We are most definitely talking playoffs as the NFL concluded its Wild Card Weekend with a matchup between two classic franchises: the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers.

Considering that two of the other three playoff games this opening weekend involved backup quarterbacks way in over their heads and the third featured a Detroit Lions team on a three game losing streak trying desperately to reverse their decades old misfortune in always hostile Seattle, Packers-Giants was expected to be the most competitive clash in the wildcard round. For three quarters it was exactly that before Green Bay pulled away to a commanding 38-13 win in the fourth quarter.

The past two times that New York came to Titletown in the postseason, Eli Manning managed to better first Brett Favre and then Aaron Rodgers on his way to upsets of the Patriots in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI respectively. This time, Rodgers wasn’t going to have it.

Starting off slow, the Packers let the Giants take a 6-0 lead on them about halfway through the second quarter. In fact, I’m not going to sugarcoat it: things were downright ugly for Green Bay with about five minutes left to play in the first half. At one point in time, an Aaron Rodgers sack actually gave the team a total of -8 yards against Big Blue for the game. Determined, Rodgers finally got going late in the second quarter, hitting Davante Adams on a tight touchdown in the corner of the endzone and throwing up a spectacular Hail Mary to Randall Cobb at the end of the half that gave the Packers a 14-6 lead going into the locker room.

A misfire by Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy in the second half on an attempt to convert a 4^th down and one near the Packers own 40-yard line led to a long Eli Manning touchdown to wide receiver Tavarres King that brought the Giants back within one. Aaron Rodgers responded with a drive that ended in a 30-yard Randall Cobb score and the Packers never looked back. Randall Cobb would go on to score a third touchdown in the game (reminiscent of much of his 2014 form) and fullback Aaron Ripkowski would take a fifth Packers TD to the house, resulting in the final score.

This win for the Packers wasn’t only significant in that it was something of revenge for those lost 2007 and 2011 games (or at least for the few players that remain from the 2007 and 2011 seasons) but also marks the seventh consecutive win for Green Bay this season, beginning with a 27-13 win over the Eagles in Philadelphia. Green Bay is hot, Aaron Rodgers is hot, and when they travel to Dallas next weekend, the Cowboys should take heed of how the Packers slayed their division rival (New York was the only team to beat Dallas when the Cowboys were playing all of their starters this year) and work to prepare themselves. These Packers are ready to compete and have faith in their quarterback to, as he so infamously said just a few weeks ago, “run the table”.