Story byZach Kruse, Packers WireSun, January 11, 2026 at 5:53 PM UTC·4 min readAt almost every turn of the 2025 season, the Green Bay Packers failed to finish -- making Saturday night's collapse at Soldier Field in the NFC Wild Card Round a fitting conclusion to a season marked by missed opportunities and gut-wrenching losses torn from the jaws of victory. Every NFL season has ebbs and flows. The Packers' dips were punctuated over and over again by collapse, and once injuries turned the once-promising season into a tailspin, the only logical conclusion was one final calamity, and Saturday night at Soldier Field did not disappoint. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt was a conglomeration of all the season's collapses, packaged nicely into one unforgettable defeat at the hands of the franchise's oldest rival. It didn't take long for the 2025 Packers to show their untrustworthy side. After looking like one of the NFL's top teams during the first two weeks, the Packers squandered a 10-0 lead in Cleveland, had a go-ahead field goal blocked and lost to the lowly Browns on a field goal as time expired. A week later, the Packers led 13-0 early in Dallas and held two different leads in the fourth quarter but ended up incredibly fortunate to escape AT&T Stadium with what ended up being an incredibly important 40-40 tie. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAfter vanquishing Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers in primetime to get to get to 5-1-1, the Packers returned home and slopped through a 16-13 loss to the Panthers that saw Carolina win with a field goal as time expired after the Packers tied the game in the fourth quarter. Then, after getting to 9-3-1 with a season-correcting four-game win streak, came one of the most torturous five-week stretches of recent Packers football. The tormenting began with an injury-ravaged collapse in Denver that saw the Packers lose Zach Tom (who didn't play again in 2025) and Micah Parsons (who tore his ACL) and lose the game after holding a 23-14 lead in the third quarter over the AFC's No.
