NEVER. A. DOUBT.

In every single heist movie I have ever seen, there is almost always the same scene. After everything is going along to a plan that you the viewer have a vague idea of, something goes wrong. Ocean's, Italian Job, Community, etc., there is always a point where you are led to believe the plan failed. The good guys who are stealing get out-thought by the Bad Guys who are getting stolen from. That was my exact thinking when the Packers punted with 5 minutes left in the game, giving Clutchell Wilson the ball down 5. The plan had gone wrong. It didn't matter that Rodgers was playing some of his best football in the past three years. It didn't matter that Davante Adams had broken a Packers playoff record for receiving yards. The Packers were being the Packers of old and letting a team come back without giving them any answers. I fully believe that any other year of the 2010s, the Packers lose this game after that punt. Thankfully though, this team is different. This team has something, or two somethings, that those other Packers teams did not have. After a full year of showing that spending money on free agents is a good thing, Preston Smith and Za'Darius Smith decided we were not losing this game. Russell Wilson started out with a 14-yard completion, then an incompletion, then a short gain. This set up a third and 5 on their own 42. Every Packer fan was on the edge of their seat, cheeseheads were being clutched, and people were being yelled at to sit because when they were standing the Seahawks kept scoring. Just like those heist movies though, the Good Guys always have something up their sleeve, whether it's using a videotaped robbery or maybe some Mini Cooper sleight of hand. For the Packers that was Preston Smith coming in off the edge, beating his man, and getting home for the biggest sack of the year. That sack forced a punt, and after some vintage Rodgers third-down magic, the Packers came away with their first postseason win since 2016. It was an ugly win, but it really should not have been. The Packers d-line kept getting home, racking up 10 QB hits, but Russell Wilson just kept barely escaping. If it was almost any other QB in the league, those 5 sacks we had would easily be 8 or 9. There was also a questionable fumble recovery call that I'm not going to get into because Jon is just going to text me about how the Packers always get the calls and the one time we don't we complain even though we won [editor's note: that spot though]. All that matters is Rodgers was good, but everyone watching knew that that was a B+ performance and he can do much better. That is the spark that lights the flame of the "We can beat the 49ers" hot take. Aaron Jones had an off night, everyone not named Adams combined for only 83 receiving yards, and Russell Wilson ran for 64 yards. I don't want to say we will win next week, I don't want to get your hopes up, let alone mine. However, when that doubt enters your scarred and broken Packers fan heart, watch this and suppress that doubt as long as you can.