Former Vikings Coach Torches the Packers
The Green Bay Packers will visit the playoffs this season, no matter what, but former Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Tice doesn’t think Matt LaFleur’s team belongs in the tournament.
Tice doesn’t believe the Packers’ regular-season résumé will protect them.
Tice, who doesn’t sound off on social media too frequently, tweeted and deleted a scathing critique of the Packers last weekend, as his ex-team takes on that very Green Bay squad in five days.
Tice Thinks the Packers Are Vulnerable
Tice made his thoughts on Green Bay crystal clear.
The Now-Deleted Tweet from Tice
Tice, who coached the Vikings from the end of 2001 through the end of the 2005 campaign, apparently watched the Packers’ loss to the Baltimore Ravens — and left unimpressed.
He tweeted, “The Packers are FAKE. Zero toughness. Bad Loss. The Packers are lucky the Lions crapped the bed. One and Done at Best. They do not deserve the playoffs but in today’s NFL that is what we get.”
Tice later deleted the post, as mentioned above, but not soon enough to avoid screenshots and documentation. It is unclear why Tice would remove the commentary, aside from its out-of-character nature. Tice doesn’t usually tweet stuff like that.
Limping into the Playoffs
Tice was once personally criticized — and then made jokes about it himself in a self-deprecating way — for “backing into playoffs.” Fast forward about 20 years, and that’s what Green Bay is doing at the moment, losing its last three games and only reaching the playoffs because the Lions have performed terribly in recent weeks as well.
These are the numbers:
Packers Offense,
per EPA/Play in 2025:
Weeks 1-14: 1st
Weeks 15-17: 16th
Packers Defense,
per EPA/Play in 2025:
Weeks 1-14: 15th
Weeks 15-17: 30th
Green Bay went from a great team by regular season standards to a poor one after the first week of December.
Parsons-Less Packers Quite Different
Listen, the Packers’ defense just isn’t the same without Micah Parsons. No one expected it to be, and it is, in fact, not a stellar bunch.
When Green Bay swung the trade for Parsons with Dallas before the season began, Packers fans dreamt big about a Super Bowl push because Parsons is that damn disruptive. With the All-Pro defender on the shelf with the torn ACL, the Packers are “just a team.”
NFL.com‘s Eric Edholm called the Packers the league’s 13th-best team in his Week 18 power rankings.
He explained, “The Packers are locked in as the seventh seed (for the third consecutive season), and they can use Week 18 to give certain players — maybe including Jordan Love and Malik Willis — some much-needed rest. But does this team scare anyone in the shape it is in? Not long ago, Super Bowl talk couldn’t be scoffed at, but now? It’s hard to envision, especially after the Ravens ran roughshod over the Packers with the ground game.”
“There are also just too many players that won’t be coming back from injuries, including Tucker Kraft and Micah Parsons. With those two and a few others on the field, they were dangerous. Now, they look like a team that could be fortunate to win a playoff game, even if it’s a rematch against a Bears team they beat once and nearly beat a second time in 2025.”
Losing Parsons and Kraft is probably too much to overcome for a serious Super Bowl push next month.
A Clean Slate in Wildcard Round
All of that said, the Wildcard Round will provide the Packers with a clean slate. They can make Tice look foolish by scoring an upset or two, likely starting the playoff tournament at Chicago or Philadelphia. Given the rivalry, it would not be weird one bit for Green Bay to knock off Chicago, a team that has overachieved by the numbers this season, and has won countless close games, like the 2022 Vikings, who also suffered a one-and-done playoff outcome.
ACME Packaging Company’s Justis Mosqueda wrote Sunday, “The only way for the Packers to play anyone but the Bears in the playoffs is if Chicago loses and Philadelphia wins in Week 18. But in the mind of the playoff simulator, that’s not an unlikely outcome.”
“In that scenario, a seventh-seeded Green Bay would go and visit the second-seeded Eagles in the wild-card round, just like last season. Basically, if you’re a Packers fan rooting for a Bears rematch this postseason, you’re either going to be a Lions fan on Sunday or a Bears AND Commanders fan for the late slate.”
It’s all up to the Packers in about a week and a half. They can be a fake team, as Tice announced, or they can forge some playoff victories and prove doubters wrong.
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