Yes, there it is. The photo from your nightmares.
Even as the Packers’ season floods with water and appears headed for the bottom of the ocean, make no mistake. This all began in January in Seattle.
After undoubtably the greatest championship game collapse in Green Bay Packers’ history, I wrote that there was basically two directions to go from there – One way of looking at it suggests that the future is bright and the other way of looking at it suggests that the end of an era is near. Next season will tell us which one it is going to be.
The season for the Packers isn’t over with. In fact, everything they hope to achieve is still out there for them. A win tomorrow over the Vikings would give the Packers the three seed, which means the only playoff game they would play away from Lambeau would be at the sunny winter destinations of Carolina or Arizona. Those are good teams, sure, but hardly destinations to dread.
But battles are typically won before they are fought, and if you still think this battle isn’t already lost, then you are one optimistic individual.
A loss like the Packers suffered in January isn’t the kind of loss that a team gets over in a season. In fact, a particular regime may never get over it. That wasn’t a “character building” loss. That loss was a kick to the nuts. It is enough to plant doubt in even the most confident.
You could see it in the comments from the Packers after the game. Players like Josh Sitton and Julius Peppers know what it takes to reach that point. You have to not only have the talent and the coaching, but you must also have the luck. You have to avoid serious injuries and get a bounce or two.
The Packers were the healthiest they had been in years. They had the highest scoring offense in the league and a defense that played better in the second half of the season. They had something they didn’t have in 2010 or the years immediately following – a running game. They had the leadership and chemistry to win a title.
And they also had played nearly the perfect game on defense. The favored Seattle Seahawks, the defending champions, had zero points on offense with less than four minutes left to go in the game. The offense had blown chance after chance to stretch the lead out to more, but they had played conservatively, hoping for the exact kind of defensive performance that they got.
Then Morgan Burnett would take the advice of Julius Peppers and slide down. The defense would turn as conservative as the offense. Clay Matthews would stand on the sideline for the remainder of regulation.
Surely, the game was over. Then, it was lost.
For veterans like Peppers, Sitton, Matthews and Aaron Rodgers, this was not a “learning experience.” It was a blown opportunity- an opportunity they knew full well they may never get again.
An opportunity blown in spectacular fashion.
That sort of thing can stick with you for a while. Luck turns against you. Doubt creeps in. Even if we win in Week 2, that doesn’t erase the doubt when the stakes are highest. Will we choke again? Are we even good enough to put ourselves in that position? Am I good enough? Are the coaches good enough?
Who is to blame? The fans ask it. Don’t you think the players and coaches have? What if they found it was each other? What if they no longer believe in the system?
Sergeant Barnes once said- “When the machine breaks down, WE break down.”
If this machine has broken down, can it be fixed? Or does it have to be discarded?
Maybe this is all hyperbole. I am not normally big on intangibles. Maybe Jordy Nelson’s injury and down seasons for several key Packers is the only real answer.
Ha… Maybe the Packers will win the next two weeks and at least be competitive in Arizona or Carolina.
Or maybe that game was the beginning of the end. Maybe you never get back there.
The jury is still out.