Whether the Green Bay Packers extend their season another week and knock off the top-seeded 49ers remains to be seen.
But they’ve got the oldest motivation card in the deck at their disposal and they’re going to play it. The Packers opened as 10-point underdogs in most sportsbooks.
“It’s been a long season,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love said Sunday after the No. 7 seed stunned second-seeded Dallas 48-32. “We’ve been counted out a lot, so just the way everybody keeps battling, keeps competing and just getting better. It’s a great feeling.”
Green Bay is 10-8 and at one point was 3-6. There were times early in the season when mere first downs were hard to come by, so counting out the Packers in their first year without Aaron Rodgers seemed like the prudent thing to do.
“People can continue to doubt us, that’s fine,” running back Aaron Jones said after racking up 118 yards on 21 carries with three touchdowns. “We love the underdog mentality, the underdog approach. What are people going to say next? We’re excited to see that . . . you put a note in your memory bank. If you feel disrespected you’ve got to do something about it.”
There wasn’t a lot of 49ers talk at the postgame victory podium as Green Bay basked in the glow of sending the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex into orbit by jumping to a 27-0 lead in the second quarter and then holding on at the end.
“They’re a very talented team,” Love said. “It’s all about getting back to work this week, get in the film room, see what they’re all about and get back to work. They’re a really good team and we’ve got to get our bodies back and get back into it.”
Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur, who worked on the same staff with the 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan in Washington from 2010-13, has a good idea of what the Packers are up against.
“Obviously we’re really excited for the next opportunity,” LaFleur said. “Going to San Francisco and playing one of the best teams in the NFL, we’ll have our work cut out for us. I’m assuming it’s going to be on a short week so we’ll have to rest up.”
Not long after LaFleur left the podium, the NFL announced it would indeed be a short week for Green Bay with a 5:15 p.m. kickoff on Saturday night at Levi’s Stadium.
.@jordan3love finds @WicksDontayvion with a beauty of a pass! 🏈
TOUCHDOWN! 🙌#GBvsDAL | #GoPackGo
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/aAxUZpmSiU
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) January 14, 2024
Of the 49ers’ four potential first-round opponents, the Packers were the only team the 49ers have not seen this season. This time it will be Love at quarterback rather than Rodgers, the Packers’ starter in the last four playoff games between the teams. Had LaFleur not put Love back in the game when Dallas got cosmetically close in the fourth quarter, he would have had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 in his playoff debut. That has never been done before. Instead, one final incompletion dropped him to 157.2. He was 16 of 21 for 272 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
Early on in training camp, Shanahan raised some eyebrows when he anointed quarterback Brock Purdy the “real deal.” LaFleur opted for a different description of Love after he helped take apart the Cowboys.
“Man. Jordan Love. Wow,” LaFleur said. “That’s about all I can say is wow. What he did, the poise he shows, the command he shows . . . he is a dude. He is a real dude.”
The “Real Deal” vs. “The Dude.”
It’s no secret Rodgers, for all his talent, had become high-maintenance in terms of dealing with younger teammates and leaving the organization wondering what he would say next whether it was about football or being “immunized” from COVID-19. Enter Love, who is low-key, all about football and who in his last nine games has amassed Rodgers-like stats: 2,422 yards, 21 touchdowns and one interception.
Love was a surprise draft pick in 2020 out of Utah State when Rodgers still had four years left on his contract and it made for an awkward situation. Life without Rodgers, who was traded to the New York Jets last spring for multiple draft picks, was difficult at 3-6 in mid-November. Now it’s sublime.
Love even cracked a smile when asked if it felt good to show people he was worthy of being the latest Green Bay quarterback after Brett Favre and Rodgers.
“It feels great. I’m trying to hide some smiles,” Love said. “There’s a party in the locker room right now and it feels great. That’s all I can say.”
And while LaFleur wasn’t necessarily referencing Rodgers when he said it, there’s a big change in the team dynamic without him.
“There’s a different energy about our team,” LaFleur said. “It’s so much fun to come to work with these guys every day. The way they compete and push each other, I’m just happy for them.”
Jones, who has 473 yards rushing in his last four games, has helped give the offense balance and made Love even better.
“We believed in him from the beginning,” Jones said. “It was not all on him when we couldn’t pick up a first down. We’ve got to be on the same page and I think you see that happening now. You could hear me through the season and other players saying, `We’re right there. We’re right there.’ We’ve been able to get over that hump.”
LaFleur believes the underdog role can lessen the playoff pressure.
“I think there’s a little bit of freedom with that in terms of how you play,” LaFleur said. “These guys, they went for it, and that’s exciting to see. Every phase, you could see it in the way we played.”