Can the Green Bay Packers win the Super Bowl without Micah Parsons? Since his December 14th ACL tear against the Denver Broncos, 4 consecutive embarrassments have knocked the Magic 8 Ball to the floor where it has cracked, leaked all over the carpet, and seemingly crusted into a permanent “Don’t count on it” response. Yet in a league where a guy like Eli Manning built a potential Hall of Fame career on a few fortuitously-timed plays overshadowing a mediocre baseline, anything is possible. Here are some key factors worth considering as the team prepares to head to the windy city this Saturday. There’s no trustworthy team in the NFL this year For starters, the Packers have cleared the single most critical hurdle on the road to the big game: they punched their ticket to the playoff tournament when the rival Detroit Lions completely collapsed on Christmas day. In a year when there simply haven’t been any consistently great teams, the “any given Sunday” idiom has never rung so true. The number 1-seed Seattle Seahawks gave up 38 in a loss to the 8-win Buccaneers and barely scraped past basement-dwellers like the Cardinals, Titans, and Philip Rivers-led Colts. The 2-seed Chicago Bears took a 52-point drubbing from the NFC North 4th-place Lions, lost to the JJ McCarthy Minnesota Vikings, and didn’t look particularly dominant in beating the Raiders, Commanders, Bengals, and Giants by a combined 11 points. Last year’s playoff nemesis and eventual Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, have lost to the Giants and Cowboys and could only manage 10 points against the Packers in what inexplicably was still enough to pull out a win back in their week 10 matchup. The San Francisco 49ers lost to the Buccaneers and had to squeeze out narrow victories over doormats like the Saints and Cardinals. Their roster is also as beat up as the Packers’, if not worse off. The Los Angeles Rams have fallen to the 8-win Panthers and 8-win Falcons. Lastly, the NFC South Champion Panthers are officially reigniting debate over reformatting playoff seeding rules after becoming just the 5th team in history to make the tournament with a losing record (7th if you count strike-shortened seasons). Things aren’t much scarier over in the AFC. Playoff experience matters Mike Holmgren didn’t earn a Super Bowl ring until his 4th crack at the tournament. It took Mike McCarthy 3 attempts to bring the big one home. Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love stack up better than half of their NFC counterparts this year when it comes to playoff experience, and there’s something to be said for having been there and felt the pressure before. Clearly they’ve got some work to do before they can hang with the grizzled veterans, but they just might have that perfect combination of experience and untapped potential to make a run to the big dance that almost always requires a few warm up tries, as pairings like Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson are likely to soon find out. QB QB Playoff Record HC HC Playoff Record Combined Playoff Record Combined Super Bowl Appearances Matthew Stafford 5-5 Sean McVay 8-5 13-10 3 Jalen Hurts 6-3 Nick Sirianni 6-3 12-6 4 Brock Purdy 4-2 Kyle Shanahan 8-4 12-6 3 Jordan Love 1-2 Matt LaFleur 3-5 4-7 0 Sam Darnold 0-1 Mike MacDonald 0-0 0-1 0 Bryce Young 0-0 Dave Canales 0-0 0-0 0 Caleb Williams 0-0 Ben Johnson 0-0 0-0 0   You don’t have to be All-Pro to have a breakout game In 2010, Jordy Nelson had 582 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns on the season before exploding on the national stage to the tune of 140 yards and a score against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. Despite all of the injuries, bone-headed mistakes, and gnashing of teeth, only the most jaded fans could argue that the Packers don’t have a number of players with the potential to take a game over, if only for one lucky week or against one favorable matchup. Here are just a few guys who’ve proven to have game-breaking potential in more than one fluke game this year: * Jordan Love * Week 4 at Dallas - 337 yards passing, 3 TDs, 0 interceptions * Week 8 at Pittsburgh - 360 yards passing, 3 TDs, 0 interceptions, franchise record 21 consecutive completions * Week 13 at Detroit - 234 yards passing, 4 TDs, 0 interceptions * Josh Jacobs * Week 4 at Dallas - 157 all-purpose yards, 2 TDs, 0 fumbles * Week 6 vs. Cincinnati - 150 all-purpose yards, 2 TDs, 0 fumbles * Christian Watson * Week 14 vs. Chicago - 89 all-purpose yards, 2 TDs * Week 17 vs. Baltimore - 113 all-purpose yards, 1 TD * Rashan Gary * Week 3 at Cleveland - 2 sacks, 2 TFL, 3 solo tackles * Week 8 at Pittsburgh - 2 sacks, 2 TFL, 3 solo tackles Would having Micah Parsons breathing down Matt Stafford’s disintegrating neck have helped matters? Of course. That said, it’s not time to throw in the towel yet, especially when the Packers don’t even have a 1st round pick to look forward to in next April’s draft. Let’s dive into what the Packers’ road to the Super Bowl looks like. Wild Card First, they have to travel to Chicago on Wild Card Weekend and take down their oldest rival in the Bears. They split the season series 1-1 and frankly should have gone 2-0 if not for Romeo Doubs doing his best Brandon Bostick impression on an onside kick that the Bears recovered. Chicago has relied on a lot of luck to get where they are, the Packers’ leaders are more battle-tested in the playoffs, and Christian Watson has already shown he can be elite against the Bears. In other words, it’s a totally winnable game. Divisional If the Packers do break the hearts of the Chicago faithful, then they’re guaranteed a matchup with a well-rested number 1-seed in their house. That team is the Seattle Seahawks, who’ve looked very shaky in at least 3 games they should have dominated this year. Their head coach has never experienced a playoff game, and you have to imagine that every Seahawks fan will be crossing their fingers and toes that QB Sam Darnold doesn’t repeat the whopping 9-point performance he put up in his only other playoff appearance. We don’t have a head-to-head matchup to inform projections this year, but it’s worth noting that the Pack did take care of business in Seattle last season against the same staff, with a 30-13 victory in which Josh Jacobs went off for 136 all-purpose yards and a TD and Edgerrin Cooper had an interception, a sack, 2 passes defensed, 2 tackles for a loss, and 6 solo tackles; Kingsley Enagbare chipped in with 2 sacks, 3 tackles for a loss, and 5 solo tackles as well. You can bet that Matt LaFleur and Jeff Hafley will be reviewing that tape should this matchup arise, and they’ll likely put a large emphasis on Seattle’s giveaway rate of 1.6 turnovers per game this year, good for 31st worst in the league. Let’s get poetic and say that the football gods subjected Packers fans to a recreation of the 2014 NFC Championship meltdown via the week 16 loss in Chicago this year just to make it that much sweeter when Green Bay sticks the dagger in Seattle. Conference Championship And that brings us to the NFC Championship game. It’s anyone’s guess who makes it through the gauntlet this far, but if I were to hazard a prediction, I’m going to say that 6-seed San Francisco’s injuries prove too much to overcome and they fall to the 3-seed Eagles, and the 5-seed Rams beat the 4-seed Panthers on Wild Card Weekend. Then in the Divisional round, despite Philly’s home-field advantage, Sean McVay’s Rams edge out Nick Sirianni’s Eagles in a nail-biter. Green Bay gets to travel to Los Angeles for the first 5th vs. 7th seed NFC Championship game in history. And guess what, Matt LaFleur is 1-0 against Sean McVay in their only playoff matchup. Adding in the regular season, LaFleur is actually 5-0 against McVay. What about Matt Stafford? How does a 7-15 career record against the green and gold sound? Maybe this run isn’t as crazy as it sounds? Super Bowl LX While none of this is likely to happen, nobody in their right mind would have said that Aaron Rodgers was likely to end his illustrious Packers career with a 1-4 record in NFC Championship games. Things tend to get a little wacky in the playoffs; it’s why we watch them. As for who the Packers could see on Super Bowl Sunday, I don’t think it’ll matter if they actually roll into the matchup after ripping off 3 improbable road wins. Micah Parsons shakes that Magic 8 Ball from the sidelines and it replies: “It. Is. Time.” The age 27 prophecy comes true for Jordan Love and he brings the Lombardi back home. Right? Filed Under: Featured   PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHEESEHEAD NATION WEEKLY NEWSLETTER HERE. __________________________ Cody Cottrell is a proud shareholder of the greatest sports franchise on Earth, the Green Bay Packers. He's also a complicated fella who loves writing a good hot take. __________________________ NFL Categories: Green Bay PackersTags: packersSuper BowlMicah Parsons Like 0 points

An emphasis on fruit, vegetables, and whole foods is welcome—but it’s wrong to suggest steak and beef tallow should be prominent.