Run the table was a nice notion. It was nice when the Green Bay Packers had to use it to make the playoffs. It was potentially historical when you threw the playoffs into the mix.
It turned out to be an eight-game run. Not 10, as we all were dreaming about.
What derailed the run?
The exact thing we said would derail the run. The Green Bay Packers’ defense.
Garbage.
I thought the Packers’ defense would step up in this game. I thought the Atlanta Falcons’ defense wouldn’t. My feeling was that out of this contingent — Clay Matthews, Julius Peppers, Mike Daniels, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix — someone would step up and make plays.
Big plays.
And that’s what the Packers would need to win this game.
WRONG. WRONG. WRONG.
I won’t go into how these clowns could have helped the Packers and didn’t. The bottom line is the same bottom line that we always talk about at this point, when the season ends…
The Packers’ defense just isn’t good enough.
That isn’t a question. Is it about players?
Maybe.
But since the Packers won the Super Bowl after the 2010 season, what has been the narrative?
Why couldn’t the Packers win in the playoffs?
Was it defense?
MAYBE…
I’m not going to be presumptuous and call for a change. That’s mostly because I know a change just isn’t going to happen.
But you probably watched the game and you saw what happened.
The Falcons possessed the ball nine times. They scored on seven of those drives. Only one of those seven scoring drives ended in a field goal.
The Falcons basically came out and said, “These assholes can’t stop us, so let’s just have fun!”
And that was the case.
The Packers needed to win with Aaron Rodgers, which means they needed to win by scoring copious amounts of points.
They were derailed by fullback Aaron Ripkowski’s early fumble. That was a drive that would have made it 17-7.
Instead, it was 17-0 and soon, 24-0.
I have personally stated that I believe Atlanta to be a second-rate town and, largely because of their fans, to have a second-rate football team. I won’t back off that for a second.
And what I know to be the truth hurts all that much more.
Our Green Bay Packers were thrashed by that second-rate outfit today. Not by accident…
Soundly.
The Packers were outcoached and they were outmanned.
Matt Ryan, the clear league MVP right now, threw for 392, four touchdowns and no picks.
That ho-hum clown came out and was Aaron Rodgers. And this game was never competitive.
If the Packers would have gotten stops, maybe…
But these are the Green Bay Packers…
Green Bay Packers Football: Defensive Stops? Psssch….