The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Packers 9 - Vikings 7

This Thursday night NFL Network game was saturated with the 'story' that it quite possibly could have been Brett Favre's last home game. Now, last year I was at (what, at the time, was) quite possibly his last home game, so I missed what the doofuses in the studio were saying, but I would have a very hard time believing it was brought up more than it was by the NFL Network crew. Guys, we got it, okay?

At last year's Seahawks game, Brett was certainly aware of it. His final waves on the field made that clear. He did the same kind of thing this time, too. He made sure he hung on to the game ball after the last snap. I'm sure he gave it to someone for safekeeping should it turn out that he does call it a career this off-season. Honestly, though, I'd still be pretty surprised (I'm not saying disappointed -- I would be, of course, but I'm saying I'd be surprised) if he decided to hang it up now.

This game was exciting to watch; the first half from an offensive standpoint, and the second half from the defensive side. Brett threw the ball about 50 times in this game, with more pass attempts in the first half than in any first half he's ever played. He also had his 5,000th completion -- the last catch of the game, in fact, even though it was called back. Once we were in the red zone, though, forget it; we just couldn't get the ball in the end zone. 3/5 on field goal attempts won this for us.

There was plenty that went on in the game for me to recap here, but honestly it's hard not to keep up with the playoff scenarios. Turns out Sorgi was wrong, so here's the scoop:

Packers win out, Falcons finish 8-8, Giants and Rams fall to 7-9, Seattle wins NFC West

1) Green Bay Packers

- (Wk 17) beat Chicago

AND

2) New York Giants (one game back AND would lose common games tiebreaker)

- (Wk 16) lose to New Orleans AND

- (Wk 17) lose to Washington

AND

3) Atlanta Falcons (one game back)

- (Wk 16) lose to Carolina OR

- (Wk 17) lose to Philadelphia

AND

4) St. Louis Rams (lost head to head)

- (Wk 16) lose to Washington OR

- (Wk 17) lose to Minnesota

AND

5) EITHER

Seattle Seahawks (lost head to head, need SEA to win division title in scenario)

- (Wk 16) beat San Diego OR

- (Wk 17) beat Tampa Bay

OR

San Francisco (avoid winning division)

- (Wk 16) lose to Arizona OR

- (Wk 17) lose to Denver

Santa is a Packers fan, of course, and as he has been trekking across the globe already today, he's apparently been keeping in touch with his NFeLves via satphone. At this minute, the Saints are up over the Giants and the Redskins are tied with the Rams in the 4th quarters of their games. The Falcons already lost. A Giants loss is obviously the most imperative at the moment, but it'd be nice to scratch three off the list today.

There's still another game for us to worry about, though, of course. The Bears have come back and regained the lead against the Lions. They're up by 5. If they win this, I'm all for Lovie just throwing in his fourth-stringers... or maybe even just forfeiting next week's game altogether to keep his guys healthy. Knowing Lovie's hate for the Packers, though, I'm not holding my breath.