The Wisconsin Sports Rant

Don’t lie. You felt a bit queasy. That little Packer voice in your head was saying “Oh no, not again”. Visions of the losses to Atlanta and Minnesota in the 2002 and 2004 playoffs, respectively, flashed in your head. Perhaps you were even feeling the bitter wind of the debacle in Chicago just a few weeks ago. 14-0. Less than 5 minutes into Saturday’s NFC Divisional playoff against the Seattle Seahawks, the thought of where the NFC Championship game would be played was pretty far out of my mind. In fact, that game wasn’t even on the radar. Instead, that Wisconsin sports pessimism starting infiltrating my head. Would we blow yet another playoff opportunity? The only thing keeping me calm (other than my kids playing on the floor), was the fact that there was so much time left in the game, and neither our offense nor defense had really had a chance to show anything yet (other than that Ryan Grant could, in fact, fumble). Instead of the game turning into a gut wrenching disaster, the Packers basically said “Because you were so good to us in the 90’s, Coach Holmgren, here’s 14 points. Now just try to stop us.”. From that point forward, the game was a 42-6 laugher. If you read this blog, you saw this game, so I don’t need to do a recap. Suffice it to say, this was one of the top 5 Packer games I have ever seen. A snowy downpour. An absolute barrage of offense. A shut down performance on defense. A key, vintage Favre improvisational play. And of course, a huge win. These are the ingredients of an amazing game in Lambeau Field.

Then of course, there was the shock after Sunday’s Cowboys-Giants game, that the NFC Championship would, in fact, be played on this very same field that just hosted said amazing game. There is a part of me (and probably many other Packer fans) that wanted to have a shot at the Cowboys on the way to the Super Bowl. Then there is the bigger part of me that wants to see the Packers hoist the NFC Championship trophy on their home turf. It is interesting to note that in 1996, when the Packers finally captured their first Lombardi Trophy in 29 years, they didn’t get a second shot at their nemesis either, as the Carolina Panthers took them out in the Divisional round. But do we really care now? Of course not. The Packers won the Super Bowl, and it doesn’t matter who they had to beat to accomplish that. The same can be said this year. The Giants are no cakewalk. They are playing some great football right now. However, I would argue that the Packers are playing better football right now. No football team will win a lot of games spotting the opponent 14 points at the outset, so the Packers need to make sure they get off to a better start against the Giants. Still, after watching the performance of this team, it makes you believe they have enough skill and acumen to overcome just about anything. Come Sunday, we will see if that includes the New York Giants.

I will be the first to admit it. It seems I have erred in my previous chastising of Ted Thompson as the Green Bay Packers General Manager. I called him out on letting our top guards, Rivera and Wahle, go a couple of years back. I was frustrated with the draft picks focusing on what seemed to be the wrong areas for improvement. I was especially disappointed about losing Moss to the Patriots (this still may come back to haunt us, but we have a pretty good set of receivers). A 13-3 record shows the proof is in the pudding. There aren’t too many people criticizing these moves now. The one wild card that Thompson got lucky with is that he didn’t chase Favre away with all the moves he made. If Favre had retired thinking that the team was rebuilding (which he was probably close to doing a couple of years ago), I might be writing a different post right now. But Favre stayed, the young talent is developing, and the Packers are poised to make a real Super Bowl run. So for that, Ted Thompson, I commend you for making us doubters happily look stupid.

My thoughts for this post came out of this excellent article on ESPN.com today. Take a read if you haven’t all ready.

Honestly, the 2008 Outback Bowl was a highly entertaining game. It was fairly evenly matched, and could have gone either way. However, this being The Rant and all, I have to point out the negatives. As I saw it there were two major reasons the Badgers lost the game. First, the inability for the defense to stop Tennessee on 3rd and 4th downs. They looked excellent on 1st and 2nd downs for the entire second half. They just could not close the deal on 3rd and 4th. The other reason they lost, and I never thought I would say this about this team after last season, was the coaching. Here are the most egregious mistakes I saw:

• It is inexcusable to burn two timeouts early in the second half because your guys can’t line up properly.
• The play calls on the set of downs after P.J. Hill’s long run late in the 4th quarter were perhaps some of the worst I have ever seen, and that is saying something. A run wide to the left? Going for it on 4th and 2 when all you need is to kick the field goal with plenty of time left to get the ball back and only need another field goal instead of a touchdown? And when you do make the poor decision to go for it there, could you come up with a better play?
• The defense seemed out of position constantly on Tennessee’s touchdown drives, particularly the secondary. While I acknowledge the injuries to the starters at some of those positions, your backups should be prepared. They did not seem to be in the first half.

All in all, the Badgers were still in a position at the end of the game to have a decent shot at winning. If Donovan makes a better throw, the final pass of his collegiate career may have been a game-winning touchdown instead of a game-losing interception.