GREEN BAY The trek to the team bus Saturday night at the Georgia Dome was longer than usual, giving Chad Clifton plenty of time to think about what had just happened and what lay ahead.
The Green Bay Packers Pro Bowl left tackle has seen a lot in his 11-year NFL career, played on some pretty good teams, experienced more than his share of peaks and valleys. But in the wake of his teams utter domination of the top-seeded Atlanta Falcons, which set up Sundays berth in the NFC Championship Game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, Clifton was in awe of what the 2010 team had accomplished and hoping they werent done yet.
Just from a team aspect, just the resilience that weve shown this year with the injuries, the way we never hung our head and said, Oh, this is too much we just kept pushing on, Clifton said, taking a long, thoughtful pull from his orange Gatorade. Then, as we started getting guys back, and even the guys who stepped up and played extremely well for us, it just shows the strength and resilience of the team. To come in here tonight, against the No. 1 seed, a great football team, to be able to do what we were to tonight
Clifton paused, then smiled.
Thats huge.
The 48-21 victory came in Cliftons 169th career NFL game (regular-season and playoffs) and brought the Packers within one game of Super Bowl XLV. For Clifton, who at 34 is one of only seven players on the current 53-man roster age 30 or older, this could be his last chance at a championship. And when the team was 3-3 and suffering injuries at every position while he was battling the perpetual soreness in his knees that have plagued him for years Clifton wondered if this would be another lost season for him in his pursuit of a ring.
Obviously you never know. You just hope, Clifton said of a turnaround. We knew with the kind of guys we had, that they were going to step up and fill shoes. We knew we had good players. But until you get out there and play the games, you dont know. Guys stepped up all across the board and played huge for us all year. Its not over with. But were close. Were close to our ultimate goal.
Clifton has been close before. A second-round pick out of Tennessee in 2000, his teams have made the playoffs in seven of his 11 seasons. He played on the 2001, 2003 and 2007 teams that all reached the NFC Divisional Playoff round, but the 01 team crashed and burned at St. Louis and the 03 teams flirtation with destiny ran out on Fourth-and-26 in Philadelphia. The 07 team reached the NFC Championship Game but lost, at home, to the New York Giants, who would go on to win Super Bowl XLII two weeks later.
Now, hes back in that same position, a game away from his first Super Bowl,.
Ive been close. Close in 07. Even when we lost to Philly in 03, we felt we had a good team and had a good shot to do some good things that year, Clifton said. But the makeup of this team, I feel like, is as good if not better than both of those teams. Everything chemistry, talent, depth. The fact that weve had so many injuries and had guys step in and play extremely well, I mean, thats talent, thats perseverance. This team has a lot of good things going for it. We have one more big game, and well see how we do.
Well also see how Clifton does. After a rough opener at Philadelphia on Sept. 12, he was benched in Week 2 against Buffalo when his balky knees flared up and rendered him ineffective. But he rebounded with a run of excellent performances thereafter, and over the last month has pitched shutouts against the New York Giants Osi Umeniyora in the Packers must-win Dec. 26 victory and against Philadelphias Trent Cole in the NFC Wild Card round on Jan. 9. While Atlantas John Abraham did beat him for a sack, Clifton more than neutralized the Falcons best pass rusher while also turning in his fifth straight penalty-free performance.
The Bears could move NFL Defensive Player of the Year candidate Julius Peppers from his usual right end spot to line up over rookie Bryan Bulaga most of the game Sunday after the way Clifton handled him in the Jan. 2 regular-season finale at Lambeau Field, or Bears coach Lovie Smith could go strength-against-strength and let the two duke it out.
It was a tough battle, Clifton said of the last meeting. That was a huge win and obviously this is even bigger. It should be a great game. We know if we want to be successful, our offensive line has to have a good day.
How many more of those days Clifton has left in his beat-up body remains to be seen. When he signed a three-year, $20 million deal in March after a brief free-agent flirtation with the Washington Redskins, it was designed to pay him $7.5 million in 2010 pay, with a $5.75 million base salary for 2011 and a $5.25 base salary in 2012. Its possible that Bulaga will stay at right tackle next year it would appear Cliftons injured longtime bookend, Mark Tauscher, has reached the end of the line and Clifton will protect Rodgers blindside for another season. Or, Bulaga could move to his natural spot at left tackle, and T.J. Lang or another young player could take over on the right side, leaving Clifton as a backup or unemployed.
For now, though, hes not thinking that far ahead.
We all know that this thing is going to come to an end for each and every player, Clifton said. (Bulaga) is the future. Hes a great player, an up-and-coming player. Any way I can help the kid out, Im going to. It just depends on where my bodys at at that point. If its hurting too bad, I dont know if Id want to be a backup and not really get on the field. But you never know. Its one of those things that when that time comes, you just have to weigh your options and see.
I feel like as long as Im able to go out there and compete and play at a pretty high level, I would like to do it. Unfortunately, theres going to come a point where the knee just says, Sorry, cant do it anymore. But, I dont think its going to be in the next year or so.
"JASON WILDE" wrote: