UPSET

Packers 20 - Giants 23 (OT)

That post title has a dual meaning tonight. It's Super Sunday -- not nearly as super as we'd hoped, unfortunately. That's meaning #1: Over the past two weeks, my disposition has been pretty much summed up with that five-letter word. I've been all over the lower end of the emotional map, actually. Hasn't been too fun. For me or anyone around me.

That all changed just a few minutes ago -- only slightly, mind you, but there has definitely been a palpable change. That's meaning #2: The Giants definitely upset us, but they did something much more important tonight. They just upset the until-now-undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl. I kept saying that, if they are going to beat us, they'd damn well better beat New England. I also kept saying that the chances of that happening were absolutely naught. My prediction for the final score of this game was like 56-10 Pats. The Giants just won 17-14. And there were three lead changes in the 4th quarter, so it seemed even way lower-scoring than that. But the point is that the fact that it wasn't Brett and the boys there with a shot at knocking the Pats off their high, conceited horse now hurts just a little bit less.

Our game against the Giants was also a low-scoring affair. It was cold. I think the third-coldest championship game ever played. All signs pointed to Eli Manning not being able to brave the cold, and -- come on -- we're the Packers. The team that plays at a place they call the Frozen Tundra all the time.

But then again, the last time Brett played in cold like this was in the loss to the Bears at Soldier Field. And the Giants had won 9 road games in a row coming into Lambeau. Hm. Yeah, all of the damn stats were conflicting, confusing, and distracting. Perhaps that's what went wrong. Actually, several things went wrong on both sides of the ball, and for both teams. It's just that more went wrong for us than for them. And, actually, in a couple of cases, the shit that went wrong for us was thanks to horrible calls from an officiating crew that had no place working a Playoff game! If the Playoffs' crews are supposed to be the best in the league just like the teams playing in those games... then the only explanation for the presence of Terry McAulay and his boys is that they had something juicy on Roger Goodell. Inexcusable.

The most exhilarating play was a 90-yard TD pass to Double D, who got jammed at the line by Corey Webster but then caught the pass in stride and beat him big time (and high-stepped past the safety) early in the 2nd quarter. One would have hoped it would spark the offense into finally relaxing into some semblance of consistency, but, alas, it didn't work out that way. That play was the longest offensive play in Packers postseason history... but it was also 34% of their offensive output in the entire game. A week after Ryan Grant ran for 201, we only earned 63 more yards than that as a team. Grant ran only 13 times, and ten of those were for two yards or less. Sigh. We couldn't convert 3rd downs -- we were 1-for-10. It led to a choppy-feeling game with no chance to set the tempo.

A roller coaster moment came early in the 4th quarter, when Favre escaped the pass rush but then had his pass intercepted. "Dorsey" had a heads-up defensive play, though, when he knocked the ball out and it squirted right into Tausch's arms. Instead of getting the ball into the end zone for the lead, though, we ended up having to settle for the tying field goal. The defense was just okay. (The Giants' D was impressive.) This was unfortunately one of those games in which Al Harris just didn't play shut-down corner. It was reminiscent of his play in Dallas. Plaxico Burress had a monster game, which meant Eli Manning's numbers looked pretty great.

Even when a couple of things went right -- specifically, Lawrence Tynes missing not one but two field goals, our winning the toss for possession in overtime -- we weren't able to get it together and take over. Another big shoulda'-coulda'-woulda' play came in a 4th quarter punt return, when we knocked the ball out of McQuarters' grasp, but then neither Bush nor Poppinga, both of whom got their mitts on the ball, was able to hang onto it for us. The absolutely most excruciating moment was Brett Favre's last pass in the game -- and, ultimately, the season -- which was supposedly going to Driver but was picked off by Webster. It was only the second play of the extra quarter. Devastating.

But after a couple of weeks, it's a little more tolerable. And after watching the team that beat us go all the way to win the Super Bowl over a team that hadn't lost a game all season, it was even a little more therapeutic. Don't get me wrong, though. It should have been us.

Looking back over this past season, and especially comparing it with the record we managed just two seasons earlier, only two words come to me as a Packers fan: Thank you!

NFC Championship Sunday!

First, some catch-up:

Packers 33 - Rams 14

I got to watch this one on a widescreen rear-projection TV, but with my in-laws muttering on and constantly razzing me in the background. You know when people know you enjoy something and they deliberately feign interest or condescend with the sole intention of getting a reaction from you? Yeah. Three hours of that. And the first half was enough of a question mark to make each comment cut twice as deep. Luckily, as we've done in several games this year, the Pack came back having made some good adjustments at the half and finished strong. We kept St. Louis scoreless in the 2nd half.

And it was one of Bigby's waxing games. As much as he pisses me off with his missed assignments or cocky attitude or sometimes just being a rookie, I can't throw much hate his way when he has a game like this. Two INTs and several decent tackles made this one of the good games. The interception late in the first half was a momentum-changer that kept the Packers up by three at the half. The other driving force in this game was the special teams play of Koren Robinson and Will Blackmon, who combined for over 100 return yards on just three returns. And if special teams is playing well (OBTW, Crosby was 4-4 kicking field goals), then if either the offense or the defense is playing well, you know the likely outcome. Well, let's leave aside for the moment that on offense we have Brett Favre (after all, even though he passed Marino in total passing yards, he threw two INTs). In this game, the defense stepped up and took over. After two games with no sacks, we got four against the Rams. Nick Barnett had two, and Kampman and Hawk both had one.

Packers 7 - Bears 35

The most remarkable thing about this game was where I was when I watched it -- at the ESPN Club at the Boardwalk at Walt Disney World in Orlando. 50+ high def flat screens, each with a tag underneath them indicating which game would be playing at 1pm. There were a dozen Favre jerseys within my line-of-sight... and two Bears fans.

So we got to commiserate. The weather in Orlando was in the 80s and sunny. Not so in Chi-town, where the winds were whipping and the temps were in the teens. Favre's passes were blowing all over the place. He was 2-of-7 in the first half, so we obviously needed to rely on the running game, which was okay on a couple of plays. The most important one came in the 2nd Quarter, when Dorsey Grant ran 66 yards for a TD. Unlike last week's game, though, the special teams play was HORRID. Jon Ryan ended a not-well-publicized streak of 12 years and 929 punts without a block in the 2nd Quarter... and then followed that up with another one in the 3rd. Not only that, but he dropped a snap and wound up with a 9-yard punt, too.

The most perplexing thing was our defense's lackluster play. The Bears had one offensive play in their playbook: Run up the middle. How could we not adjust and come up with a solution for that one? And how was it that, in the same weather, Orton only had 6 incomplete passes?

I left the Club when Urlacher picked off a deflected Favre pass and ran it back 85 yards to reach what would be the final score of 35-7. 11 minutes remained in the game at that time. They may have beaten us both times this season, but the Bears still suck.

Packers 34 - Lions 13

That's more like it. If the Bears are going to beat us twice, we're sure as hell going to have to own the Lions in both our games against them this season. We rested Double D, the Jennerator, Woody, Kampman, Lee, and Pickett. The last thing we want is injuries going into the Divisional Playoff game two weeks later. (Cut to me worried as both Will Blackmon and Dorsey Grant go out with injuries in this game.) Favre played (the consecutive start streak stays alive at 253), but only for three series... for three touchdowns. He was 9-of-11 for 99 yards and two TD passes, and OBTW a 21-yard run. Then dark horse Craig Nall came in to clean up for the rest of the game. He got to throw a TD pass for the first time in three seasons -- good for him.

The last time the Lions won a game in Wisconsin was in 1991, which means they've never beaten Favre here. Also, our final-game winning percentage is the best in the NFL since 1994 -- we're now 13-1. Right behind us with a record of 11-3 are the Washington Redskins... who beat the Cowboys on this day. Yes, that means if we had beaten the Bears last week we would own home field advantage over Dallas throughout the Playoffs... but I digress.

As we would discover just 14 days later, it wouldn't matter.

13 DAYS LATER...

Packers 42 - Seahawks 20

Holy crap, was this game amazing. It was magical. The snow falling from the sky was the angels spitting their approval down on Lambeau and the Packer Nation -- "cherubim spittle," it was dubbed, willing us to the NFC Championship game. (My video of this trip to follow.) The first four minutes were disquieting, but Brett didn't get desperate -- there was after all plenty of time left on the clock. And he and his young team were deliberate about moving down the field. Young Ryan Grant -- who earned the right to be called by his own name after his performance in this game -- more than made up for his errors in those opening minutes. He ran for 201 yards and scored three TDs, more (on both counts) than anyone in Packers postseason history. Our 42 points were the most ever for us, too. Same for our 25 first downs. It was meant to be.

Never in all of my games at Lambeau have I seen it, heard it, or felt it quite like that. The game a week before that last glorious Seahawks playoff game four years ago -- when we played the Broncos -- was close on the eerie-feel scale. That was the game in the trailing minutes of which the Cardinals had scored against the Vikings to pull within 5 and then gotten the on-side kick with under 2:00 left to play in Arizona. People in the stands were listening to that game on their radios, and you could tell who had a radio by these 'pockets' of activity throughout the stadium. When the Cards would get a first down, little concentric circles of excitement would erupt. We spent quite a bit of time near the end of the 4th quarter turning around behind us to see what the folks in the luxury boxes were seeing on TV. When Arizona got that TD that was ruled a forceout to pull them up by one point against Minnesota, the place went nuts. Then we heard it was being challenged, and it was eerily silent as we awaited word from the radio- and TV-clad fans among us. Once the TD was verified -- I think it was right at the 2:00 warning of our game -- the lid came off and everyone was celebrating the fact that we’d backed our way into the Playoffs and would be hosting another game the next week.

Best of all, check out the sky earlier that evening. We were being smiled upon in that game much like we were in the snow last Saturday. It happened to be 11 years to the day after the last NFC Championship game we’d hosted against Carolina before SB XXXI. The difference in last Saturday’s game vs. that Broncos game was that the feeling was there almost the whole time last week… I mean, minus the first four minutes. I don’t remember sitting down for more than two or three minutes the entire game. Amazing. Almost unbelievable. We said that many times during the game: "Unbelievable." But we do believe. Boy, do we believe.

So today, thanks to the Giants beating the Cowboys, we're mere hours away from hosting one more home playoff game at Lambeau. And it's time for the Packers' Prayer:

Our Favre, who art at Lambeau,
Hallowed be thine arm.
The Bowl will come.
It will be won,
In Phoenix as it was in New Orleans.
Give us this Sunday our weekly win.
And give us many touchdown passes,
But do not let others pass against us.
And lead us not into frustration,
But deliver us to the valley of the sun.
For thine is the MVP,
The best of the NFC, and the glory of the Cheeseheads,
For ever and ever.
AMEN!!!

Go Pack Go!

Blame Game

Packers 27 - Cowboys 37

There were just too many things that went wrong a couple of Thursdays ago. Taken individually, none of them should have led to a defeat. All together, though, they sealed our fate.

1. Injuries. Yes, this would have been #1 if we'd won, too. The Packers beat the Cowboys even without Woody, Rouse, Bubba, Jolly, and KGB?! How underrated are they?! In this case, I think both Woodson and KGB would have made a difference if they'd been on the field. Al Harris may be one of the league's best corners, but when he was asked to shift into slots normally covered by Woody, his uncertainty was pretty clear, and Dallas exploited it. Oh, and by the way, Brett Favre had to leave the game with about ten minutes left in the first half... and he didn't return.
   
2. Pure, Unadulterated Desperation. While Favre was in, though, Oblio was calling all kinds of jailbreak plays, and absolutely none of them worked. There are games that Brett plays where he can almost do no wrong -- or at least if he does do wrong, the amount he's doing right easily eclipses whatever goes wrong. Then there are games like this one, where you feel like he gets into a kind of if I keep heaving things long, something's gotta' stick mentality. Thing is, he was either inaccurate or his receivers' routes weren't clean or he was just making poor decisions. One particularly frustrating play in the second quarter had him throwing into double coverage on Driver when Jennings was wide open shorter down the middle of the field. The only miracles happening on those plays were the fact that the passes weren't being intercepted. You know when Oblio's calling for an onside kick in the first quarter that all bets are off.
   
3. Crappy officiating. I thought we already had our dose for this season, but apparently it doesn't work that way. On the first pass thrown T.O.'s way, Al Harris took the ball away before Owens had demonstrated full possession and before he went out of bounds. In real time, it didn't look that way, so I was not surprised when it was first called a catch and then an out-of-bounds escort by Harris. But then a second later, another official came in signaling Green Bay's ball! Cue the replay:
   
   
   
   I don't get how they can get away with backing down like that! Forward progress was stopped? What the fuck is that? How is that possible in a play that happened so quickly? He didn't make enough of a football move to prove he even had possession, much less a failure to keep moving forward afterward. It was a chickenshit call to make up for the fact that one of the officials completely missed what was happening on the field, and ignoring the one who exhibited some competence.
   
   One more: This Pass Interference call was crap. Pay attention to the amount of time that passes between the play and the flag. Chickenshit.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Atari Bigby. Two things happened in the 4th quarter that kept us from winning this game. The first was that idiotic Pass Interference call that led to 7 points for the Cowgirls and the second was Bigby ripping Marion Barber's helmet off tacking on 15 yards, moving Dallas from the 46 to the 31 and leading to a field goal. We lost by 10. That's 10. Bigby couldn't tackle Witten, and he let both T.O. and Crayton make long receptions. Sure, he's had some exciting plays this year, but after this some veteran defensive leader should have sat him down and given him a good talking to, or else we should have just left him down in Big D.

To his credit, Aaron Rogers played Packers football the way we've been playing -- and winning -- all year, and he looked pretty awesome. He brought something to the game that Dallas hadn't prepared for: A running option. There were three impressive plays in which Rogers earned us first downs with his legs. He also got sacked and had balls batted, of course, but he had one string of 11 straight completions in between that, and he earned his first NFL TD.

Without the two turnovers, there wouldn't have been 14 points off them. But there were turnovers, and there were 14 points scored off them. Without Bigby's freshman behavior, we could have kept Dallas further away from scoring 3 more at the end. But he acted like an idiot. Without the piss poor officiating, we'd have had a chance to play in Dallas. But instead of responding to that adversity with stellar, praiseworthy execution, we sort of figuratively pouted at our shoes, kicked the ground, and admitted defeat. And it came.

Brett would be back to start ten days later, we knew. And we rallied behind him and his team, knowing that they have not really been far away from victory in either of their losses, and that they would respond with something much more definitive.

NOT Out-Coached

Packers 20 - Bears 27

I've heard more than once this week that we lost the game to the Bears because we were out-coached. I wholeheartedly disagree with that assertion because it presumes that we were coached.

The last time we played Chicago, it was a night game, airing on NBC. Same thing this time. The last time we played Chicago, we marched on to the field, then down it, scoring on our opening possession. Same thing this time. The last time we played Chicago, Rex Grossman sucked so bad, his QB rating was zero, and Brian Griese played. Same thing this time. Well, okay, Rex didn't even play. But that's 'cuz he sucks. And that means he had no QB rating. So same as last time.

But we won last time.

This time, Oblio stopped us from winning. Yes, yes, turnovers made a difference. Jimmy Jones lost two balls when we were marching and certain to score. The awesome first half (damn, it felt good!) would have been even awesomer if we'd have had the chance to keep those drives alive. We could have headed into halftime with 31 points instead of 17 (or 27 or, I suppose, 23). But in the second half, we went into a cocoon. Some of the most perplexedly conservative play calls were perpetrated for no good reason, and we only wound up scoring 3 more points while letting the Bears tally up 20. Worse yet, clock management became an issue, and it was incredibly poorly executed.

One: With three-and-a-half minutes left in the game, tied up at 20, Chicago had a 3rd down with 4 to go. Kampman made a tackle damn close to the marker and it was ruled a 1st down. Oblio challenged the first down ruling instead of the spot of the ball. They changed the spot of the ball but still measured it across the 1st down marker, losing us timeout #1 and, three plays later, leading to a TD for Chicago.

Two: About thirty seconds to go, and we're marching. We get a first down at the Chicago 41, and Brett hits Morency with a short pass in the middle for 9. Brett was hurrying and telling Oblio not to call the timeout because he can, you know, spike the ball. Oblio called the timeout.

And after that, of course, we had to try the hail mary pass into the end zone. Favre had already given the ball directly to Urlacher "trying to make something out of nothing" in the 3rd quarter. (A play later, the Bears had moved up to within 3 and the turnaround had begun in ernest.) Now, on what would either be the penultimate or the ultimate play, he was throwing into triple coverage. Hope soared for a millisecond as Double-D had both of his mitts on the ball... but when the players landed, Brandon McGowan had mechanical advantage in his favor and was able to wrest the ball from Driver's arms. It left a sour taste in my mouth, to say the least. After all, it tied Favre with George Blanda's NFL record 277 career INTs. (At least Brett blew that out in record time -- he did it in ten fewer seasons than Blanda did!)

In the final analysis, I'm still thrilled we're 4-1. It just would have been much nicer to have had four games up on the Bears. Historically, that's been considered an insurmountable lead. I like the sound of that. Honestly, I like the sound of "the four and one Green Bay Packers," too.

NFL Eve Three-Fer: Packers Preseason

[Preseason]
Packers 48 - Seahawks 13

I've come to love games against Seattle. I'm not a Holmgren hater -- far from it -- but there is something... special about watching him fume and turn crimson on the sideline. In this case, we had some especially good standout defensive plays that contributed to a solid victory (with a lot of scoring). Our second-stringers played another great game. Perhaps it was just a little unfair to Holmgren's blood pressure when we continued to blitz/sack late in the game. The only bad thing about this game was that I had to 'watch' it on my computer. (Thank you, NFL Network and DirecTV+DVR, for making it possible for me to watch the full game after the fact!)

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[Preseason]
Packers 13 - Jaguars 21

Despite the score, this was a balanced game... and essentially one that we won. Preseason is the only time I can walk away satisfied [read: not fuming and turning crimson] with a loss. The starters played longer than in any of the other preseason games, and they seemed pretty cohesive. The second quarter was awesome. In the most memorable scoring drive, Brett passed on almost every down, spreading the ball around to at least six different receivers. Sweet. Rogers came in and played well again after that. The scariest moment was when Driver shook a tackler, gained a few more yards, but then ended up getting his ankle rolled. He went back to the locker room on a cart, which never looks good. [It was a sprained foot; the good news is that Driver's probable for tomorrow... the bad news is that the Jennerator is questionable with a bad hammy.]

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[Preseason]
Packers 14 - Titans 30

We just can't ever beat the Titans. This game was pretty uneventful. Starters didn't play for more than a few minutes. The first-team D held Tennessee to a three-and-out and then called it a day. Brett got a TD pass. Some other stuff happened, too, I think. I left early and went to karaoke, then watched the rest of the game a few days later.

The season actually already kicked off on Thursday night, but what matters begins tomorrow. In just twelve more hours, the Pack is back once more! Let's rally, people!!!

Pre-Post-Game Analysis

Packers LOST - Jets WON

It's unprecedented for me to do my write-up before the final gun, much less before the end of the first half, but it's also unprecedented for me to feel disgusted enough to want to spend so much of the first half of a Packers game regurgitating in an alley somewhere, disavowing all knowledge of Coach Oblio and his team.

Inside two minutes left, it's 24-0 Jets, and they're marching again.

Do I have to be at every home game? I'll remind my readers that our last two home victories came when I was in the stands at Lambeau field. Twice this year, we've been shut out at home, and now it appears to be happening again.

Given the weather up at Lambeau -- it's snowing -- I now have a theory. Last week, in the first half in the great northwest, the field was blanketed in white. White was the same color as the visiting Packers' jerseys. Matt Hasselbeck threw tons of passes to our guys. Camouflage. Second half, as things melted, so did the Packers.

This week, the Packers at home are in the green-and-golds, and the visiting Jets are in the whites.

I'm just throwing that out there.

Come on Mr. Sunshine, let's get out there and melt that snow. Then our D can...

Shit. 31-0.

Something's just come up. (All over my jersey.) Gotta' go now.

Monday Night Robbery

Packers 24 - Seahawks 34

Add Tony Corrente to the list of NFL refs who are conspiring to ensure that the Packers fail. Fourth quarter, Seahawks up by only three and starting a drive at midfield, our defense held them incomplete on first down, one-yard run on second, and incomplete on third. Rock on. Punt, right?

Yeah, no, because Corrente called Cullen Jenkins for roughing the passer in the worst call I've seen in the NFL so far this year -- and no, that's not just because I'm a Packers fan. The "are quarterbacks overprotected" story has been making the rounds all over the country this week. If Jenkins can get called on a play like that, how is it that neither of the two players who knocked Brett Favre out of the game a couple of weeks ago got called? I just don't get it.

It might not have bothered me nearly as much if that call wasn't such a game-changer. Instead of holding the Seahawks to a spot in the field where they absolutely could not have scored, the call took the air out of the defense and Seattle ended up with seven more points, scoring the last points of the game.

We played well except for some other unfortunate third down penalties (that were justified) in the second half. Favre started that half with TD pass #410 to Driver in a beautiful 48-yard crossing play. From there, it was a slow self-destruction. DAMMIT!

Note: Abdul Hodge, who played in his first start did have a defensive TD for us, but I have to say he was easily responsible for giving back seven to Seattle, so he nullified himself. Woodson, on the other hand, earned some more money with two picks. If we could have turned our four turnovers into more than 14 points, we would have certainly put ourselves a bit more firmly in the driver's seat in this game. In the Bills game, we played better but our four turnovers killed us. In this game, we played better but we didn't capitalize enough on the four turnovers we got.

One thing that I can say for sure in this post: Italics? Working.