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Packers-Giants post-game notes & quotes

GIANTS TOP PACKERS, 37-20, IN NFC DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF

• The N.Y. Giants beat the Packers, 37-20, on Sunday at Lambeau Field to advance to the NFC Championship.
• Green Bay’s 15 wins overall on the season rank tied for No. 2 in franchise history (1997) behind only the team’s 16 victories overall in 1996.

OTHER POST-GAME NOTES:

• Today’s paid attendance was 72,080. It was the 302nd consecutive sellout (285 regular season, 17 playoffs) at Lambeau Field.
• WR Donald Driver caught three passes today, giving him a franchise-record 49 receptions for his career in the post- season. That surpassed WR Antonio Freeman’s mark of 47 career catches in the playoffs.
• With 45 receiving yards, Driver moved past WR Robert Brooks (651 yards) for the No. 2 spot in franchise postseason history. Driver now has 675 career receiving yards in the playoffs.
• Driver has now caught a pass in 12 consecutive postseason games, which is tied with Freeman for No. 2 in franchise playoff annals behind only RB Dorsey Levens (13 games).
• QB Aaron Rodgers set a single-game franchise postseason record for the most rushing yards by a quarterback with 66 yards on seven carries (9.4 avg.). That topped the previous mark held by Rodgers (39 yards, at Chicago, Jan. 23, 2011). Rodgers’ 66-yard day was the most by an NFL quarterback in a playoff game since Atlanta’s Michael Vick posted 119 yards rushing vs. St. Louis on Jan. 15, 2005.
• With 264 passing yards on the day, Rodgers surpassed QB Bart Starr (1,753 yards) for the No. 2 spot in the franchise postseason record book. Rodgers now has 1,781 career passing yards in the playoffs.
• With two TD passes today, Rodgers moved into a tie with Starr for the No. 2 spot in team history for the most TD passes in the postseason with 15 in his career.
• LB Brad Jones became the first Packer to block a field goal in a playoff game since DL Cletidus Hunt did so vs. San Francisco on Jan. 13, 2002.
• S Morgan Burnett posted his first career postseason interception with his second-quarter INT of QB Eli Manning.

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Giants end Packers’ season

The Packers’ season is over.

A season that went more than three months before the Packers lost a game, lasted only one game into the postseason. Again, it was the New York Giants that were the spoilers, just as they were in the 2007 NFC title game. This time, the Giants scored a 37-20 win in a divisional-round playoff game at Lambeau Field.

Turnovers and dropped passes were the culprits for the Packers. The Packers lost four turnovers and it would’ve been one more had Referee Bill Leavy not upheld a no-fumble ruling in a controversial replay review in the first half.

Eli Manning, who quarterbacked the Giants to the NFC title-game win in what was the last time the Packers had hosted a postseason game, threw for 330 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers passed for 264 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Giants wide receiver Hakeem Nicks made one of the big plays of the game, bouncing off safety Charlie Peprah and finishing a 66-yard, catch-and-run touchdown in the first quarter that staked the Giants to a 10-3 lead. Nicks then delivered the big blow of the game on the final play of the first half, as he went high into the air to catch a 37-yard, Hail-Mary pass from Manning that sent the Giants to the locker room with a 20-10 lead.

The Packers got to within 20-13 in the third quarter, before the Giants sealed their spot in San Francisco for an NFC title game match with the 49ers, with a flurry of takeaways and big plays in the final quarter.

Packers.com will update this story following postgame interviews. Tune into packers.com for full coverage of Sunday’s game.