The Green Bay Packers managed to flip the script on Sunday afternoon. After giving up big lead after big lead down the stretch on the 2025 season and in Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings, the Packers came back from a ten-point deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat the New York Jets 20-17 in Week 2.
A post by our friends at the Cro Pack Cro podcast after last week’s game now seems like an odd and amusing omen:
Still, this post got me to thinking last week, so I did some research ahead of the Week 2 game. Since Jordan Love took over as the Packers’ full-time starting quarterback to start the 2023 season, the Packers had exactly two comeback wins when down by 10 or more points at any time in the game before Sunday’s win at MetLife Stadium, which became the third.
Prior to Love’s tenure, however, the Packers successfully mounting big comebacks was a bit more common. In the four seasons with LaFleur as head coach and Aaron Rodgers at quarterback the team posted seven wins after facing a double-digit deficit.
Let’s look at the first two Love comebacks first, then we’ll take a quick look at the earlier ones from the LaFleur-Rodgers era.
2023 Week 3: vs. New Orleans Saints
Love’s third start of the 2023 season and his fourth start overall got out to an abysmal start. Facing an Alvin Kamara-less Saints squad, the Packers dug themselves a 17-0 hole by halftime thanks to touchdowns by former Packer Jimmy Graham and a punt return score from Rasheed Shaheed.
Rashan Gary had his first and only three-sack game in this contest, however, and one of those knocked starting QB Derek Carr out of the game early in the third quarter. The score remained 17-0 heading into the fourth quarter, however, when the Packers eked out a field goal to finally get on the board.
Green Bay’s leading receiver in the game was the Defensive Pass Interference flag. Love drew back-to-back DPI calls on the first two plays of the next drive, first a 45-yarder on Alontae Taylor then a 22-yard call on Isaac Yiadom. Love eventually ran the ball into the end zone on 4th-and-goal from the 1 to pull the Packers to within 8 points at 17-9, and LaFleur made the decision to go for two. Love converted with a pass to Samori Touré, bringing Green Bay back to within six points and giving them a chance to win with a touchdown.
The defense forced a 3-and-out, and Love led the offense on another touchdown drive, picking up 24 yards on a scramble and a 30-yard gain on a pass to Jayden Reed. Love eventually found Romeo Doubs for an 8-yard touchdown on 3rd down and Anders Carlson hit the PAT to put the Packers ahead.
The drama wasn’t over, however. The Packers’ win was not secured until a few minutes later, when Blake Grupe’s 46-yard go-ahead field goal attempt went wide right.
2025 Week 7: @ Arizona Cardinals
The most recent 10-point comeback came last year in one of the crazier games of the 2025 season. You might not even remember that the Packers were down by double digits, however, because they only trailed by that amount of time for SEVEN SECONDS.
The Cardinals took a 13-3 lead with 0:07 left in the second quarter, as Trey McBride scored a touchdown to give them that edge. Arizona booted the kickoff into the end zone, however, and one 22-yard completion from Love to Romeo Doubs over the middle and a timeout brought Lucas Havrisik on for a franchise-record 61-yard field goal to pull the Packers to within 13-6 at halftime. Green Bay then doubled up and tied the game on the first drive of the third quarter and traded scores throughout the second half, eventually winning 27-23 after Matt LaFleur kept his offense on the field late rather than kicking to tie the game.
Remember that 4th down conversion to Tucker Kraft? We sure did, as it ranked #9 on our Top Plays of 2025 Countdown. This whole game was well-represented on that countdown, with Havrisik’s franchise record kick landing at #8 and a game-clinching sack from Micah Parsons earning an honorable mention.
That’s three comebacks in just over three seasons of Love, but in the four years of the LaFleur-Rodgers, the Packers mounted seven such wins. Many of these were early deficits, however, not late rallies. In fact, only four of these games saw the Packers trail at any point in the fourth quarter.
2019 Week 6: vs. Lions
The first double-digit comeback for Matt LaFleur as head coach was in his first game against the Lions early in the 2019 season. Detroit led 13-0 early in the second quarter before the Packers stormed back, tying the game on the first drive of the second half. The Lions kicked three straight field goals after that to take back a 9-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but Allen Lazard’s heroics — scoring on a 35-yard touchdown and hauling in three big receptions on the final drive of the game — helped set up Mason Crosby for a short game-winning field goal for a 23-22 victory.
2019 Week 17: @ Lions
The Packers came back on Matt Patricia’s Lions in both 2019 matchups. With David Blough starting at quarterback, Detroit led 17-3 at the half, getting a field goal on a 20-second drive before the break. As in the previous matchup, Lazard scored a 4th-quarter touchdown, this time to tie the game at 20, and Crosby again gave the Packers the win as the clock expired. That sent the Packers into the playoffs at 13-3 and as the NFC’s second seed.
2020 Week 2: vs. Lions
It was 3-for-3 in comeback wins for LaFleur against Patricia. Once again, Detroit led 14-3, this time at the end of the first quarter, but Green Bay stormed back with 31 unanswered points, including two Rodgers touchdown passes, a 75-yard score from Aaron Jones, and a pick-six by Chandon Sullivan, cruising to a 42-21 win.
2021 Week 14: vs. Bears
It was a season and a half between big comebacks for the Packers, who trailed 10-0 to Chicago early in the second quarter on Sunday Night Football. The Packers bounced back with back-to-back scores, including a Rasul Douglas pick-six, but they gave the Bears two right back on a long pass from Fields to Damiere Byrd and then a 97-yard punt return by Jakeem Grant as the Bears retook a 10-point lead at 24-14. The Packers got a touchdown before the half from Davante Adams, then the Bears tacked on a field goal before the break, holding a 27-21 lead at halftime.
After that, though, it was all Packers, as they cleaned up their issues and outscored the Bears 24-3 in the second half, eventually closing out a 45-30 victory.
2022 Week 10: vs. Cowboys
The Packers, facing old head coach Mike McCarthy for the first time, were down 28-14 to start the fourth quarter. Aaron Rodgers found Christian Watson for two 4th-quarter scores to send the game to overtime, then they got a 4th down stop with the Cowboys in Packers territory and Mason Crosby kicked a short field goal to win the game 31-28.
2022 Week 12: @ Bears
An eventual 28-19 Packers win started out poorly, with Chicago going up 10-0 in the first quarter. Justin Fields provided the early Bears touchdown with a 55-yard run and the Bears led 19-10 heading into the fourth, but the Packers were driving at the time. AJ Dillon scored on the second play of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to two, then the Packers got a go-ahead field goal from Crosby before Watson put the game away with a 46-yard run on an end-around for the final score of a 9-point win.
2022 Week 16: vs. Dolphins
The Packers may have only won 8 games in 2022, but three of them were of the big comeback variety. On Christmas Day, the Dolphins took a 20-10 lead late in the second quarter with Green Bay’s defense struggling to contain Jaylen Waddle (an 84-yard score early, 143 total yards) and Tyreek Hill (104 receiving yards). However, Miami went into full collapse mode after that.
The Dolphins final five possessions went as follows: lost fumble, missed field goal, interception, interception, interception. That allowed the Packers to put up three field goals and a touchdown unanswered in a 26-20 victory.
