Saturday night I had to force myself to sleep early because of how excited I was. Sunday, I was so excited (and nervous) I was pacing back and forth in the shower. The game started and Falcons drove down and scored. This was expected. Falcons script their first two drives better than anyone in the NFL. Mason Crosby missed a very make-able (my opinion) field goal. Falcons drive down and get 3 points on that short field. Packers drive down and Aaron Ripkowski fumbles (BTW, this was a great play by Falcons more than it was a bad play by Ripkowski) short of the goal line. I knew then this was not going to end our way and began the "acceptance" stage of defeat while still hoping for a miracle.
The game is over, the season is over and I say this sucks. This
fucking sucks!
I read a lot of football and watch a lot of football (probably too much to be fair) and I've seen a few fans calling the Packers season a failure if it were to end without a Super Bowl ring. That's absurd and unreasonable, but I get it. It's just the Packers season was not a failure. It was exciting and did not end how we wanted. That happens for 31 teams every single year. This team played way above its talent and overachieved. Teams like (to name a few) the 49ers, Rams, Jaguars, Bears , Jets had failure seasons.
The Packers lost their best cover corner, Sam Shields. They lost their best running back, Eddie Lacy. They lost their 2nd and 3rd best corners. They had their 2nd best receiver dinged up most of the season. They had a quarterback who battled hamstring and calf injuries. The best running back on the team came into the season as a receiver. The big free agent signing tight end missed a good deal of the season. They finished the season with the best cover corner being someone who wasn't even drafted.
It goes on an on and quite frankly it's sickening how unfortunate the Packers were, but hey other teams had injuries too. It's not an excuse.
The season was pretty
damn awesome. We humiliated the Seahawks. We beat the Cowboys in their place during the playoffs for the first time in 50 years. We finally beat the Giants at OUR place (whew) and I got to bring my girls there for an amazing experience. And when the team was 4 - 6 most, if not all fans lost hope, lost faith and somehow, someway the Packers got even the most negative
assholes to believe they they could, they might just win the Super Bowl.
Yes, we measure success by Championships in Green Bay and by that standard the season was a failure, just like 31 teams every season.
As a Packers fan, I'm proud of what they accomplished when all things are considered. We now must hope for some changes because it's obvious from 2014 and this 2016 season that status quo is just not cutting it.
What's your one big change you'd like to see for 2017? Mine would be, can we get a defensive coordinator that forces form tackling and doesn't let his players have 7-10 yard cushions?