The Packers are going through with the 49ers the pretty much the same thing they went through with the cowboys in the seasons leading up to their SB win over the Patriots. We couldn't beat them either.
The biggest difference is that that was a team on the rise (the Packers I mean) and it was a steady ascension while this team has been hovering near the top for a while but has been rather stagnant. We are not still climbing the ladder in the same sense even though we can still get higher. Back then we got a little better every year, now we just can't seem to be able to find that one thing that gives us a boost up to that next rung.
We are close. We are able to compete with any team in the league and we can beat anybody. We are just not at that point where we are expected to beat everybody.
Originally Posted by: sschind
To me, the difference was personnel.
The Cowboys back then were loaded with talent due to the Herschel Walker trade. That had superior players, or maybe I should say more good players than we had.
That's not the case now. We COULD have beaten this team. All three times. But we shit ourselves.
NOTE: There was also a situation in the 90s, with our team being built for Lambeau in December. We had a power oriented team that was at a disadvantage on artificial surfaces and in domes. This was made worse by the fact that EVERY time we faced Dallas, it was AT Dallas. Remember the crown on that field, and how it caused Favre to overthrow Henderson early in the game?
Favre was always a little over excited early in games back then. Usually he'd get a forearm to the teeth and it would settle him down.
EDIT: Now this is not the case. We are a finesse passing team, and playing on artificial surfaces is actually an advantage for us. Didn't help us at CandleStick, because that's a natural surface, though.
“Winning is not a sometime thing, it is an all the time thing. You don't do things right once in a while…you do them right all the time.”