SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Packers left the West Coast full of regrets after their 24-21 loss to the 49ers in the NFC Divisional playoff on a rainy Saturday night at Levi's Stadium.

Here are five takeaways from the difficult defeat:

1. This one hurts.

There was more to the loss than just the end of the game, but putting the lens on crunch time for now, here was the situation and what unfolded:

Leading 21-17, the Packers had a first down just 24 yards from a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter that would've put them up two scores.

But they stalled, rookie kicker Anders Carlson missed from 41 yards out, the 49ers drove 69 yards the other way for the go-ahead TD and then intercepted QB Jordan Love on the game's final drive.

From pristine position to bounced from the playoffs, just like that, and a fifth straight postseason loss to San Francisco that dates back to the divisional round 11 years ago.

"Well, I think anytime there's a finality to the season, it's always tough unless you're the last team standing," said Head Coach Matt LaFleur, who has been eliminated from the postseason by San Francisco three times now. "For us to lose this game certainly stings, and I'm sure it's going to sting for a long time.

"I told the guys part of the reason it stings so bad right now is we fully believed and fully expected to win this game."

2. They had their chances, especially early.

Three times in the first half, the Packers got into the red zone, but they came away with just six points on two field goals, getting stopped on a fourth-and-short QB sneak on the other one.

Those failures loomed large all night, both when the Packers entered halftime trailing 7-6 and when they had the lead in the fourth quarter as well.

LaFleur and Love gave the 49ers credit for standing tall in the red zone, but an offense that had been so good late in the year at finishing drives was frustrated it didn't do so.

"I felt like we had plenty of opportunities to put the game out of reach and unfortunately just didn't do enough," LaFleur said. "There was a lot of plays out there. If one play goes different, we probably have a different result right now.

"We just didn't make enough plays. I'm mad about a couple of play calls. It's unfortunate."

Added Love: "It's going to be tough to win a game going against a good offense when you're not putting up enough points like that."

3. The defense had its share of regrets, too.

Not just on the game-winning drive, either.

In the first half, safety Darnell Savage dropped a sure interception that might've been a pick-six like the one he had last week in Dallas. Nickel corner Keisean Nixon also had what looked like a good shot at an interception on a Brock Purdy overthrow in the second half but couldn't corral the ball.

On balance, holding an offense as powerful as San Francisco's to 24 points was a solid effort, but a few missed tackles in the second half proved especially costly. In a two-play sequence, a missed tackle on George Kittle followed by two missed tackles on Christian McCaffrey allowed the 49ers to go 71 yards in the blink of an eye to take a 14-13 lead.

"That's one of the best offenses in this league," LaFleur said, lamenting only the lack of a stop on the game-winning drive. "One of the best football teams in this league."

That game-winning drive took 12 plays and more than five minutes off the clock, leaving Green Bay just 1:07 for a last chance, which ended on the fourth snap when Love made a bad decision to throw back across the field on first down.

Linebacker Dre Greenlaw made a diving snag on the back side, Love's second interception after throwing just one over his previous nine games.

4. Carlson's up-and-down season never smoothed out and it cost the Packers at a critical time.

The rookie kicker had regularly been missing a kick every week of late, and his strong night turned sour with the 41-yard miss with 6:18 left that would've put the Packers ahead by seven points.

"I think if we had the answer, we would've fixed it, right?" LaFleur said. "He's certainly just got to work on his consistency. We've seen him do it and know he's capable, but you have to be consistent in order to last in this league.

"A lot of young kickers in this league go through growing pains, and it'll get magnified because of the magnitude of this game and because of the spot, when it happened. That's just part of it."

5. The Packers know they have a bright future, but it might take a while for that to come into focus after such a gut-wrenching finish.

Love was outstanding the second half of the season until his accuracy deserted him in a couple of instances in the second half.

Running back Aaron Jones was incredible late in the year, topping 100 yards rushing in the last five games and becoming the first player with a 100-yard outing against the 49ers in 51 games, including playoffs.

The defense also turned its season around late to give the Packers a chance at this playoff run.

It'll all mean more eventually, but not in the moment.

"I don't know. I can't tell you," LaFleur said when asked when he'll be able to look back and process all this team accomplished down the stretch. "It's hard right now to kind of see through everything.

"I am proud of these guys, but it's more just the ability to keep competing, to stick together. There were some tough moments in our season, we lost some tough games, and this is one of them quite frankly, to be honest with you.

"But I've got the utmost confidence in the guys in that locker room, our staff. We'll stick together."