MintBaconDrivel
10 years ago

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Packers’ Thanksgiving Day had been a colossal disappointment, and in the Ford Field visitors’ locker room in the moments after the loss to the Detroit Lions, the road ahead appeared daunting. One could’ve argued the season was lost.

"There was very little room for error before the game," the Packers head coach said. "And there's even less room now.”

Nothing had gone right. The bruising starting running back, who’d been so productive in previous weeks, was shut down.

“We couldn't run the ball worth a (expletive),” the tell-it-like-it-is left guard said. “It was a terrible game."

The defense had made a few plays, but not enough, and committed costly errors at inopportune times.

“We just didn't do enough to get the job done,” the veteran cornerback said. “We needed big plays, we needed to stop them from putting points up on the board altogether. I hate to say it, but we found a way to lose this one.”

Injuries remained a factor.

“But we have guys who have to step in and make those plays and make that adjustment," the coach said. "And I fully expected us to."

And to top it off, the former MVP quarterback wouldn’t be 100 percent healthy the rest of the season.

"Do I feel like I can take this team and carry them by myself? I think every individual should feel that way," the quarterback said. "If you want to (ask), can I still carry this team? Fine. But until they tell me I'm not the quarterback here anymore, then I will do my best and feel confident that I can do what needs to be done to win."

And yet, despite it all, they knew they had four games left to play, and they weren’t ready to give up, despite being 1 1/2 games behind the NFC North leader.

"We have to win out," the veteran right guard said. "We've got four games left. We're definitely not out of anything. We still have a shot."

Added the head coach: "You never know how things are going to pan out. You just don't. So you have to win each game as you go. The margin of error has now been minimized even more so because of our ineptness (against Detroit). We have to overcome that."

Sound familiar? It should.

Except, this wasn’t Mike McCarthy, Josh Sitton, Tramon Williams, Aaron Rodgers and T.J. Lang talking after Thursday’s 40-10 Thanksgiving loss to the Lions. This was Mike Sherman, Mike Wahle, Mike McKenzie, Brett Favre and Marco Rivera talking after the team’s 22-14 loss to the Lions on Thanksgiving 2003.

And you know what happened next.

The Packers, 6-6 entering the final four games, won out. Favre took the field in Oakland in the second-to-last game of the season, having lost his father Irv to a fatal heart attack, and played the game of his life.

In a sublimely bizarre final day of the season, the Packers whipped the Denver Broncos, 31-3, at Lambeau Field while most of the crowd spent the second half turned around watching skybox TVs to see the Arizona Cardinals stun the Minnesota Vikings, 18-17, and send the Packers to the NFC North title and a berth in the playoffs.

"Something's going on here," Favre said after that game.

Once there, they beat Matt “We Want The Ball And We’re Going To Score” Hasselbeck and the Seattle Seahawks in overtime in the NFC Wild Card round. The Team of Destiny came up short, of course, with its miraculous run ending with the infamous Fourth-and-26 loss at Philadelphia in the NFC Divisional round.

But that’s not the point. The point is that a team seemingly out of contention went on a run, with its quarterback bringing his teammates together, and made the playoffs.

A decade later, the 5-6-1 Packers, who are 0-4-1 since Rodgers broke his left collarbone against Chicago on the opening series of the team’s No. 4 loss, have four games left – at home against Atlanta (3-9) on Sunday, at Dallas (7-5) on Dec. 15, at home against Pittsburgh (5-7) on Dec. 22 and at Chicago (6-6) on Dec. 29.

On Friday – the last time McCarthy spoke to reporters, as Monday evening’s scheduled press briefing was canceled by the club – McCarthy acknowledged how bad Thursday’s loss had been and the scenario it created.

“There's not a man that's coached or played in this league that hasn't had his ass beat. OK? And that's what happened to us. We got drilled by a very good football team that played very well. So we'll take that hard lesson, swallow. They'll be accountable for it. And we'll be ready to go when Atlanta comes in here.

“We're in a hole. We felt like we were in a hole going in to the Detroit game. We've got two division losses and a tie. That's not where you want to be. This league is exciting each and every week. And that's the way you have to approach it. So we have a big opportunity (against the Falcons). It's an NFC game, it’s at home, to get back to .500. And we'll see what happens.”

While Rodgers’ collarbone injury is obviously different than the personal tragedy Favre dealt with, his return could conceivably galvanize the team. In addition to everything else the Packers overcame in 2003, Favre played the second half of the season with a broken thumb on his right (throwing) hand, suffered in October.

Will the Packers be able to ride Rodgers to a similar finish? Of course, past performance is not a guarantee of future results. But asked on his weekly radio show on 540 ESPN and ESPNWisconsin.com last week whether the team could run the table, Rodgers said he believed it could. In fact, Rodgers had just talked with injured running back DuJuan Harris about it a week earlier.

“I think so. I really do,” Rodgers replied. “I think we’ve been through so much as a team this year, faced a lot of adversity, a lot of injuries, we should be getting healthy at the right time. We still have guys who are playing through injuries.

“It would be exciting to see, as DuJuan actually mentioned to me in the locker room last week, what it would be like if we’d have been able to stay relatively healthy this season. Obviously he’s been out for the season and (left tackle) Bryan Bulaga out (is) for the season and there have been a number of other injuries throughout the year that have dealt us some tough blows.

“We’ve, in the past, been able to make runs in these types of situations. Everybody’s banged up at this point in the season, but we feel if we can just stay in the hunt here and just get into the tournament, anything can happen.”

Jason Wilde  wrote:


dhazer
10 years ago
ummm to compare the 2 is a far fetch, they were 1/2 game back with 4 to play and we are 1 1/2 games back with 4 to play. We are done hang it up for the year and get the high draft pick. Let Tolzein play and get some experience and see if he could be our backup next year.
Just Imagine this for the next 6-9 years. What a ride it will be 🙂 (PS, Zero should charge for this)
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wpr
  • wpr
  • Preferred Member
10 years ago

ummm to compare the 2 is a far fetch, they were 1/2 game back with 4 to play and we are 1 1/2 games back with 4 to play. We are done hang it up for the year and get the high draft pick. Let Tolzein play and get some experience and see if he could be our backup next year.

Originally Posted by: dhazer 



not only that but they are 2 1/2 out of the wild card with 5 teams in front of them. IIRC Denver pulled their starters for that game so winning the final game was a bit of a gimme. Even if they win out against an easy schedule with won't make the playoffs.
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buckeyepackfan
10 years ago
I said it in another thread.

The one thing in The Packers favor is The Lions are still The Lions and The bears are still The Bears.

Packers win out and there is no doubt in my mind both teams will lose 2 of their next 4.

Hell I posted it and Zero posted it, Packers can finish 8-7-1 and with a little more help can still win the division.

"Anything can Happen"
I was addicted to The Hokey Pokey, but I turned myself around!
dhazer
10 years ago

I said it in another thread.

The one thing in The Packers favor is The Lions are still The Lions and The bears are still The Bears.

Packers win out and there is no doubt in my mind both teams will lose 2 of their next 4.

Hell I posted it and Zero posted it, Packers can finish 8-7-1 and with a little more help can still win the division.

"Anything can Happen"

Originally Posted by: buckeyepackfan 



and then what get blown out in the playoffs> What good is that
Just Imagine this for the next 6-9 years. What a ride it will be 🙂 (PS, Zero should charge for this)
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buckeyepackfan
10 years ago

and then what get blown out in the playoffs> What good is that

Originally Posted by: dhazer 



I'll tell you,with the player turnover The Packers have, the good would be that some of these guys will get playoff experience.

Gotta learn to walk before you run.

On the other hand, the core of the 2010 team is still around, that experience could just be enough to pull off a couple of upsets.

I'm not gonna throw in the towel until The Packers are officially eliminated.


I was addicted to The Hokey Pokey, but I turned myself around!
10 years ago
I would rather get blown out in the playoffs than to not make the playoffs at all
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Zero2Cool
10 years ago

I would rather get blown out in the playoffs than to not make the playoffs at all

Originally Posted by: cheeseheads123 



Quitting and those who advocate it are afraid of hope.

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shield4life
10 years ago
All we need is the Lions & Bears to lose. If Rodgers gets back & the team just rides the momentum into a hot streak, all we need is 8 wins and we're the champs again ... injuries, bad defense, Capers, this will all be forgotten.
Glad To Be A Packers Fan.
El3ment12
10 years ago

Quitting and those who advocate it are afraid of hope.

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 



I feel like hat is very true zero. Just giving up now prevents future disappointment. We still got a chance so I'm rooting hard for the W against the Falcons.
Fan Shout
Zero2Cool (2h) : Chase Young to sign $13M contract with Saints
Zero2Cool (3h) : Yosh to Panthers what noooo. Wait he didn't do crap
wpr (23h) : I say that he is technically HER BIL as he married her sister. I checked it out, he's considered my BIL as well. Sad.
Mucky Tundra (18-Mar) : wpr, I assume its your BIL via marriage to your wife? If so, I can figure out where the smarts in the family went ;)
wpr (18-Mar) : Mucky my B-I-L is Bare Stupid. I could write a book.
Mucky Tundra (18-Mar) : As a teenager in Rockford IL I would get heckled by adults in public for wearing GB gear
Mucky Tundra (18-Mar) : if you think the online ones are bad, try *living amongst* them
Mucky Tundra (18-Mar) : Never doubt wprs loyalty. Poor guy is surrounded by Bears fans in Northern IL
wpr (17-Mar) : pass Martha. Thanks for the invite though.
Martha Careful (17-Mar) : blog * as the same ugly Illinois colors were adopted by the Baer
Martha Careful (17-Mar) : WPR, perhaps you should be joining the Bears fans blog has the same ugly Illinois colors were adopted by the Bears
Mucky Tundra (17-Mar) : Ah a fellow U of Illinois hater. I can respect that though I imagine it's for different reasons
Zero2Cool (17-Mar) : BTW. I didn't catch the game. I just hate Illinois.
Mucky Tundra (17-Mar) : They're your Big Ten Chumps and you will like it!
Zero2Cool (17-Mar) : No, not for the record. Referee's handled that BS. Orange team was trash ass
Mucky Tundra (17-Mar) : *Your* Big Ten Chumps for the record
Zero2Cool (17-Mar) : No, not Big Ten Champs. IL is big ten CHUMPS
wpr (17-Mar) : Big Ten Champs
wpr (17-Mar) : !!!
wpr (17-Mar) : INI
wpr (17-Mar) : ILL
Martha Careful (17-Mar) : Wisconsin with an outstanding on in the men’s Big Ten basketball tournament. Let’s hope it continues in the NCAAs
Zero2Cool (17-Mar) : Almost like taking QB in 2020 even if you don't need one is good move.
Mucky Tundra (16-Mar) : 2021 QB Draft class looking like a real clunker
Mucky Tundra (16-Mar) : A conditional 6th rounder? I remember Bears fans arguing they'd get a day 2 pick at worst lol
dfosterf (16-Mar) : So I got the no extension part right and the have to wait on the CW physical wrong
Zero2Cool (16-Mar) : Bears are trading Justin Fields for a 2025 6th-round pick that goes to a 4th-round pick based on playtime, per sources.
Zero2Cool (16-Mar) : Former Packer Jarrett Bush opens Wisconsin’s first blow dry bar in Green Bay
dfosterf (16-Mar) : If the Bears are not doing a deal with Washington, they also cannot trade Fields until Williams physical with them. All hail Caleb Williams!
dfosterf (16-Mar) : The talent is undeniable, but the (advertised) haul is obscene.
dfosterf (16-Mar) : If the Bears are cutting a deal with the Commanders, in either scenario, cannot happen until williams passes a Commanders physical
dfosterf (16-Mar) : My guess is no to the Fields extension, but yes to the trade back with the Commanders.
dhazer (15-Mar) : I think the Bears do a Love extension and they will trade out of the 1st pick and take the haul
Martha Careful (15-Mar) : that might make sense
Zero2Cool (15-Mar) : Justin Fields to Steelers?
Zero2Cool (15-Mar) : Kenny Pickett. Eagles. Done.
Zero2Cool (15-Mar) : They can claim best two WR tandem.
Mucky Tundra (15-Mar) : Aaron Donald retiring
dhazer (15-Mar) : Campbell signing with 49ers
dhazer (15-Mar) : I love how the Bear Fans are now claiming they have the best skill players in the NFC North lol
Zero2Cool (15-Mar) : Vikings made a move to get a 2nd first round pick
Mucky Tundra (15-Mar) : That's a not a bad deal for the Bears
Zero2Cool (15-Mar) : Bears have traded for WR Keenan Allen sending Chargers a fourth rounder.
Martha Careful (15-Mar) : *signs
Martha Careful (14-Mar) : MLB Devon White science with the Eagles
Mucky Tundra (14-Mar) : But that was before FA started
Mucky Tundra (14-Mar) : Dhaze, I thought Kurls would be their #1 target when I read that he was an Amos comp (jack of all trades guy)
dhazer (14-Mar) : I would like to see the Packers target 2 more FA still available Kamren Curl Safety and Chase Young edge
Martha Careful (14-Mar) : wow...didn't see that coming
Zero2Cool (14-Mar) : AJ Dillon re-signing with Packers.
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