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DE PERE, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers have reached the postseason eight straight years and won at least one playoff game in five of those seasons. Green Bay has reached three NFC Championship games in that time, including two of the past three. The Packers have won the NFC North division five of the last six years. And Green Bay is 87-40-1 in that time and has posted a .684 winning percentage, a mark second only to New England (99-29, .773).
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At the end of the day, though, the Packers have just one Super Bowl championship to show for all of that winning. And for Packer Nation - and many of Green Bay's players - those results simply haven't been good enough.
"I understand people getting upset when we don't make it to the final game," Packers right tackle Bryan Bulaga said. "Believe me, there's no one more upset about that than us. Fans live and die with this, especially in this state. I understand that.
"Yeah, you're happy getting into the playoffs, winning divisions and winning playoff games and advancing. But the end goal is the same for us every year. Failure is a big word and it's a tough word. But if we don't get there, that's kind of the way we look at it."
It would be tough to ever label this eight-year stretch a failure. Aside from perhaps 2013, when quarterback Aaron Rodgers was coming back from a broken collarbone, the Packers have entered each postseason with a realistic chance of capturing a Lombardi Trophy.
What has left a sour taste with so many is that aside from 2010, Green Bay has come up short of greatness time and time again.
In fact, Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy recently said: "I hear from a lot of fans that they're disappointed that I've accepted mediocrity and I'm just happy to be in the playoffs and that I should fire (general manager) Ted (Thompson) and (coach) Mike (McCarthy) and then after I do that, retire."
Green Bay's players admit they're not exactly sure how to view the past eight years.
On one hand, the Packers believe they should have more than one title. On the flip side, Green Bay's fan base has it better than most and many would argue they're a remarkably spoiled bunch.
So while the playoff losses have been tough to swallow, perennial doormats like Buffalo and Jacksonville would give anything to walk a mile in the Packers' cleats.
"I'd tell people to go to Cleveland and see how things have gone in my hometown," Packers center Corey Linsley said. "But there's no doubt, we're not satisfied either. We feel like those goals are reachable and everybody that watches us knows that we're capable of greatness. We've just got to go out there and do it."
Rodgers agreed with his center.
"We've been to the playoffs eight straight years, which is an accomplishment," Rodgers said. "But you want more titles. I don't really agree with the fans' letters and calls. I think us players got to take ownership of it and play better and finish this thing off. We have nobody to blame but ourselves for some of the postseason losses, and a lot of that is out of our control.
"We're in here, we have a job to do. That's to prepare and perform. The personnel department's is to bring in players. Coaches is to teach and demand. We've got to do our part, everybody does their part and that's how you put yourself in that position to win a championship, and we've got to do it again this year."
