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| Family Photo with Judy, Sam and Mary |
I do know this much. This game may not have been a loss, but it felt like a loss in the stands, and I am sure it felt the same way in the locker room. Even callers in to WTMJ after the game kept referring to the game as a loss, and the hosts did not bother to correct them. There were so many chances to put this game away, and the Packers could not pull it off. Obviously one of those chances was flat-out stolen from them by the refs (the Clay Matthews non-roughing roughing call), but there was also the missed 52 yard field goal, the Rodgers fumble that spoiled what could have been a surprise bootleg for a first down, the holding call that negated what would have been a Jimmy Graham TD catch, poor clock management on the final drive of the 4th quarter, dropped interceptions in overtime by Wilkerson and Alexander, and probably other opportunities. If you were a Vikings fan, you probably felt the same way - if they only had a place kicker who could kick, they would have won this game a couple of times over. Not surprisingly, they have replaced their kicker since Sunday.
As a side note, we were in the Chicago area for most of the past week, other than going to the game on Sunday. It was extremely entertaining listening to sports radio in Chicago. They just could not move past their stunning loss to the Packers in Week One, and in a way, who could blame them? One of the memorable lines was the guy who called in to say that when a guy goes out on the cart, "nobody comes back off the cart, at best, you are out for the game, at worst you are out for the season. But this guy did and then proceeded to beat the Bears on one leg." Bears fans were extremely critical all week of Coach Nagy and Mitch Trubisky, saying that Nagy called the wrong plays, and Trubisky executed them poorly. I heard somewhere (I think it was on the Packers Therapy podcast), that when the Bears were up 20-0 in the third quarter, Yahoo Sports was claiming that the Bears had a 98.2% chance of winning that game.
I wonder what the odds of a 29-29 tie were in the Vikings game when the score was a relatively mundane 20-7 in the third quarter on Sunday? But that is obviously what happened, and neither fans nor players can be very happy about it. This game is the first tie for the Packers since they played to a tie, also against the Vikings, and also at Lambeau Field, in 2013. Fans may remember that Matt Flynn played QB in that game in Rodgers' absence, and that the Packers could not have won the division if they had not managed to pull off at least a tie in Week 12. So sometimes a tie is not a bad thing.
This season, the tie makes a tie for a playoff spot with any team other than the Vikings quite unlikely, but it also makes the November 25 game against the Vikings, at least potentially, the difference between winning the division and not. Two weeks into the season, it doesn't look promising for the Lions this year (with apologies to my friend, Al Lawson), and while the Bears look much improved, at least we have a leg up on them, thanks to the Week One miracle. But it would be very easy to see the Division championship coming down to that November 25 game. On the one hand, it is in Minnesota, and it is always harder to win on the road. But on the other hand, Rodgers may be at full strength and mobility by then, and he certainly wasn't on Sunday.
One week ago, Packers fans rightly celebrated the miracle, 21 point fourth quarter to win the game against the Bears, and Bears fans lamented the collapse of their defense. How, then, do Packers and their fans react to the fact that the Packers gave up 22 points to Kirk Cousins and the Vikings in the 4th quarter, not to mention what should have been two field goals in overtime? There was talk of the Packers having worn out the Bears defense with the quick pace in Week One. It looked to me as if the Vikings wore out the Packers defense in the second half and overtime on Sunday. (And I have to wonder why Rodgers and McCarthy did not use more fast-paced offense themselves to wear out the Vikings.) It was certainly hot and humid out there on Sunday, so it would not be shocking if the defenders were a little gassed in the second half and overtime. Thankfully, the forecast for this Sunday in Landover, MD is for a high of 73 degrees and showers. So weather is not likely to be the same kind of factor this coming week. In fact, the Packers should not have another hot-weather game this season, with the possible exception of the Rams game on October 28.
As far as the Matthews roughing call is concerned, in the real world, there doesn't seem to be any controversy about it. Everybody (other than the NFL) agrees that it was a terrible call. This includes both callers and hosts on Chicago-area sports radio, not known for their partiality to the Packers. It includes Packers haters like Skip Bayless. I have not heard a single person not associated with the League defend the call.
I remember reading years ago that the way Superman is depicted as flying in the comic books is impossible as a matter of physics. It is not possible to change directions instantaneously. And yet that is what would have been required here. Matthews could have done nothing to change his trajectory toward the QB, and there is no visual evidence that he attempted to inflict any more damage on the QB than is a natural consequence of hitting him with a clean football tackle. I find untenable the ref's suggestion that Matthews picked up Cousins and drove him into the ground. I had hoped that the League would have something to say about this, because the new rule is just not working in real life if calls like this can change the outcome of the game. A player in Matthews' predicament evidently needs to pull up and not hit the quarterback, because if the QB releases the ball just as the tackler arrives, he might get called. (Mike Daniels did just that on a different play, only to see Cousins escape from the would-be sack.) That stinks, and the League should have admitted that the whole thing is a mess and tried to clarify the rule. But instead, we learned on Monday that the League is doubling down on the rule, and insisting that this is a proper call. I think I will find time to write a letter or email to the Commissioner (roger.goodell@nfl.com, or NFL, 280 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017). I hope others do so as well.
Going to a Packers game in person is always so much fun. The guy next to us in the stands flew in at the last minute from Myrtle Beach. That is real fan devotion, as I would have thought the residents of Myrtle Beach had other more pressing concerns over the weekend. When we arrived at our hotel near the O'Hare airport Sunday night, some guy came out from the lobby to talk to us when he saw our Packers gear. He had been at the game as well. On the shuttle bus from the rental car place to the airport, we ran into a Japanese Packers fan, who was also at the game, and who was attending the second game in his life after being a fan for about 35 years. And on our flight to LAX Monday night, we ran into at least 5 other Packer fans who had been at the game, a husband and wife sitting in the dreaded middle seats, and a two-generation family of three a couple of rows behind us.
For now, the Packers just have to keep winning games that they should win, while Rodgers gets healthy. That means winning against the Redskins this week. The Redskins seem to be improved this year, but they still should be no match for the Packers. And then the Packers certainly must win at home against the Bills the following week. If they can finish the first quarter of the season at 3-0-1, they will be in good shape, and be in no worse place than a tie for the division lead.
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