The Green Bay Packers are finally reaping the rewards for winning the Super Bowl last year and the city of Green has never seen the likes of it. This is probably the closest thing to a Super Bowl the city of Green Bay will ever get. Even the two NFC Championships I’ve been to in Lambeau don’t compare.
The two Super Bowls I went to in the 1980s don’t hardly compare. The NFL has come a long way baby! Lost in all the hoopla is the fact that the Packers are facing a very good team in the New Orleans Saints. This isn’t college football where you get cupcakes to start, this is the NFL – you don’t ease into a street fight here.
The Saints have one big advantage in that they played in this game last year against the Minnesota Vikings. The Saints struggled mightily against the Vikings before sneaking out a 14-9 win. That led to a slow start over the first seven games before they caught fire and made the playoffs. They didn’t have anything left though and lost to the 7-9 Seahawks in the wildcard round.
The Packers would like to avoid the slow start in their title defense and beating the Saints would be a good way to get going. A loss and the Super Bowl hangover and no offseason workouts questions will start hot and heavy. A convincing win and the Packers will affirm they are still one of the favorites to win it all, regardless of what other teams have done to improve.
My prediction will come tomorrow. I will be at the game Thursday so I probably won’t have a game day blog as the Packers block social media inside the bowl. I will certainly throw in some Tweets though when I go for a pop. Which could be often. 🙂
Same bat time tomorrow.