron Rodgers: "We're going to need some help. Win these next five games and get some help."
When asked if 9-6-1 will be good enough, Rodgers said: "I can tell you 8-7-1 won't get you in, I don't think." https://t.co/WZnt35zwpQ pic.twitter.com/3nGjuRq5Og
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) November 26, 2018
Sure, we should never count out Aaron Rodgers unless the Packers are mathematically eliminated, and they will be favored in most of these remaining games.
But just about every game has been a challenge for this team and they literally have zero road wins on the season. Going 5-0 to close out the year seems highly unlikely, and even then we don’t know if 9-6-1 is enough to clinch an NFC Wild Card slot in a packed playoff picture. Sunday night’s loss was a crushing one for any realistic Green Bay playoff hopes.