Surely, the Buffalo Bills defeat of the Green Bay Packers on Sunday was a surprise to some of you. Not so much here.
The Packers are most likely still going to get into the playoffs, but their road to the Super Bowl just got a lot harder.
Here are five more thoughts on a game where a lot of guys shit the bed.
Goodbye home field
In losing, the Packers dropped from the No. 1 seed — or tied for it — in the NFC to sixth. They can still win the NFC North by winning their final two games, which would likely push them back to the No. 2 seed. However, getting the No. 1 is going to be tough. The Packers will have to contend with Seattle, Arizona and Dallas. The Cardinals and their third-string quarterback seem pretty likely to lose their division to Seattle. If the Cowboys finish with the same record as the Seahawks, they get the nod because they beat Seattle this year. If the Packers finish with the same record as Seattle, the Seahawks get the nod. Playing in Dallas, who cares? The Cowboys are currently a sub-.500 team at home. Playing in Seattle, well, the Packers are going to get rolled. You saw the trouble they had with the Bills’ defensive backs draped all over their receivers. The Seahawks play a slightly better version of that defense. And the Packers are shit on the road, period. The Super Bowl dream probably went poof in Buffalo, folks.
Mr. Emotion
We’ve pointed this out a lot of times, so much so that we got sick of pointing it out. Mike McCarthy’s teams typically play with little emotion. If a team is an extension of its coach, then obviously one of the reasons for that is because McCarthy and his coaching staff show little emotion. Yet, there was good old Buffoon doing all kinds of hooting and hollering on the sidelines on Sunday. It obviously didn’t translate into any success on the field, but it was nice to see for a change. You go get ‘em, Mike. Show ‘em who’s boss!
An upset?
What constitutes an upset in today’s NFL? I’m not really sure after the Packers’ loss on Sunday. More than once I heard someone talk about the “big upset.” Really? Two teams with winning records meet and the one playing at home wins and that’s an upset? A big upset, even? Look, I’m sure the Packers were favored going into the game, but they shouldn’t have been. Anyone who thought the Packers were going to go in and steamroll the Bills on Sunday hasn’t been paying attention. First, the Packers are no more than mediocre on the road, as they proved again on Sunday. Second, the Bills defense is the real deal. They’ve now made Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning look like fools in back-to-back weeks. Any “expert” or prognosticator who didn’t at least see this result as a possibility doesn’t deserve to pick games. And for the record, if you think this was a “big upset” then you’re fucking moron.
When?
We’ve asked this question a million times if we’ve asked it once. When does that fucking turd Shawn Slocum get fired? The Packers special teams has pretty much been a joke since Slocum has been the coach. On Sunday, the Bills returned a punt for a touchdown and the Packers had another field goal blocked. That’s at least the third kick that’s been blocked this season. I mean, there were a lot of other reasons the Packers lost on Sunday, but special teams was responsible for a 10-point swing right there. That’s the difference between a win and a loss in this contest.
Here are some telling numbers
They are Aaron Rodgers’ in the Packers’ four losses this season — 954 yards passing, 3 touchdowns, 5 interceptions. In three of the four games, Rodgers has passed for less than 200 yards. He hasn’t thrown more than one touchdown in any of them. He’s thrown all five of his picks this year in those losses, with two of them being two-interception games. When Rodgers is off, he’s pretty much awful and so is the Packers offense. There doesn’t really seem to be much middle ground.