Day 9 · 10-6 · Won Super Bowl XLV, beat the Steelers 31-25
Five starters took the field for this offense: quarterback, running back, two receivers, and a tight end. How many can you name before the hints kick in?
You remember when the sixth seed became the team nobody wanted to play. Green Bay had already seen what Aaron Rodgers could become, but his first playoff run had ended in a 51-45 overtime shootout in Arizona. The Packers entered 2010 expecting to contend, then spent the season losing starters and watching close games slip away. Ryan Grant was gone after Week 1. Jermichael Finley followed. By December, Green Bay was 8-6 and one loss from watching January from home. The season never looked easy. It just never quite got away from them.
Everything started with Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers had Greg Jennings stretching defenses, Donald Driver still making the catches Green Bay had trusted him to make for years, and Jordy Nelson beginning to become something more. James Starks emerged from almost nowhere to give the running game life in January. But this team survived because the defense could change games too. Clay Matthews came screaming off the edge, Charles Woodson seemed to understand plays before they happened, and Tramon Williams, Sam Shields, Nick Collins, and B.J. Raji kept turning mistakes into points. Every week somebody else seemed to be replacing someone who had gone down.
Green Bay finished 10-6 and barely claimed the NFC's final playoff spot. All six losses came by three or four points, and the Packers became the first team since the merger to go an entire season without trailing by more than seven. They needed to beat the Giants and Bears in the final two weeks just to get in. Rodgers threw four touchdowns against New York, then Green Bay survived Chicago 10-3. They weren't a dominant record disguised as an underdog. They were a team that had spent four months discovering how difficult it was to put away.
The playoffs felt like Green Bay getting stronger every time it left Lambeau. Philadelphia had one final chance before Tramon Williams intercepted Michael Vick in the end zone to preserve a 21-16 win. Then the Packers went to Atlanta against the NFC's top seed and exploded. Rodgers completed 31 of 36 passes for 366 yards, while Williams turned an interception into a 70-yard touchdown just before halftime. Forty-eight to twenty-one. Suddenly the sixth seed didn't feel like an underdog anymore. Then came Chicago. Packers-Bears for a trip to the Super Bowl felt exactly as tense as it should have. Rodgers ran for an early touchdown, but the offense slowed and the game turned into a fight. Then Raji dropped into coverage, intercepted Caleb Hanie, and rumbled 18 yards into the end zone before breaking into a dance. Chicago still had one last drive, but Sam Shields intercepted Hanie near midfield. Twenty-one to fourteen. Green Bay had won three straight road playoff games, and Rodgers was taking the Packers back to the Super Bowl. One game remained.
Rodgers came out attacking Pittsburgh and found Jordy Nelson for the first touchdown. Nick Collins took an interception back for another, and Green Bay built a 21-3 lead before the Steelers started coming back. Charles Woodson left with a broken collarbone. Pittsburgh pulled within four. Then, on the first play of the fourth quarter, Clay Matthews knocked the ball loose from Rashard Mendenhall and the Packers recovered. Rodgers kept finding Jennings and Nelson, Green Bay held on 31-25, and the quarterback who had spent years answering questions about the man before him was suddenly a Super Bowl MVP.
That's how people remember the 2010 Packers. They remember Rodgers announcing himself on the biggest stage, Matthews flying off the edge, Tramon Williams changing playoff games, Raji dancing at Soldier Field, and a roster that kept losing players without ever disappearing. They remember needing the final two weeks just to get into the playoffs, then winning everywhere once they did. Most of all, they remember the sixth seed that barely made January—and never lost again once it got there.