Packers’ playoff X-factor? Examining what it means…

“I’ve always been ready for the moment,” Lazard said when asked about that big play this past week, recalling a lesson he learned back in the 2019 preseason, his first with the Packers, when he caught his first TD pass.

“If the ball’s not coming my way and I’m not able to make plays, I’m just thinking that eventually it’s going to come back (to me).”

It’s not easy to stay prepared for when that time comes, but for anyone who’s not a Pro Bowl player, that’s part of the job. In the playoffs, when anyone’s number might be called in a do-or-die situation, it is the job.

Having reached the NFC Championship Game the past two years, the Packers have plenty of experience with role players knowing how to get ready.

Rookie regulars like cornerback Eric Stokes and center Josh Myers may be new to this, but they played in big-time postseason games in college and now have Packers teammates around every corner as examples to follow, if needed.

“The way this team is constructed as far as experience in the playoffs, I think we’ve rubbed off onto enough guys to where we just spread the experience throughout the locker room,” veteran tight end Marcedes Lewis said. “Everything we do is about having championship habits.”

It mostly falls on the players to adopt the proper mindset, but it’s also up to the coaches to do what they can to prepare their guys to respond without putting them uncomfortably on edge for exactly when that’ll be.

There’s a fine line between productive urgency and paralyzing intensity that’s important to walk.

“The idea for a coach is we have to be calm under pressure, we have to be relaxed,” offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said. “It’s just about keeping everybody calm. Those plays will come to them; let’s not chase them, don’t be over-aggressive, just do what we do.

“And hey, who knows who will step up and make a play?”

The candidates for this Packers team as the playoffs arrive are numerous.

On offense, receiver Randall Cobb is back after missing the last five games of the regular season due to injury. Maybe Josiah Deguara’s 62-yard TD on a tight end screen in the regular-season finale at Detroit – the only reception longer than 25 yards in his career – was a prelude to more. Heck, Lewis is still looking for his first touchdown of the season.

On defense, Stokes has just one interception as a rookie, while veteran safety Adrian Amos hasn’t had a pick since Week 10. And, of course, cornerback Jaire Alexander plus edge rushers Za’Darius Smith and Whitney Mercilus could be returning from long injury absences.

That list doesn’t cover all the possibilities, but the idea is clear. There’s bound to be a crunch-time moment Saturday night when the Packers will need someone aside from the usual suspects to come through, and the way this team is wired, whoever it is promises to be ready.

“You can feel our team’s hunger each and every day, with so many veteran guys that haven’t quite gotten to that pinnacle of football,” defensive lineman Dean Lowry said. “You can feel it in the building this week and really throughout the year.

“We’re hungry and we’re excited to make this run here.”