Ol' Bag of Donuts » Aaron Rodgers

Three months away from starting it all again?

admin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:33:15 +0000

I don’t know about you, dear readers, but for me, this offseason has brought a blissful absence from football. The Packers’ 13th world championship was so surprising, and so satisfying, I’ve been happy to let the prospect of the 2011 NFL season stay far away from the front of my mind. After the emotional grind that was the runup to the Super Bowl, I’ve been almost happy, in a way, to let the NFL lockout scrub OTAs, UFAs, undrafted free agents and minicamps from public conversation. I’m living in a state of suspended fanhood bliss, where the Vikings are in disarray, the Bears are in denial and the Packers are world champions.

But as the calendar turned to June, it hit me: My dream state could have a short shelf life. We’re now closer to the Packers’ scheduled Sept. 8 opener against the New Orleans Saints than we are to their win over their Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. And while the lockout still has the league in limbo, that could give way to chaos at any time.

An ESPN report today said the players and owners held secret labor talks in Chicago, and on Friday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the owner’s appeal of last month’s ruling in Minneapolis, where Judge Susan Richard Nelson gave the players an injunction, lifting the lockout for four day. However, a court panel issued a temporary stay of Nelson’s injunction on April 29, putting the lockout back in place. The same panel issued a permanent stay of injunction on May 17, and though an appeals decision isn’t expected to come down until July, most believe it will likely land in favor of the owners. If that happens, the players could have no choice but to make a deal; the NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora predicted earlier today the two sides would have an agreement in place by July or August.

So, Packers fans, that means we could be three months away from trying to do this whole thing again. We don’t know what the landscape of the league will look like, but we do know the Packers are as well-positioned as any team in the league to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in Indianapolis next year, whenever the Super Bowl happens. They’ve got a slew of players coming back from injured reserve, but the presence of Jermichael Finley alone makes me think they have a chance to be even better in 2011. And in the last 25 years in the NFL, there’s been a repeat champion about every five to seven years; the 49ers in 1988-89, the Cowboys in 1993-94, the Broncos in 1997-98 (ahem, holding) and the Patriots in 2003-04. If that ebb and flow holds up, we’re due for another repeat winner this year.

But a new season brings a whole new set of worries, though: contract squabbles, shoddy preseason performances, tough early opponents and late hits on Aaron Rodgers. Everything is perfect now, but it might not be very much longer.

We at Ol’ Bag of Donuts are going to continue to enjoy what I’m calling Victory Summer, and we’ll have another podcast in the near future solely dedicated to gushing about how great is to be world champions and comparing this title to other Packers championships. My suggestion to you, though, is to enjoy it while you can. Because we might not be too far away from starting it up all over again.

–Gene Bosling

Setting some celebration ground rules

admin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:12:30 +0000

If you live in Wisconsin this week, these are wonderful times. The Packers are world champions for the 13th time. The three Lombardi Trophies proudly displayed in the final room of the Packers Hall of Fame are about to get a new friend. (Side note: We love the spotlights on the trophies, the music playing in the background and the montage of Packers greats on the walls in that room, but they really need a better ventilation system in there. Every time we’re in there, it always gets so dusty.)

But if you live outside of Wisconsin, the Packers’ status as Super Bowl champions can be fun for another reason: Gloating. This is particularly true for the Minneapolis chapter of Ol’ Bag of Donuts (Adam and Chris).

As most of you know, all three of us lived in Minnesota when we started this blog, which of course meant dealing with Vikings fans. We’ve made no secret on this site about how we feel about them — how laughable and obnoxious we find it they try to equate their legacy with ours one minute, only to grumble about how we care too much and we’re living in the past the next minute. They seem to love to point out Minneapolis’ vibrant arts scene as some kind of evidence of their sophistication, forgetting that outside of the Twin Cities, most of Minnesota is exactly like most of Wisconsin. And guys, if you can show us your last ticket stub from the Guthrie Theater or the Walker Arts Center, we’ll back off.

Most of those arguments were baseless in the first place, and now, they ring completely hollow. “Stop living in the past” is useless, because the Packers are the present champions of the world. Shots at Packers fans for caring too much just come off as phony, because the classier half of the Vikings fanbase will readily admit how much they long for what we have. The Metrodome collapsed, Brad Childress tossed a third-round pick to the Patriots on his way out of town, the Randy Moss trade was a joke, the StarCaps case may finally bring down the Williams Wall, Adrian Peterson is a free agent after next season and Brett Favre is gone. Oh, and the team might move to Los Angeles. Other than the Vikings’ infancy in the early 1960s, there may be no point in the history of these two franchises where the disparity has been as great as it is right now.

And because so many Packers fans live in Minnesota, either dating to before the Vikings arrived or owing something to the massive influx of Wisconsinites who cross the border for college, there are plenty of opportunities for trash-talk between the two fanbases. The Minneapolis Star Tribune published a story today called “Title etiquette: Packer backers need to behave.” It was written with tongue firmly in cheek, and it was good entertainment. And in the spirit of good entertainment, we’d like to respond with a few points of our own. Consider this the OBOD Super Bowl Celebration Manifesto:

–The article states that Packers fans in Minnesota are only allowed to discuss the Super Bowl if it’s brought up to them first. While we agree it’s not good to excessively rub Vikings fans’ noses in it, we can’t help but think this is all some sort of cosmic course correction for 2009, when Vikings fans, who had spent 16 years spewing bile at Brett Favre, were only too happy to remind us that they had our beloved hero. They told us at every turn how jealous we must be, even when we’d assert we were perfectly happy with our young quarterback and we’d caution them about how the playoffs would inevitably turn out. And we’re sorry, but to talk endless smack at one point and cry foul when it turns on you is just, well, so Vikings. We’ll behave (mostly), but after the Favre soap opera, know that you’ve earned yourselves a few jabs.

–We’ve been asked to refrain from mentioning the 13-championship disparity between these two franchises. Again, we at OBOD will use some discretion, but haven’t Vikings fans earned a little of that with all of their “Stop living in the past!” rhetoric? Championships, after all, are what you play for, and the Packers have more of them than any other team. And it’s easy not to remember the past when yours is so forgettable (no Super Bowls since 1976, and four losses in four tries).

–Under no circumstances will we cease to mention the massive disparity in quarterbacking between these two franchises, especially after the Vikings begged, pandered (and possibly tampered) to get Favre, and tried telling us how much we still loved him over the last two years. One team had a quarterbacking plan while the other gambled and lost. That fact is pertinent, it’s timely and even in intelligent football discussions, it’s central to the difference between these two teams. Though Favre himself does not need to be the topic of discussion, the effects of backing Favre, or not backing him, will reverberate far into the future for these two teams.

–Finally, please, please, please stop with the tired old lines like, “All cheeseheads sniff paint thinner!” and “Packers fans are just drunk all the time!” We’ve all lived in Minnesota. We’ve gone to college there. It doesn’t look much different than Wisconsin. Secondly, if Super Bowl XLV proved anything, it’s that the Packers are truly a national franchise with support too broad to confine to Wisconsin. And finally, to those who would trumpet Minnesota’s sophistication edge, we have two words for you: St. Cloud.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s how we at OBOD plan to celebrate:

–We will joyfully wear our Packers championship gear throughout the offseason, even into the summer, but we will not utter the words “Vikings” unless we are asked about football first. If we are provoked, we are equipped with all manner of weapons of mass debunking to set the record straight. But we will keep our celebration on the right side of the “We’re the champs”/”We’re the champs and you suck” border.

–We will revel in the irony of Aaron Rodgers’ ascension and Ted Thompson’s vindication in the wake of Brett Favre’s departure, but we will keep most of the Favre rhetoric confined to what he said when he was forcing his way out of Green Bay, not when he played with the Vikings. There will be more attention on Favre’s relationship with the Packers going forward than his relationship with the Vikings anyway, and frankly, we don’t care enough about him to bother. He’s got his own problems these days, anyway.

–We will concentrate more energy on our newly renewed rivalry with the Chicago Bears, which frankly should have more spice than the Packers/Vikings feud anyway. We greatly enjoy the respectful, historical tenor of the Packers-Bears rivalry, and the run-up to the NFC Championship Game put that in a new light. The one problem between the Packers and Bears is that both teams are so rarely good at the same time, and there’s a chance that both will remain competitive for a few years to come (though we have our doubts about Jay Cutler). Still, we are hopeful that the playoffs put Packers-Bears back in its rightful place as the pre-eminent NFC North rivalry, ahead of the big-brother/little-brother dynamic that has always marked Packers-Vikings.

–Lastly, we will root for the Vikings to get a new stadium and remain in Minneapolis. Though we are frequently annoyed with Vikings fans, we recognize the strength of the NFC North lies in the fact it has four teams who have all been in the league for more than 50 years, and butting heads just as long. The NFC East is the only other division in football that has such a rich tradition of rivalries, and if the Vikings were to leave, something would be lost. We’ve always said we don’t hate the Vikings as much as we love to hate them, which means in the end, it’s all in good fun.

We feel these are reasonable terms under which to celebrate the Packers’ most recent Lombardi Trophy, and we plan to adhere to them throughout the offseason.

Finally, a note going forward: All we’ve ever wanted from Vikings fans is that they know their place. They’ve had plenty of successful seasons in the last 50 years, dominating the division through the 1970s and remaining competitive throughout the 1980s and 1990s. They haven’t anywhere near the dry spell between winning seasons that the Packers had between Lombardi and Holmgren, though their playoff failures speak for themselves. We’re not suggesting the Vikings are the Detroit Lions, but we’re also not going to suffer the logic they’re the Packers, Bears, Steelers, Cowboys or even the Giants. Championships do matter, and when there’s no football being played (which could be the case for a while), they’re what keep the banter lively between fanbases. The Vikings, historically, have been a good franchise that has struggled to achieve greatness, often falling short in memorable fashion. The Packers have some goofy traditions, but they’re also the most decorated team in the history of the league. Respect the economy of scale.

We hope these terms are agreeable to all, and we’ll be rooting for the Vikings to get a new home this winter. And, we hope, we’ll be butting heads with the Vikings as we chase title No. 14 next fall.

–The Ol’ Bag of Donuts staff

Titletown again

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 06:28:40 +0000

We’ll have much more on this tomorrow — the Packers’ 13th world championship hasn’t sunk in yet for me, as it probably hasn’t for most of you — but in the meantime, here are some quick thoughts on the 31-25 Super Bowl win over the Steelers:

–AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! THE PACKERS ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!

–With that out of the way, think for a second about everything this team overcame: 15 players on IR, two must-win games against playoff hopefuls to get in the playoffs, three road playoff games against the three highest seeds in the NFC and a Super Bowl matchup with a team that had won two in the last six years. In the end, isn’t it almost fitting that they had to win it without Woodson and Driver? In the end, there’s almost nothing else that could have been thrown at this team. They dealt with it all, and they conquered. Couldn’t be prouder to be a fan of this team.

–It’s probably because of recency bias, but at the moment, this is sweeter than ‘96. This team was expected to win it all, until it was ravaged with injuries. To overcome everything they did, and to win it in Jerry World — against the Steelers, with Favre watching at home — well, it just doesn’t get much better.

–Aaron Rodgers: What can you say? To win a Super Bowl MVP, with a three-touchdown, interception-free day, and to put together two drives with the game hanging in the balance…quite simply, it’s something Brett Favre never was asked to do in 1996, and couldn’t do in the Super Bowl in 1997. He’s the same age as Favre was when he won his championship, and unlike Favre, Rodgers isn’t playing with an aging defense. Holy cow.

–I don’t think too many of us would have faulted Ted Thompson if he’d taken the Lombardi Trophy, grabbed the microphone from Terry Bradshaw and yelled, ‘Does anybody have any questions about that Favre trade now?’ But he didn’t do it, and I don’t think he ever will. Thompson will get plenty of accolades for building this team, and he deserves all of them. This team was built in his image, and after weathering every test it could have possibly faced, it proved Thompson as one of the game’s best GMs.

–Lastly: You cheer for a team that dealt with more injuries than any squad in the league, and never complained about them. You cheer for a team that spotted its archrival a Hall of Fame QB, and still won a Super Bowl before said rival. You cheer for a team that’s poised to be the dominant team in the NFC for a long time, and you cheer for a team that proved, once again, there’s value in conducting business with class and professionalism.

And you cheer for a team that has a NFL-record 13 world championships.

Enjoy it, Packers Nation. We did it, and it couldn’t be any sweeter.

–Gene Bosling

Staking out the enemy: Q&A Super Bowl edition

admin — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:28:38 +0000

So if you have listened to our podcasts, (which you should) you know we have a Steelers friend – Dave from South Bend. Well, Dave is actually born and bred in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Why is he a Steelers fan we still don’t know, even after prodding him during our podcast. Anyways, Dave is also a pretty well-informed fan and quite frankly I didn’t want to talk to anymore black and gold dimwits explaining how they have the greatest franchise this week than I had to. Remember 12>6!

So Steelers Superfan #1, David McCoy is joined us this week for our weekly Q&A – Super Bowl edition. (Man, that does have a nice ring to it!)

1) Is the Pouncey injury the last straw for the Steelers’ offensive line? Do you believe they have enough to handle the front of Jenkins/Raji/Pickett, coupled with whatever exotic blitz schemes Capers draws up?

The Steelers’ offensive line has been making my stomach turn for years. Last season, remember, it gave up the second-most sacks in the league (50), only Green Bay had more (51). This year, only seven teams allowed more sacks, and only one of those seven made the playoffs (Chicago, with the most). Over the past few seasons, the O-line play has been one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) liabilities on the team. And the Pouncey injury definitely hurts, especially against a Green Bay front that will really bring the heat. I’ll be honest – it makes me really nervous. But I take comfort in a couple of things. One, despite the unit’s pass-protect struggles, they’ve been a very good in the running game – top 1/3 in the league. And if they can effectively run the ball (like they usually do), there aren’t as many pass blocking situations where things can go wrong. And Two, Ben Roethlisberger. If it were any other quarterback in that pocket, pass protection would be a much bigger issue. But he is a big, tough guy to bring down… and quite often, he’s at his BEST after the pocket breaks down. If Jay Cutler or Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers was this line’s QB, it would be a bigger problem. But Roethlisberger makes a huge difference. Doug Legursky has some big shoes to fill. But by all accounts, aside from the fumbled snap that allowed a safety, he played pretty well against the Jets. He’s no Pro Bowler Pouncey, but he’ll be alright.

2) Outside of Ben Roethlisberger, who is the most important offensive player for the Steelers on Sunday and why?

No question, it’s Rashard Mendenhall. I do not want to get into a game where it’s Roethlisberger v. GB’s secondary, up against Rodgers v. Pitt’s secondary. The Packers win that game. Green Bay’s secondary is deeper, and a little better. So Pittsburgh HAS to be able to run the ball. An effective running game will do two things – allow Green Bay’s front seven fewer opportunities to make a big play against suspect pass-blockers, and minimize the amount of times Roethlisberger has to throw into that secondary. All that aside… when Rashard is on, he can take over a game himself. So that would be big too.

3) Put yourself in Dick LeBeau’s shoes for a minute. What kind of game plan would you roll out against Aaron Rodgers?

I bring pressure. I make Bryan Bulaga earn his paycheck. I bring Polamalu up for a play… in coverage for two… up for one, back for two….. over and over. Woodley and Harrison are coming on nearly every play. I do not allow Rodgers time, and I put him on his back as many times as possible. That’s easier said than done… but One, I like my chances against Green Bay’s O-line, and Two, I don’t like my chances if Rodgers has time to make reads. And this is not a defense designed to drop into coverage, anyway. This is a defense designed to blitz, with players who can make big plays.

4) Some analysts say the Packers have more talent, but the Steelers have more experience. Some also say they would take talent over experience any day. When the ball is kicked off, how much do you think that experience will matter?

I don’t put a whole lot of stock in the whole experience thing. I think it absolutely helps to a certain degree, but not nearly enough to decide the game. Impact on the game, yes… Big impact, no. And I’m not so sure the Packers have more talent, either. I think, position by position, the talent is pretty equal, aside from an advantage at RB for Pitt, and a (slight) advantage for Green Bay at DB. All things being equal, I think you throw those kind of things out the window. These are two very evenly matched teams, and one or two plays are going to decide this one. It might be a fumble on special teams, an interception by a No. 5 cornerback in a nickel package, or a touchdown by a third-down running back. And in that case, experience and talent don’t apply.

5) Where do you see the biggest advantage and disadvantage between these two teams and who is more likely to exploit them?

Here’s what I think: (Just my opinion)
QB – Slight advantage Pit
RB – Advantage Pit
TE – Advantage Pit
O-line – Advantage GB
WR – Slight advantage GB
D-line – Push
LB – Push
DB – Slight Advantage GB
ST – Advantage GB

To answer your question, there’s no blaring mismatch that stands out. That’s one thing that makes this game so intriguing and so tough to call. But the biggest difference I see is that the Steelers run the ball better than Green Bay, and the Steelers stop the run better than Green Bay. Both of these teams can throw it, both of these teams can defend/attack the throw. But there’s not the disparity between the two that there is in the running game. As I think I said on the podcast, I see this game being won or lost on the matchup between the Steelers run game vs. the Green Bay D-line. The team that wins that matchup wins the game.

Final Prediction:

I think we’re in store for one hell of a game. One where you don’t want to turn away for a single play. It’s probably a good thing that the Black Eyed Peas are playing the halftime show, because that’s the only chance I’ll get to pee. And at least I won’t be missing anything.
Steelers 24, Packers 23

_____

Thanks to David McCoy from South Bend joining us this week. I really don’t have anything nice to say to him, so as always feel free to rip his takes below.

-Adam Somers

Rodgers needs to be like Roethlisberger Sunday

admin — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:54:47 +0000

It seems like everyone is breaking down X’s and O’s (or the weather forecast for an INDOOR game) this week. And rightfully so since this is the biggest sporting event of the year. Who will block Raji? Can Clifton and Bulaga slow down Harrison? Who will win in the battle of the defensive minds?

All fair and important questions, but as it should Sunday’s game will come down to two players: Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers.

Both players are similar, but also have their differences. Roethlisberger has more size, but Rodgers has more speed. Roethlisberger is tougher to bring down, but Rodgers throws a prettier pass. Roethlisberger has excelled in key moments and Rodgers, well we just don’t know yet.

That is the biggest difference when looking at these two quarterbacks. I can already hear the jackyls coming out to roast me right now for calling out Rodgers during Super Bowl week. Just put away your pitchforks and tridents right now because I am not calling out Rodgers. We just don’t know yet, as this is the last part of his game he needs to show.

There is no debate that Roethlisberger has had more opportunities to prove himself in clutch situations than Rodgers. The key thing is that while he has had more opportunities, he hasn’t squandered many them. Everyone knows all the times it took Peyton Manning to finally break through and win in the clutch.

Besides his two Super Bowls, Roethlisberger is a pretty remarkable 10-2 in the playoffs. How he has won some of those games tell the story though. In his first career playoff game in 2004, he led Pittsburgh to a late comeback win in OT over the Jets, throwing a key 4th quarter touchdown. In 2007, he brought back the Steelers from an 18-point deficit in the 4th quarter against the Jaguars by throwing two touchdowns passes, only to lose by a late FG. And we all know his heroics at the end of Super Bowl XLIII against Arizona.

Looking at this year, Roethlisberger went back to his bag of tricks against the Ravens. Trailing 21-7 at halftime, he countered with two third-quarter touchdowns and a couple key throws late in the fourth quarter on the game-winning drive. Then against the Jets, he made his best throw of the game to Antonio Brown to give Pittsburgh the go-ahead first down to clinch the game while holding a New York comeback.

Now the knock against Roethlisberger against the Jets, as well as other games I’m sure, is that he let the opposition back in the game after building an early lead. Some has to do with the defense, but it is also up to the offense to put a team away.

The same criticism can also be directed towards Rodgers. Last year he led Green Bay back after being down early and went shot for shot with Warner. This time around he has had the luxury of playing with a lead for almost the entire playoffs. However, both the Eagles and the Bears found ways to get back into the game after the offense went stagnant late.

Defense played a part in those games and some of it had to do with playcalling. But this is Rodgers’ team and even with a lead he still needs to make clutch throws to ice the game. This is not saying he hasn’t been clutch or questioning the team’s ability to win close games because they have proven more than enough in the past six weeks. However, while not on the level as likes of Starr, Montana or Brady, the man standing on the opposite sideline Sunday has proven he can make those throws in the most important of games.

Sunday will be the ultimate proving ground, the best opportunity Rodgers will ever have. He is so close to greatness, he just may have steal a little ice from Roethlisberger to cement it.

-Adam Somers

Are the 2010 Packers the best six-loss team ever?

admin — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:32:58 +0000

That’s the question posed by a Wall Street Journal story today.

All of us who have watched the Packers this year know how close this team was to being, say, 13-3 or 14-2. They got themselves flagged out of the first Chicago game. They lost to the Redskins after Mason Crosby’s field goal went off the uprights, and lost to the Dolphins in part because of a bizarre penalty on Robert Francois. They could have beat the Falcons if not for Erik Wilhelm’s penalty or Aaron Rodgers’ fumble, and Greg Jennings’ dropped touchdown turned into a back-breaking interception against the Lions. And, of course, there were a number of plays that could have helped them beat the Patriots, not the least of which was the interception Charles Woodson dropped.

Drops, doinks and dumb mistakes alone cost the Packers just about every game they lost this season. Plenty of other things could have happened, of course, but if a half-dozen plays had gone differently, this team could have been the No. 1 seed without a problem. In fact, it’s not impossible they could have been undefeated.

Their point differential is the second-best in football, and since the Giants game, they’ve been winning with few mistakes — or in a few cases, winning in spite of those mistakes. It’s hard to say if this is the best six-loss team in history, but at the very least, it should be clear the Packers are much better than their 10-6 record should indicate.

Now just imagine if they hadn’t lost a dozen players to injury.

–Gene Bosling

The 2010 Packers: What a ride

admin — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:23:46 +0000

Think back, for a moment, to where the Packers were a year ago today.

They had given up 51 points to the Arizona Cardinals two weeks earlier, absorbing yet another numbing playoff loss, and were swimming in questions about how they’d possibly be able to put together a good enough defense to get them deep into the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings were mere hours away from playing in the NFC Championship Game, 60 minutes from riding Brett Favre, the Packers’ former quarterback, into the Super Bowl for the first time in 33 years.

Now, imagine on that night, you get a Dickensian visitor, a ghost of playoffs future, who tells you the following things:

–The Vikings will not go to the Super Bowl, in large part because of a back-breaking interception from Favre in the game’s final seconds.

–The Packers will enter the season with lofty (and well-publicized) Super Bowl aspirations. They will sign no one of note, and they will be affected in 2010, in quantity and quality, by more injuries than any team in the NFL.

–In spite of all those injuries, and in spite of an 8-6 record heading into two must-win games to close the season, they will claim the NFC’s final playoff spot, beat a team (the Philadelphia Eagles) and a quarterback (Michael Vick) that has terrorized them for years and topple the NFC’s No. 1 seed on the road.

–And finally, they will meet the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship Game, knocking Jay Cutler out of the game and hanging on for their first Super Bowl berth in 13 years, almost solely on the strength of the defense that had been so porous a year earlier.

How many lines from that ghost would you have believed? Any of them?

What a ride this has been.

To use the phrase “roller coaster” to describe what’s happened to the Packers in the last 12 months is an insult to what they’ve overcome. If this was a roller coaster, it would have featured such violent turns and sharp swings that safety concerns and lawsuits would have followed mere weeks after its opening. Many fans (including me) were ready to bury them after a 7-3 loss to the Detroit Lions. Some of us (including me) were questioning coach Mike McCarthy’s future with the team after a last-minute meltdown against the New England Patriots. And a few of us (Chris and me) were questioning whether to go to the Dec. 26 game against the Giants, knowing there wasn’t much shot of a deep playoff run this year.

And now, here we are, celebrating the team’s fifth Super Bowl berth. I can’t believe any of it.

I’ve watched the Packers go to two Super Bowls in my lifetime. The first Packers team that did it (the 1996 squad) was such a dominant force, so certain of its place in line after a loss in the NFC Championship Game the year before, that a march to a world championship felt inevitable. Go back and look at the scores of those games. It’s easy to forget just what a juggernaut that team was. Those of us in our younger years may never see a Packers team that good again.

The next Packers team to go to the Super Bowl, the 1997 squad, survived against bad teams for the first two months of the season before going on a businesslike, if not predestined, run to Super Bowl XXXII. That team was on top, and trying to stay there. The whole thing felt joyless, and the loss to the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl certainly finished the year that way.

What a lightning bolt, then, this team has been. These Packers entered the season with as large of a collection of impact players as any team in the NFL. But they were young, and thin in spots, very much a product of their time in a parity-ridden NFL. And the names went down, one after another — Ryan Grant, Nick Barnett, Morgan Burnett, Jermichael Finley, Brandon Chillar, Mike Neal, Mark Tauscher — as the Packers’ resolve and depth were stretched further and further.

There was no preordained march to the Super Bowl this year. No, this was an inconsistent, frustrating, maddening season that somehow led to the most exhilarating playoff run any of us have ever seen.

We have never watched a Packers team like this one.

So what’s to be made of it? Well, credit must be given, first of all, where it’s due. And after I spent the final weeks of the season saying McCarthy needed to coach over his head, to prove he could take a team deeper into the playoffs than his talent suggested he should, he’s outdone himself and taken his sixth-seeded Packers all the way to the Super Bowl, where many thought they’d end up in August, but not in November. So, to Mike Mac: Well done. My hat is off to you. And whatever nits I might pick (playcalling chief among them), I’m done doubting you.

Next on the list is Ted Thompson, whose batting average this season is as close to 1.000 as any general manager I’ve seen. People were ready to vilify Thompson for trading Favre and refusing to accede to his demands. But Thompson bugged me long before that — namely, since 2007, when he’d drafted Justin Harrell, then come short of delivering Favre the weapons he needed to win in the last years of his career. He was playing for the future, I thought, when he had everything in front of him in the present. But in reality, he was about two or three years in front of everyone else. Could the Packers have gone to the Super Bowl after 2007? Yes. Should they have? Yes. But time proved what Thompson probably already knew: The Packers weren’t going to win a title with Favre. So Thompson went ahead, building the team he thought he needed to win, and took the ‘07 run as a bonus. He bugged us because he didn’t do what made sense for the Packers in the short-term, and he didn’t shed much light on his plans for the team. But you don’t want a GM who feeds the rumor mill. You want a steady hand who’s going to build a championship team. And Thompson has done it. As McCarthy said a few minutes ago in his press conference, Thompson is why the future looks so great for the Packers.

And lastly — though I’m cutting this short for brevity’s sake and because there’s plenty of time to analyze the rest of the season before Feb. 6 — we come to Aaron Rodgers. The Packers cast their lot with Rodgers in 2008, effectively splitting the fanbase in one of the most controversial decisions in team history. And under a blinding media spotlight that has often treated Rodgers harshly simply because of who he replaced, he has made few missteps. He is more athletic than Favre, makes far fewer suspect decisions (Brian Urlacher’s interception yesterday notwithstanding), and throws a cleaner deep ball. He’s replaced a Hall of Fame quarterback and gotten his team back to the Super Bowl quicker than any Hall of Fame successor in history, even sooner than Steve Young did it in San Francisco. He’s one game from putting himself on the short list of the best QBs in the game, if he’s not there already, and from permanently separating his legacy from Favre’s.

These three were always going to fly or fail together. They cast their fortunes together in 2008, and weathered heaps of scrutiny in 2009. And now they end the 2010 season in the Super Bowl.

What a ride it’s been. We’ve never seen anything like it. And we might not again.

So, in conclusion, Packers Nation, I’m going to make a proposition: Don’t rush past this moment. Resist the Twitter-fueled temptation to start breaking down the Super Bowl matchup. Hold off on worrying about how the Packers will stop James Harrison and Troy Polamalu, or what they’ll do to slow down Ben Roethlisberger.

Take a few days to enjoy this, to look back on how far this team has come. Because it’s damn remarkable.

In fact, it’s one of the great moments we’ll experience as Packers fans. Ever.

–Gene Bosling

Lady Lambeau’s thoughts on Sunday

admin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:23:38 +0000

Packers.

Bears.

NFC Championship.

We made it!

Before regular season even started, I thought we’d be here. I was at the first training camp practice when I saw Finley in person for the first time. My jaw dropped. Dude’s huge! I looked at my husband with wide eyes and said “Did you see that guy? He’s a beast!”. I noticed Shields’ speed, I watched Bishop blow up Quarless, I saw the quiet confidence in Rodgers, I giggled like a schoolgirl when I saw Driver. I love that guy. I left that practice certain we were going to have a season full of spectacular wins.

And then, regular season started. This wasn’t the team I saw in training camp. What happened? And THEN, the injuries. I watched, we all watched, as starter after starter got hurt. What was to come of our team, our season?

Almost as quickly as the players were going down new players were stepping up. Hope was renewed. We still have a team! Maybe we still have a shot! Can we do it?? Can we make it to the Su…Sup…nope, can’t say it either.

No doubt for most of us this Sunday will be all about football. No laundry, no running errands, no walking the dog. Just football. Packer football. Sure, it’s not the same team I saw in training camp, but does it matter? They’re still doing their job and doing it well. As we watch the Pack go up against Da Bears, no matter the outcome, we can keep our heads held high. We have a damn good team.

-Lady Lambeau

The Green Bay Packers will defeat the Chicago Bears if…

admin — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:29:33 +0000

No catchy, clever intro here.

Let’s get down to business.

Here are three things the Green Bay Packers must, must, must do if they are to advance to the Su…wait…I don’t even want to say that phrase yet…defeat the Chicago Bears in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game (still get chills writing that).

Win the special teams battle. Or, at the very least, draw to a push.

If you’re like me, you believe the rest of this paragraph to be truth. The Packers are an eight offensively; the Bears are about a six. The Packers are an eight defensively; the Bears are a nine. That tilts the scales Green Bay’s way – until you factor in the special teams, where the Packers sit at five (and a generous five at that) and the Bears at nine.

In other words, if Chicago is to win the game, that will be where it does so. The Bears are absolutely lethal in all things special teams. They cover returns well, their specialists are elite (particularly at home) and then there’s that Hester guy, perhaps the best returner the game has ever seen.

Go ahead and talk about the Packers’ record-setting penalty numbers from the first Soldier Field game all you want. The real reason they lost is simple: Twice – twice! – Green Bay decided to kick the ball to Hester. He set up a score the first time; he plain ol’ scored the second time. Yep, that was about it.

That can not – repeat: CAN NOT – happen Sunday. The Packers figured it out the second time around, thanks to some great directional punting from America’s favorite ginger, Tim Masthay. They need to do it again. Hester’s big returns are as crucial mentally as they are in terms of field position. He breaks those returns and the entire team, the entire stadium, gets rocking.

And, oh yeah, if Green Bay could break a big return or two, that’d sure help things a lot against that defense. But, really, the Packers don’t necessarily have to excel on special teams Sunday. It’s more important to neutralize the Bears in that area. I’ll take a tie in that department, because a win would come out of that.

Get an early lead

This is absolutely essential, for a couple different reasons.

The first is a mental one. The Bears thrive on their tough-guy mindset. They want to knock you down early and then loom over you for four quarters, making you fearful to get up and attack them back. A bully mindset? Perhaps, but it’s served them more than well throughout the season. And we all know the best way to beat a bully is to deliver that first punch.

The second is tactical. Chicago, as always under Lovie Smith, will aim to shorten the game as much as possible. Get an early lead and grind it out with its defense and running back Matt Forte. If Forte can get into the 20-plus carry range, the Packers could very well be in trouble. A physical, tough runner with above-average speed, Forte could present some major problems for a defense that is still suspect against the rush.

No, the Packers don’t want that. What they want is to turn the game into Jay Cutler vs. Aaron Rodgers.

We all like to take our shots at Cutler – he really makes it too easy most of the time – but the fact of the matter is he’s been very good as of late. Eight touchdowns and just four picks in his last four games, including a very nice showing against Seattle last weekend. Still, no one knows how he’ll fare in a playoff game against a defense that isn’t from the Pacific Northwest.

Well, let’s find out. Make sure you’re ahead 10-3 or 7-0 in the second quarter. Make him feel like he has to beat you. Frankly, I don’t think he’s got enough bullets to do it, not with his tendency to give the opponent some shots at turnovers.

(By the way, Jay, we all talked it over and it’s totally cool if you want to throw at No. 38 a bunch. Really, he’s not that good. You should go for it!)

For the love of all things holy, make sure Bryan Bulaga has some help on the right side

Julius Peppers will be lining up opposite Bulaga on Sunday. You know it. I know it. Dead people know it.

And why wouldn’t he? He’s destroyed Bulaga countless times in their two matchups this season, including getting Bulaga to jump offsides three times in the second game. He’ll aim to do so again in this one. And it might only take one Bulaga error for Peppers to break through for a game-changing play.

Mike McCarthy can not allow for this. Look, we all know Mike Mac doesn’t like to give his linemen too much help. Keeping extra guys in to block takes away from what he wants to do in the passing game. I get that. But he needs to re-think that approach here. Peppers must be neutralized at every turn. Bulaga may be able to do so on his own in time, but he’s not ready for that challenge just yet. He needs help. Give it to him.

Make sure Tom Crabtree is over there. Get Brandon Jackson or Donald Lee that way. Heck, put B.J. Raji over there if need be. But do not expect Bulaga to hold his own, one-on-one, for 60 minutes with that beast.

There are likely some things I’ve left out (feel free to toss in your thoughts in the comments section below). But, really, I believe if the Packers can successfully nail these three things, they will win Sunday and advance to the Su…the Sup…

Nope. Still can’t say it. Yet.

-Chris Lempesis

Division playoff round at Atlanta: Rodgers moves closer to exorcising Favre’s ghost

admin — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:57:28 +0000

First, let’s get this out of the way: Brett Favre never did anything in a playoff game along the lines of what Aaron Rodgers did last night. Not even close.

From a passer rating standpoint, Favre’s best playoff game in a Packers uniform was the team’s divisional playoff win over Seattle in 2007, when he posted a 137.6 rating. That’s a hair better than Rodgers’ 136.8 rating in the Packers’ 48-21 win over the Falcons, but Favre was 18-for-23 for 173 yards in that game. Frankly, he didn’t have to do much; Ryan Grant ran for 201 yards. Contrast that with Rodgers’ masterpiece last night: 31-for-36, 366 yards, three touchdowns and a rushing score, all with a virtually non-existent running game. The two aren’t in the same league.

But the most important takeaway from last night is this: With the win, the Packers are one step away from the Super Bowl, and two away from winning it. And Rodgers, in just his third year as a starter, is 120 minutes of football from completely separating his legacy from Favre’s.

As much as Packers fans have thrown their support behind Favre’s successor, the separation was never going to be fully complete until Rodgers enjoyed playoff success. And heading into this postseason tournament, the perception of Rodgers — fueled largely by a flippant national media — was that he had been a failure, as though throwing for 423 yards and losing his only playoff game because of a defense that gave up 45 points constituted failure.

The performance Rodgers turned in last night, though, was nothing short of a masterpiece, a singularly virtuosic display of brilliance that ranks among the best performances by a quarterback in NFL postseason history. With the weight of the Packers’ offense almost solely on his shoulders, Rodgers was flawless in a way Favre had almost never been. He didn’t force passes. He extended plays with his feet in an even more lethal way that Favre could do in his prime. He converted third downs, and he looked in complete control of the offense, calling a handful of shrewd audibles at the line of scrimmage.

It was, as much as anything he’s done in his three years as Favre’s successor, a statement he is capable of writing his own story in Green Bay. That story will always begin with Favre, but how it ends is an entirely different story.

Let’s dream for a second: Assume the Packers beat the Bears next week, and go on to win the Super Bowl. That would mean Rodgers would have a Super Bowl title at the same age as Favre, with three less years of experience as a starter. He already has more seasons with a 100+ passer rating than Favre had in his entire career, and he’d be coming back with a loaded roster refreshed with the return of multiple impact players.

Think about that for a second. There’s never been a succession quite like this in NFL history. The closest thing is Steve Young and Joe Montana in San Francisco, and Young had already proven he could play when Montana first got injured and then was dispatched to Kansas City. And that says nothing about the Favre-return sideshow that could have shaken Rodgers from Day One.

All this for a quarterback who was, as recently as last Sunday, still dealing with a purported monkey on his back. Rodgers still isn’t winning — or even being seriously considered — for MVP awards, and he missed the Pro Bowl this year despite leading the NFC in passer rating. Those things will come in time, though, especially if Rodgers can take the final two steps away from Favre in the next three weeks.

Now, all this is premature, of course; the Packers will get all they can handle next week from the Bears, a team Rodgers has never quite solved. And if they win, they’ll face a buzz-saw defense in the Jets or Steelers in the Super Bowl.

But even if the Packers don’t win next week, Rodgers has at least shown he has the mettle to lift his game to a championship level when it matters most. For my money, he’s without doubt the best quarterback still playing. And if he can keep it up for two more weeks, he will have completed the most shocking exorcism of the ghost of a legend in NFL history.

–Gene Bosling