Packers: Run of road games effectively ended playoff hopes in 2018
A five-game stretch that featured four road games proved to be the turning point in the Green Bay Packers’ 2018 season.
The theme of the first part of the Green Bay Packers‘ season? Missed opportunities. They threw the game away against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2. Victory would’ve put them 2-0 with a couple of divisional wins, but they ended up lucky to get a tie.
Mason Crosby missed five kicks in the loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 5. The Packers lost by 12 points. If Crosby had been as consistent as he was the rest of the season, Green Bay would’ve had a great chance to win that game.
But an inconsistent start left the Packers with a 3-2-1 record at their Week 7 bye. Had they held on to a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter against Minnesota, they would’ve been in a good position at 4-2.
The biggest problem was that Green Bay couldn’t win away from Lambeau Field (the Packers would start 0-7 on the road before defeating the New York Jets in Week 16). That’s far from ideal when four of the five games following the bye were to be played on the road. Three of those games were against teams that would go on to make the playoffs. The first two opponents made it to the Super Bowl.
The Packers weren’t playing terrible football in this stretch of games, either. Had Ty Montgomery not taken the kickoff out of the end zone against the Los Angeles Rams, Aaron Rodgers would’ve had the opportunity to lead a game-winning drive. An Aaron Jones fumble all but ended Green Bay’s hopes of pulling off the upset at New England a week later.
The Packers were in a good position to win both games but couldn’t get the job done.
Hardly surprisingly, Green Bay lost all four of the road games, with one victory coming at home against the Miami Dolphins.
Entering December at 4-6-1, the team seemed to have run out of confidence during a tough run of games. Their loss at home to the Arizona Cardinals was enough to cost Mike McCarthy his job.
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Had the Packers managed to pull off another win or two during that five-game stretch, maybe it would’ve all been different.