Playing Downhill

When I lived in Virginia, there was a drive I would routinely make that took me over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Heading east across the mountains, I discovered that the descent on the east side was so steep that I could turn off my car and coast for quitea few miles before needing to use the engine again -- such was the downhill momentum.

Fortunately, the Packers had climbed to a high enough altitude in the first half that they could get away with coasting through the second half.

After dominating San Francisco through the first 30 minutes and achieving a 23-3 lead, Green Bay lacked rhytm on offense and lost some of their fire on defense, getting outscored 21-7 in the second thirty minutes. It was like two different games. Happily, we won the first game by slightly more than they won the second game by.

Nice halftime adjustments, Coach.

At times, Sunday's second half felt eerily like the fourth quarter in Tampa Bay. Especially after our special teams followed the offense's touchdown drive by giving up an enormous, momentum-shifting kick return.

The first half showed our capabilities, and they are considerable. The running game, with its strong 4.9 yards per attempt average for the game; the passing game, which can be both efficient and explosive; and the defense, which was aggressive and smothering -- if these qualities can be maintained for 60 minutes, I believe we could be competitive with anyone in the league.

But then, perhaps any team could make the same case: that they could play with anyone if only they always played their best.

Well, we didn't play our best for 6o minutes. But we played well enough to beat a sub-.500 team at home. Now, after a short week, we'll see if we can play well enough to beat a sub-.500 team on the road.