Murphy’s Law: Why the Green Bay Packers lost to the Atlanta Falcons

Jan 22, 2017; Atlanta, GA, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) stands along the sidelines in the final moments of a loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the 2017 NFC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome. Mandatory Credit: Dan Powers/Appleton Post Crescent via USA TODAY NETWORK
Jan 22, 2017; Atlanta, GA, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) stands along the sidelines in the final moments of a loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the 2017 NFC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome. Mandatory Credit: Dan Powers/Appleton Post Crescent via USA TODAY NETWORK /
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Jan 22, 2017; Atlanta, GA, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) stands along the sidelines in the final moments of a loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the 2017 NFC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome. Dan Powers/Appleton Post Crescent via USA TODAY NETWORK /

After the exciting show the Green Bay Packers put on against the Dallas Cowboys just one week prior, it felt like we would see another fireworks display from them down in Atlanta in the NFC Championship Game.

Turns out, that assumption was dead wrong.

Instead of an instant classic between one of the league’s best-ever offenses and one of the NFL’s most talented quarterbacks to ever play, we got a humdrum drubbing.

Green Bay went down quickly and mostly quietly (at least when there was any chance for them to make a decent contest of things) to the tune of a 44-21 outcome which was never particularly close.

Atlanta held up their end of the deal for our expectations coming in, scoring pretty much at will with their incredibly varied attack, picking up those scores in all sorts of impressive fashions.

Green Bay … did not. Not in any way, shape, or form.

The Packers struggled to score, they were hampered by mistakes, and found themselves down by massive margins before we even got out of the first half of the contest.

What the hell happened? How did it all go so terribly wrong?

There’s endless reasons to pick from, honestly. It goes on for days.

The following pages provide those I believe made the most difference in causing the eventual (depressingly bad) loss …