It’s an opportunity to show you and everyone else. Everyone is clamoring on about the absence of Aaron Rodgers and, of course, the Green Bay Packers aren’t as good without their star quarterback. Coach Mike McCarthy is framing the situation — both to the team and to the media — as an opportunity.
You know, step the fuck up and prove everyone we can win no matter who is on the field because we’re the Green Bay Fucking Packers!
“No disrespect to Aaron,” McCarthy said after the Packers completed their final practice before Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles. “But you get to the point where it’s about your football team. We’re trying to accomplish something special as a team. Special is about winning on Sunday, because that’s all that really matters. And that’s what it’s all about.
“For us as a football team, this is a great opportunity to show you how good we can be. Everybody knows how great a player he is. At the end of the day … this is a great opportunity for everybody on our football team to be successful.”
Ah, yes. Team football. Overcoming adversity. All of that.
Are we buying it? Have to. Have no choice.
The real question is whether the team is buying it. Right now, they have no reason not to, but let’s say things go bad early against Philadelphia and the Packers fall into a hole.
That feeling might fade real quick and change to one of, “we’re dead without Aaron.”
If you want some hope that this isn’t all bullshit, here it is. Back in 2010, Rodgers sat out a late-season game with a concussion. The Packers were going into New England that week and none of us gave them any chance behind Matt Flynn. Well, they lost the game by four, but they were well prepared, fought hard and were in it until the end — against one of the best teams in the league in their building.
The Philadelphia Eagles aren’t the New England Patriots and this game is in Lambeau.