Week 12 was the Green Bay Packers’ “all is lost” moment.
Aaron Rodgers, the reigning back-to-back regular season MVP, was roughly as efficient as Mac Jones or Kenny Pickett behind center. A defense missing blossoming pass rusher Rashan Gary had given up 95 points and more than 1,300 yards in its last three games. Predictive analysts pegged their playoff chances at roughly three percent.
But like that moment in screenplays — the bottoming-out that suggests our protagonist is well and truly buried — it has merely served as the foundation for a rousing Hollywood comeback. The Packers have won four straight games and need one more victory, at home, over the Detroit Lions, to make it to the postseason for the fourth straight year.