Stacking successes is what Packers’ head coach Mike McCarthy always preaches. Sunday’s win over the Seahawks that put the Packers in the playoffs has to be considered one of the greater successes he has stacked. I know the Packers haven’t accomplished anything yet, but at least now they have a chance.After losing a heartbreaker to the Steelers a week before the Packers jumped on Seattle early even though the Packers appeared to be playing like dung. It was the easiest 14-0 lead a team could possibly get. The Packers dominated from start to finish just as they should have and continued their excellent play of the second half of the season. A win in Arizona would put them 7-1 since the debacle in Tampa Bay.
The possibility of playing the Cardinals two weeks in a row adds a ton of intrigue to this matchup of two teams that have nothing to play for. The Cardinals may have the No. 2 seed in the NFC to play for but that would take a Festivus Miracle to occur. Either way Arizona won’t know until game time or later if they have a chance at a bye, which ought to be a nice distraction for them. Do we play hard or do we rest?I still think the Cardinals are the lessor of the three evils – the Eagles and Cowboys being the other two possibilities. I just don’t like our chances in Philly or Dallas. Neither the Cardinals, Cowboys or Eagles would stand a chance in Lambeau, but it didn’t work out that way. I also still think that game in Pittsburgh could end up helping the Packers just as much as the loss in Tampa Bay did. That was a great fourth-quarter comeback against an excellent team that just came up three seconds short.
As far as me personally, yes, getting to the playoffs this soon post-Favre means a ton. Aaron Rodgers gets better every week and getting a playoff game or two under his belt is huge. The Packers are meticulously building a winner that is not a one-year-and-done outfit like so many teams these days try to do by spending big bucks. The Packers took their lumps last year and rebounded to make the playoffs this year. I don’t expect the Packers to win the Super Bowl, in fact it will be hard for them to go on the road and win playoff game no matter where they go, but this is a great experience regardless.
I’m not saying the Packers can’t make a move in the playoffs, but it certainly would be unexpected. But the case can be made that the only team hotter than the Packers right now is the San Diego Chargers, who have won 10 in a row. In the NFC the Packers are the hottest team having won six of seven. I have no idea what to expect this week. All I know is they can’t take us out of the playoffs.
Trying to watch the Vike/Giants game hoping the Giants win………… Can’t even stand to look at B*tt F*ck!!! I don’t care if you cross the line to join the enemy whether it’s the Vikings or the Germans……….. He’s a traitor to me!!!! And that’s not even bringing up his acts of sabotage w/his calls to the Lions. Can’t watch him……. Hope the Pack lay down, if they need to to take the Vikes out of the #2 playoff spot if needed. Think it’s obvious I’m not a Vike fan at all!!!!!?????
Happy New Year All!
Not even going to bite on the dilution of talent pool debate, we’ll have plenty of time for that when the season’s over.
This game with the Cards now means nothing for either team since the Vikes won, correct?
I know if Philly wins they’ll take the 2 seed from the Vikes but other than that, none of these games matter for the rest of the NFC if memory serves, or am I missing something?
May not even have the Packers on my local TV today, guess we’ll see in a few minutes.
Never mind, I got off my lazy ass and looked it up. We’re playing at Arizona next week no matter what.
That said, what’s the opinions on how to approach this game. I think their are legitimate arguments both ways, as the injury to Welker in the NE game demostrates the risks of playing your best players with nothing on the line. Likewise, I think there’s something to be said for heading into the playoffs with a head of steam, particularly with a young team like we have.
I don’t think there is a “right” answer, but personally I’d like to see us approach this as if it were a must win game to get in the playoffs and take my chances going into the playoffs on a high.
The right answer is to start Matt Flynn
Cromartie injury would be huge for next week.
Congrats to DD for yet another 1000 yard season! The good news is he doesn’t look like he’s even close to slowing down!
The Cromartie injury would be huge, still hate to see a player get hurt like that though.
Watching Rogers take a shot like that on the hip in a meaningless game kind of gave me the willies!
pb, I agree on protecting Rodgers. No qb sneaks would be nice. Game means nothing.
Buddy Ryan made far too many coaches regret decisions in meaningless games like today’s.
Ok, just protect the Packers from injuries.
With the Cardinals not blitzing and pulling many starters, no reason to play this game.
Whoa now guys. Lets build on the lead, put the game away, then go to the bench. End season on high note. Gotta play next week.
I totally agree LT – let’s put this game away in the first half and then rest the starters in the second half – I think the starters need to play to keep the real game in their sights… With a big win it will give us a downhill run into the playoffs. We’ll see a lot of Matt Flynn in the second half I think and many of our key players will be watching the game from the sidelines.
Playing our starters against their backups can do a few things.
1) We crush their backups. Not sure that does much for next week.
2) They actually do something against our starters, which only puts doubt in the Packers for next week.
3) Someone gets hurt. If it’s a Packer starter, that’s very bad news. If it’s a Cardinals backup player, that doesn’t impact them very much.
Can we all agree we can pull the starters now?
Have to really like the momentum we have shown the last half of the season. I think it’s silly to put too much emphasis on games like last week’s or even this week’s due to the circumstances, but the trend since the TB loss has been unmistakable.
Maybe the team we all thought was possible in the pre, meaning a SB caliber team, has arrived. The stabilizing of the line has been palpable, and that has eliminated most of the sacks put is in poor situations in many of the early games, resulting in Grant getting more carries and doing way more with them. That with Jacobs coming back and helping in 3rd down pass protection as well as out of the backfield, and the addition of Green has given us a true 3 headed monster with the RB’s.
I think most of us knew what we had in Rodgers and the WR’s, but again it’s taken the line to stabilize to allow us to perform up to par in that regard. Also, the emergence of Finley has been huge, and is a weapon we didn’t see much of in the first part of the season.
The defense has been ball hawking all year, but the development of Raji and Mathews and has given us yet more tools, Barnett is back to 100%, Hawk has looked better and better. Our secondary led by Woodson has performed way better than most of us would have thought after losing Harris.
Maybe we’ve arrived. We’ll see how we do against the real Cardinals next week. In the meantime, congratulations to the Pack on excellent 2nd half of the season!
Well said p_b, lets give the backups some work. We dont need this game, doesn’t do anything for us.