The Green Bay Packers may be 10-4 and NFC North Division champs, but only one person I know of thinks the Packers are one of the top teams in the NFC. Other than Tony Dungy, everybody considers the Packers just another team. Many of the pundits even have Seattle ranked higher.
The Seahawks are getting a lot of run for beating the two worst teams in the league the last two weeks, but the competition gets a little tougher in the playoffs. If the Packers only get the third seed the team I want first is the Seahawks.
The Packers are getting no run at all, which in a way, is a good thing. The chip they had on their shoulder in 2010 might be back. Actually the 2010 Packers were getting run as the team you didn’t want to see the playoffs. That is not happening this year. It’s all ho-hum when it comes to the Packers, I guess everybody thinks they can’t beat Atlanta, or San Francisco, or Seattle.
I tend to disagree. I feel much better about this team going into the playoffs than I did last year even though that team was 15-1. You just knew they couldn’t win a dogfight if they got in one and that is exactly what happend against New York. The Packers’ defense just was not good enough to play a close game. Different story this year, almost every game has been close and the Packers’ defense has come up big in pretty much all of them.
The Packers have finally started running the football and actually gaining yards doing so, which has opened things for Aaron Rodgers again. Rodgers is playing the best football of his career if you ask me, having to grind out these wins with limited personel due to the injuries around him and a mediocre offensive line. Through fourteen games he is the NFL’s top rated passer and is second in touchdown passes. Why no MVP talk for the MVP?
I can’t see the Seahawks beating the 49ers next week so the Packers are likely the number three seed in the NFC which could very well bring the Bears back to Lambeau. Wouldn’t that be something? I want the Seahawks, but the Bears would be a nice consolation prize.
For the first time all year confidence is high. Unless there is a major injury the last two weeks, that shouldn’t change. The Packers have to win both to have a chance at the two seed but will likely be counting on the biggest upset of the year to get it – San Fran is at Arizona at 3:25 PM a week from Sunday. The Cards came through for us in 2003 against the Vikings, maybe they can do it again. Unfortunately, the Bears have Josh McCown, so we are probably out of luck.
Beat the Titans and Vikings and let the chips fall where they may.