A harsh reality set in for the Green Bay Packers when the Chicago Bears claimed the NFC North a year ago. It was Chicago’s first division title since 2018, and it also marked the point that every other team in the division has won the NFC North since Green Bay last did.
The key for the Packers to get back to the top? It’s not so much doing something different as doing what they do well through four quarters. It’s all about finishing games.
That sounds simple, but the Packers had some truly historic losses in 2025. Including the playoffs, Green Bay became the first team in the NFL since the merger in 1970 to lose three games when leading by 10 or more points in the final five minutes.
For perspective: The Packers were 306-1 in that same scenario from 1970 to 2024. Last year they went 6-3.
Two of those losses came at the hands of the Bears, who were magicians in the fourth quarter. They were the polar opposite of the Packers in crunch time. And that made all the difference in 2025.
This isn’t news to the Packers. Brian Gutekunst talked about it dating back to February.
“In every season, there’s successes, and there’s failures, and there’s disappointments,” Gutekunst said. “I was proud of our team in a lot of areas this year, but finishing games is certainly something that we got to concentrate on as we head into 2026.”
What’s most puzzling about those two losses to Chicago and a similar one earlier in the year against the Cleveland Browns is that when the Packers had those late leads, they looked the part of a team playing with all the pressure on their shoulders. Typically the team trying to mount the comeback is the one looking the most stressed, knowing that one more mistake could be fatal. But the Packers seemed jittery with what should have been comfortable margins, and as a result, they couldn’t finish games.
Head coach Matt LaFleur is also well aware of this issue. A lot of fans blame him for these late collapses, and he knows the Packers have to fix it.
“I think it’s gotta be constantly on our mind because that is the one thing that we did not do last year,” LaFleur said. “We lost way too many games late in the game where we had leads or just had opportunities to close people out, and we didn’t get it done.”
Even more worrisome: All three of those grueling losses happened for mostly different reasons.
Against the Browns, Jordan Love‘s terrible interception put Cleveland on the doorstep of the end zone and right back in the game late in the fourth quarter. The Browns later blocked Green Bay’s field-goal attempt when the Packers were trying to win it late before they punched one through the uprights to walk it off.
In the losses to Chicago, the defense couldn’t hold up against a stiff wind while the offense looked lackadaisical and hesitant to go for the kill shot. Green Bay often seemed to be playing not to lose rather than to win. You’d think they would have learned the first time this happened in Chicago during the regular season, but recent history repeated itself in the worst possible way.
The NFC North is one of the only divisions — maybe the only one — where you can make a strong case for all four teams to be at the top of the standings when the calendar turns to January. Knowing that, the Packers can ill afford to dither with a lead or hope Lady Luck shines on them in key moments.
