I have always been rather slow about processing my feelings. Typically, however, I’m much quicker about figuring out what I think. Not so, however, in the case of the astonishing Sunday Night Football game between the Packers and the Patriots. What I have to share here, therefore, is what the several different voices inside my heard are staying today…
The Fan on the Ledge
What on earth is the matter with this team? Why can't McCarthy win a close one? Why haven’t we been able to come from behind in the 4th quarter to win a single game this season? Why can't get special teams get it right?
Every team has losses, I know, and every observer expected the Packers and their first-time-starter QB to lose on the road against the best team in the NFL. But NO TEAM has ever let a lineman return a kickoff for 71 yards! And I daresay that no team that allows such a performance has much hope of making it to the playoffs. Or, if they do happen to make it, then they have no hope in the playoffs.
The irony is that we should have won that game last night. In so many respects, we actually outplayed New England. And we let it get away. Just as we let the game get away from us in Detroit last Sunday. Just as we let the game get away from us against Chicago early in the season.
And one little disaster at a time, we have let this whole promising season get away from us.
The Dispassionate Realist
The Packers came into New England as 14-point road underdogs against a great opponent. They played admirably, but they made too many mistakes to beat such a quality team in their own building. We dropped potential game-changing interceptions. Our green QB made a critical error with his pick-six early in the second half. And the special teams debacle on that kickoff late in the first half, when momentum was squarely in the Packers’ corner, was exactly the sort of thing you can’t get away with against an excellent opponent.
Simply put, the Packers played and lost to an excellent opponent. And inasmuch as home field is generally reckoned as a 3-point advantage, to lose by 4 to the Patriots is a pretty good show.
The Starry-Eyed Optimist
We have a bona fide back-up! Matt Flynn looks like a great draft pick now, and we don’t have to worry about handing the ball over to him when circumstances require it.
We have a bona fide running game when the coach decides to commit to it. Clearly apprehensive about putting the game entirely in the new QB’s hands, McCarthy called as many running plays as passing plays last night in New England, and the team performed excellently, with Jackson racking up 99 good yards on 22 carries.
Furthermore, the Giants lost and the Buccaneers lost, and so we’re just one game out of the 6th seed, with a game against that 6th seed coming up this Sunday on our home turf!
We have two games left, and they’re both at Lambeau. Rodgers will almost certainly be back for those games. And if we win them both, we’ll almost certainly make the postseason.
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