If you haven't spent most of the last week off the grid, you've likely heard one fact used to reinforce a popular prediction.
The San Francisco 49ers decimated the Green Bay Packers in Week 12. By the rules of football history, which is absolutely never wrong in predicting the outcome of a rematch, that means Green Bay doesn't have a chance in Sunday's NFC Championship Game.
That is unless they have a new, secret plan.
We're being facetious, of course, but that was the tone of receiver Davante Adams' response Wednesday when asked how the Packers could avoid another blowout loss in Santa Clara.
"Obviously if we left the game with eight points and lost by 20s or whatever it was, obviously the plan wasn't good enough," Adams said. "That's not a knock on Matt or anybody. The execution obviously wasn't good enough too, so those go hand in hand, though. The plan, so far what I've seen, I really like, and I think it's a better way to attack this defense."
We'll have to wait until Sunday to see what that plan might entail, but it has become evident these Packers have evolved since Week 12. Green Bay's defense -- especially its pass rush -- has become suffocating. It seems as if Aaron Rodgers and his two most important weapons, Adams and running back Aaron Jones, are enjoying a greater shared understanding after a season spent finding their footing in new head coach Matt LaFleur's offense, and it's producing results. Look no further than last weekend's game-clinching put-away drive in Lambeau Field, which required an on-the-fly adjustment between Rodgers and Adams and a few carries by Jones to chew precious seconds off the clock.
The history isn't on Rodgers' side. The quarterback is 4-5 in nine playoff games versus teams he lost to in the regular season, per NFL Research, posting a 91.0 passer rating in such rematches. That's a solid mark, but the record is not. In fact, all of Rodgers' last five playoff losses came at the hands of teams he lost to in the regular season.
That history doesn't matter as much, though, because we're in the early portion of a new era in Green Bay: the LaFleur Era. It's their first trip to the postseason together, and it has already produced a trip to the doorstep of the Super Bowl. Will the Packers cross the threshold? Will they knock politely or barge in with a battering ram?
We can't know until it happens (if it happens). But we do know one thing. It'll look different than what we've seen in the past. Adams is sure of it.
