These are the times the Packers playoff situation came down to the regular-season

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff is sacked by Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt.

Green Bay Packers fans don’t have to go back far to recall the last time the regular-season finale carried big-time postseason weight: the 2022 Packers also brought an 8-8 record home to Lambeau Field for a battle with Detroit, knowing a win would get Green Bay into the playoffs. Instead, Aaron Rodgers’ last game was a dud, a 20-16 loss that kept the Packers home for the winter.

Will another home game against a different divisional foe produce a similar outcome in the 2023 season? The Packers will find out when they face the Bears on Sunday afternoon.

Here are the times when the regular-season finale had postseason implications, for better or worse. (Note: the year indicated for each entry refers to the season in question, not necessarily the date of the game).

With a playoff berth in the balance for the Packers, Aaron Rodgers threw for only 205 yards, with a touchdown and interception, to cap a disappointing final season at the end of his remarkable Packers tenure. The Lions, also in the playoff hunt when the day began, ultimately didn’t get the breaks to earn a playoff spot. But they did get a springboard into an excellent 2023 season, and numerous Lions fans made the trip to Green Bay to soak it in.

The Packers had no trouble securing the top seed in the NFC playoffs, finishing 13-3 with a very different Rodgers performance. The quarterback completed 19 of 24 passes for 240 yards and four touchdowns, the final touch on his renaissance MVP season, playing before empty stadiums during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams at Lambeau to reach the NFC title game, but Tampa Bay came to Green Bay and won 31-26 en route to the Super Bowl title, leaving the Packers one step short of the championship game.

The Packers had clinched the division the week before and just needed one last win against a 3-win Lions team in Detroit to get a first-round playoff bye, but Green Bay had to earn it. Mason Crosby kicked a 33-yard field goal as time expired to help the Packers rally from a 20-13 fourth-quarter deficit.

The Packers could have gotten the No. 1 seed in the playoffs if Seattle had beaten San Francisco later that night, but the Seahawks’ potential winning drive got down to the 1-yard line before stopping short, with a brutal delay-of-game penalty hurting the cause, as well as a controversial no-call pass interference. That proved big as San Francisco wound up hosting the Packers in the NFC championship game and prevailing there.

The “run the table” season featured six straight wins to close the regular season (and eight overall), including the road win on Sunday Night Football in a de facto North Division title game. The Lions finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs as a result of the setback, in which Rodgers threw for 300 yards and four touchdowns. The Packers still had an outside chance to get into the playoffs with a loss, but this was the sure thing, and Green Bay wound up beating the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs to reach the NFC title game. Atlanta ended the story there with a 44-21 blowout win over the Packers.

The NFC North was in the balance when the Packers hosted the Vikings, but it was Minnesota that seized the division and got the first-round playoff bye that came with it. Green Bay would have been the No. 3 seed with a win but settled for the No. 5 seed instead, and though the Packers defeated Washington on the road, they then fell to Arizona in a wild overtime game (the one with the Jeff Janis Hail Mary catches).

Here again was a de facto North title game at Lambeau Field, but the Packers continued dominance of the Lions (who hadn’t won at Lambeau since 1991). The winner of the game got a first-round bye, while the loser had to settle for the No. 6 seed (both had clinched a playoff spot). Seattle needed to lose to the Rams for the winner to get a No. 1 seed, but the Seahawks prevailed 20-6 on two fourth-quarter scores. The Seahawks had allowed 39 points over a six-game winning streak to close the season and steal the top spot. Seattle, of course, then hosted the Packers in the NFC championship game, and … well, everyone kind of remembers that one.

The winner won the division and a playoff spot; the loser’s season ended. It was one of the great games in recent Packers history, a victory that came down to Rodgers’ 48-yard touchdown pass to wide-open Randall Cobb with 40 seconds to play. The Packers had scratched and clawed their way through a late-season schedule with Rodgers (and Cobb, for that matter) sidelined by injury, but both were back for this unforgettable Soldier Field classic. The Packers were quickly ousted in the playoffs by San Francisco, but it was an improbable late-season surge orchestrated by off-the-street backup Matt Flynn.

It was a strange situation when the Packers lost in Minneapolis, denying the Packers a first-round bye and setting up a playoff battle with … Minnesota, this time at Lambeau Field. Blair Walsh kicked a 29-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Vikings. Adrian Peterson ran for 199 yards and a score, but the Packers got the last laugh with a 24-10 win in the playoffs, when Peterson was limited to 99 yards. Green Bay lost the next week on the road, in San Francisco.

You know how this one ends. Green Bay needed wins in its final two games against the New York Giants and Chicago to secure a playoff spot and got just enough, with a gritty, cold victory at Lambeau that included Donald Lee’s fourth-quarter touchdown catch.

That gave the Packers the No. 6 seed, and the rest is history. Green Bay went on the road to Philadelphia and Atlanta, then to Chicago against the Bears again in the NFC title game, where a legendary 21-14 win put the Packers in Super Bowl XLV, a game the Packers would also win.

This game doesn’t technically count on this list because it didn’t matter to the Packers, but it did to Arizona, which had the chance to get the No. 2 seed if Dallas had beaten Philadelphia (and Dallas did). But the Packers won handily, which backfired when it set up a rematch with Arizona in the playoffs. That wild game went to the Cardinals, a 51-45 overtime triumph in Rodgers’ first postseason game.

Technically, the Packers could get into the playoffs with a win but they needed several other things to go correctly, most importantly losses by Dallas and St. Louis. The Cowboys lost, but the Rams didn’t, so it marked the end of the road for the 8-8 Packers, though a win over 13-3 Chicago (eventual NFC champion) and four-game winning streak to close the season proved to be a nice springboard for first-year coach Mike McCarthy. The Packers would make the playoffs in nine of his next 10 seasons.

That score belies what an unreal final stretch of the season it proved to be for the Packers. Green Bay had to win the game to finish 10-6 and have a shot at a playoff spot, but it looked for naught until Nate Poole’s shocking touchdown catch from quarterback Josh McCown to give Arizona an unreal 18-17 victory over Minnesota that gave the Packers a one-game edge in the North. Poole was given a key to the city and a ticket to watch Green Bay’s playoff opener, a memorable overtime win over Seattle on Al Harris’ pick-6. That led into yet another unforgettable overtime playoff moment, the “4th and 26” loss to Philadelphia.

In the Broncos game itself, Ahman Green ran for 218 yards and two touchdowns, still Green Bay’s single-game rushing record. The Packers closed the season winning seven of nine.

David Akers had missed a 35-yard field goal with 1:16 to go for Philadelphia on Saturday, and the Giants beat the Eagles 10-7, so the Eagles missed out on wrapping up home-field advantage and left the door open for a 12-3 Packers team to do so instead. But Green Bay lost to the Jets on the same field in New Jersey the next day and had to settle for the No. 3 seed. That proved pivotal when the Packers endured their first-ever playoff loss at Lambeau Field the following week to Michael Vick and Atlanta.

The Packers came into the game needing a win or 49ers loss to secure a home playoff game in the wild-card round, and Green Bay could also win the NFC North with a Chicago loss to Jacksonville. The Packers didn’t get the last part, but Green Bay did beat San Francisco at Lambeau Field in the first round before falling to the St. Louis Rams in the divisional round. Green Bay beat the Giants thanks to 315 yards passing and two scores by Favre, plus 101 yards rushing and two touchdowns by Green.