Gary Seymour, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
The Associated Press Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, right, and Jordy Nelson sit on the bench Sunday during the second half of the team's NFC championship game loss to the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta.
No dangerous palpitations this time around, no ulcers and no screaming at the TV set, either.
After doing almost everything wrong during a four-week stretch in the middle of the season, the Green Bay Packers did almost everything right over the final two months.
This included their manner of bowing out of the playoffs, a deed that, unlike the past two seasons, they performed with great thoroughness and certainty.
If you’re going to lose, better to do it the way they did Sunday – beaten into a hat from the start. There is no comparing the level of disappointment in the Atlanta loss next to the last two playoff defeats.
There was the colossal downer of last year’s overtime defeat in Arizona, where a magnificent comeback was stifled three plays into the overtime.
Before that was the overtime debacle in Seattle, a loss that set the standard in playoff bummers. The Packers outplayed the Seahawks for almost 58 minutes and then gave it away.
So while last Sunday’s 44-21 loss to Atlanta may have looked bad on the scoreboard, it was mercifully light on heartache.
It didn’t take long to establish the order of the washout day, as the Falcons went 80 yards for a score on their first possession.
But you realized bad things were definitely afoot on the next possession, when the Packers drove into Falcons territory looking for seven, settling for three and coming away with zero.
Kicker Mason Crosby, last seen in Dallas hitting from 56 and 51 yards out in the final two minutes, held the NFL playoff record with 23 straight field goals when he lined up for the 41-yarder that would cut into Atlanta’s lead.
Crosby pushed it wide right, the Falcons went up 14-0 on their next possession, and by then it was becoming clear that the Packers had brought a knife to the gunfight.
Along the way were fumbles recovered by the wrong player, fumbles not recovered by the right player, dropped interceptions and even a delay of game penalty – on a kickoff, no less, however the heck that happened.
Efficiency personified and opportunistic at every turn throughout their eight-game winning streak, the Packers lost the turnover battle and struggled fundamentally in doing so.
Aaron Rodgers, nothing short of superb throughout the winning streak, threw a rare interception that set up the fait accompli – a Falcons touchdown with 3 seconds left in the half.
When Atlanta’s Julio Jones broke a 73-yard touchdown reception a little more than a minute into the second half, it was 31-0 and time to clean out the garage or read a book – anything to avert the eyes from the Uglypalooza playing out at the Georgia Dome. This end came not with a bang or a whimper, but a splat.
Rodgers spoke in the postgame about the importance of playing at home in the playoffs.
Although the Packers did knock off the top-seeded Dallas Cowboys at their place to get to the NFC title game, it is a fair point. In January, there’s no place like Lambeau.
But all 16 games figure into the home field equation, and the four-game swoon put that hope to bed while autumn leaves were still falling.
As for the postseason drive to the title, there is a school of thought asserting that anything less than a Super Bowl championship can be considered failure.
But that sort of blanket dismissal of this Packers season ignores a list of notable highlights, like the 28-point gutting of Seattle, playoff wins over the Giants and Cowboys, Jordy Nelson’s Comeback Player of the Year season, Rodgers’ continued excellence, their fifth NFC North title in six years and an eighth consecutive postseason appearance under coach Mike McCarthy.
Those who would brush off the significance of that last one should try to picture the view from the grandstands in Cleveland or Buffalo. The Bills’ most recent playoff season began last century.