TAMPA, Fla. — Three quick post-game takeaways from the Green Bay Packers' 20-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium Sunday, which clinched the Packers' sixth consecutive playoff berth:
Playoff bound: It wasn't especially pretty, and whether it was a flu bug or the lower left leg injury he suffered early in the game, quarterback Aaron Rodgers yet again wasn't looking like his MVP-caliber self for much of the game. Nevertheless, the Packers made sure they punched their postseason ticket, marking the sixth straight time and seventh time in coach Mike McCarthy's nine-year tenure. They were put in a win-and-they're-in scenario when Philadelphia lost to Washington on Saturday night.
Nevertheless, they still have work to do. A victory next Sunday at home over Detroit at Lambeau Field — in a game that could very well end up being flexed onto Sunday Night Football on NBC — would give the Packers their fourth straight NFC North title and the NFC's No. 2 playoff seed, meaning a first-round playoff bye and a divisional-round home game. At the same time, a victory by the Lions, who haven't won on Wisconsin soil since 1991, would give them the NFC North crown.
Defensive dominance: Let's be honest: The Tampa Bay offense, which came into the game ranked 30th in the 32-team NFL, is awful. Technically, they don't even have an offensive coordinator, after Jeff Tedford, Rodgers' college coach at Cal-Berkeley, underwent a heart procedure in preseason and never returned to full-time work. Tedford has since fled to the Canadian Football League, which is probably good for him, since the Bucs' offensive ugliness wouldn't look good on his resume. That said, no matter how bad an offense they were facing, a dominating performance like Sunday's has to count for something. The Packers recorded seven sacks, including 2.5 by Clay Matthews and two by Julius Peppers, and late in the fourth quarter, the Bucs finally eclipsed the 100-yard total offense mark — only to fall below it after back-to-back sacks by Peppers and Matthews. The Buccaneers finished with just 109 yards and six first downs.
Not bad, all things considered: Rodgers didn't look like himself on Sunday, and if you didn't look at his statistics throughout the game, you might have been taken aback by them: He completed 31 of 40 passes for 318 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions for a passer rating of 108.1. Although he did lose a fumble and was clearly not moving the way he normally does inside and outside of the pocket, he found a way to get it done with some help from running back Eddie Lacy, who carried 17 times for 99 yards (putting him over 1,000 yards for the season) and a quick-throwing game plan that made sense against Bucs coach Lovie Smith's famed Tampa-2 defense. Lacy left the game with cramps and only had one fourth-quarter carry.
Jason Wilde wrote: