What destination has been reached, is nearer, and is a very long way away? Think about it, and we’ll return to the answer in a few moments.
It’s hard to know how to characterize Sunday’s win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Was it a great accomplishment? Aaron Rodgers finally beat a team that he hadn’t been able to yet. We endured another ‘best effort’ from a team for whom we are their Super Bowl. Rodgers added another 3 TDs to his already gaudy stats, Tramon Williams got a couple of picks, and Randall Cobb continues to develop into a marvelous weapon.
Or, on the other hand, was Sunday’s win a narrow escape? The Packers were ahead by just two points with less than three minutes to play. And we wouldn’t even have had that two-point cushion if it hadn’t been for a barely excusable drop in the end zone by Winslow. The Bucs managed to absorb our first big blows, spotting us an early 14-point lead, and yet they didn’t wilt. They hung in, kept coming back at us, and gave the defending champions a scare at home.
Or, on yet another hand, was it a one-arm-tied-behind-my-back sort of a victory. The Packers were playing on a short week, with an even shorter one ahead. This was a team -- and a game -- they had reason to look past. One sensed that the Packers were not playing with a full 60 minutes of energy and intensity. And yet, with a minimalist effort, they dispatched another NFL team to run to 10-0, equaling the win total for all of the 2010 regular season.
Whatever you and I make of Sunday’s strange win, evidently our quarterback was not happy with it. I admire his high standards. And I imagine that that is precisely the serious attitude that is setting the pace for the rest of the team.
I think, too, that Lombardi himself would have appreciated Rodgers’ post-game grimace. According to stories I have heard, he was often hardest on his team after a victory, identifying what could have been done better and demanding that it be better next time out.
Meanwhile, as the Packer quarterback takes us back to the late 1950s, the Buccaneer quarterback takes us back to the mid 1970s. What’s the deal with Josh Freeman’s hair? Did you see him on the sideline with his helmet off? He looks like he should be in Mr. Kotter’s class -- he’s one of the Sweathogs!
Well, back to our riddle. What destination has been reached, is nearer, and is a very long way away? The answer: 16-0.
With Sunday’s win, the Packers have now won sixteen consecutive games, dating back to last season. And, with that win, we are also one step closer to the other 16-0 that everyone is talking about: the perfect season in 2011. And yet, for as well as we’ve played and as much as we’ve accomplished, the remaining schedule is a beast. Six more games, and only one of those opponents does not have a winning record.
We’ll give more thought in our next post to the comparative difficulty of several key teams’ schedules heading down the stretch. And when we see it, it will likely cool our optimistic talk about 16-0. In the meantime, we’ll adopt the sobriety of McCarthy, Rodgers, & Co., being content for now to achieve 11-0.
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