Green Bay's second-year coach took the ball out of the hands of Aaron Rodgers, the NFL's presumptive MVP, and put his trust in a defense that hadn't consistently delivered all season.

The Packers’ gut-wrenching 31-26 loss to the Buccaneers at Lambeau Field had been over for less than an hour Sunday, and Aaron Rodgers was searching for words in the face of another NFC Championship Game disappointment.

The Buccaneers sacked Aaron Rodgers five times, hit him eight times and pressured him 22 times during their 31-26 victory over the Packers in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday at Lambeau Field.

Get the latest postgame updates after Aaron Rodgers and the Packers fell to Tom Brady and the Buccaneers 31-26 in the NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who again has his team a win away from the Super Bowl, explains how he’s a different man than he was when he led Green Bay to the title after the 2010 season.

Tramon Williams played for the Packers from 2007 through 2014, then again in 2018 and 2019, before the team opted not to re-sign him last spring.

Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians is many things. A meteorologist is not among them. So when he insists that the game day forecast — 28 degrees at kickoff, light winds, no precipitation — won’t be a factor for his team, it sounds like wishful thinking. After all, the Tampa-St. Petersburg area experienced its own fool temperatures throughout the week, with highs only reaching … the low 70s.

“He was a really, really humble man, and I definitely appreciated that humility,” Aaron Rodgers said of Ted Thompson, the former Packers GM who died on Wednesday.