Cheesehead
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- Mar 19, 2019
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GREEN BAY – Aaron Rodgers got everything he wanted out of this 2020 season, except a win on Sunday.
"I'm just pretty gutted," Rodgers said after a devastating 31-26 loss to the Buccaneers in his first NFC title game at Lambeau Field. "We had a lot of chances. Overall, just pretty gutted."
Rodgers' emotions were very real and very raw, yet as he always does, he articulated them quite well.
He talked about his appreciation for his teammates, and how the Packers gave themselves the best opportunity they could ask for, earning the only playoff bye in the NFC and getting to play at home in January.
But none of it was enough, and for a while the presumptive league MVP will be thinking about three straight possessions in the fourth quarter of a one-score game that couldn't produce the touchdown the Packers so desperately needed.
"It's a grind just to get to this point," he said. "It makes the finality of it all kind of hit you like a ton of bricks. That's why it's a gutting feeling in your stomach."
The loss is Rodgers' fourth straight in an NFC Championship, making him 1-4 after winning his first one 10 years ago. The defeats have taken on all shapes and sizes now, from the collapse at Seattle, to two blowouts on the road, to Sunday's game full of regrets in front of a pandemic-limited home crowd.
Asked whether a loss like this will potentially haunt him the rest of his career as he continues to seek a second Super Bowl, Rodgers didn't go that far. But he didn't downplay it, either.
"I don't know about haunted. That word doesn't really fit in my vocabulary I think," he said. "This one definitely stings and is going to for a long time, especially the way it played out and the chances we had and the opportunities we had to seize that game at various points.
"This definitely hurts, but I don't believe in games haunting me. It won't haunt me, it's just going to hurt for a while."