How much do these upcoming games really matter? I know every Sunday the Packers win it feels like we’re going to the super bowl and when they lose the walls are closing in. Every time we bludgeon a team like Carolina or Chicago that was supposed to be good this season it looks like the team is a machine. When it gives up tons of yards to Mark Ingram it makes everyone sad.
Is it really all that big of deal, though? After all, we are Packer fans. NFC North division titles do not mean a whole heck of a lot. I told everyone last season that after the “4th and Great” I was so proud of that season that I was going to buy the division championship gear. I didn’t. You know who gets excited about division championships? Vikings fans. Do you know who would be really, really excited about a division championship? Lions fans. In Green Bay there’s one thing that moves the needle. Lombardi trophies.
Here’s the deal: the Packers are 5-3. Unless 12’s hamstring falls completely off they are winning at Minnesota, at home against Atlanta and at Tampa. Those teams are junk. Those are the types of teams that the Packers not only beat but beat down, a la what happened to Carolina and what happened to Minnesota already. That gives the Packers the 8 wins that qualified them for last year’s postseason. Now I don’t believe that’s going to be enough this year. What I will guarantee you is that 11 wins is going to be enough. I can’t remember the last 11-5 team that didn’t qualify for the postseason. If you qualify those 3 games as “gimmes” (and you should) the Packers have to go just 3-2 in these games:
Home for Chicago
Home for Philadelphia
Home for New England
At Buffalo
Home for Detroit
The Packers are going to the playoffs, kids. Now my prediction is that Green Bay gets healthy during this bye week and goes either 8-0 or 7-1 in these games. They’re going to be favored by the folks in Las Vegas every single week. The Packers are undefeated as favorites this season. The Packers are undefeated at home this season. If you give Green Bay the 5 home games and the games at Minnesota and Tampa you’re looking at 13-3 if they beat the Bills (THE BILLS!) and 12-4 if they don’t.
What if I’m wrong? What if they go 5-3? Let’s say they lose 2 home games (not effing going to happen). Let’s say they don’t beat Buffalo they don’t beat New England and they don’t beat Philadelphia. They are then 10-6 and probably the #6 seed. Why should I care?
Isn’t this about the playoffs? Haven’t the Green Bay Packers lost 3 of their last 4 playoff game at Lambeau Field? Haven’t the Packers won 4 of their last 5 playoff games away from the Frozen Tundra? I’m not making the argument that I’d rather have the Packers lose games and spend the playoffs away from Lambeau Field but does it really matter?
The home playoff game mystique that was taken from us by Michael Vick has not returned. There are too many heartbreaking losses for me to have supreme confidence that a home game is a guaranteed win in the postseason. The aforementioned Vick, Favre to Webster, the End of 15-1, Hyde’s dropped INT, the list goes on. This team is better suited for warmer climates and domes in January.
As far as I’m concerned even if 2010 didn’t happen, it’s all about getting in to the tournament. Whether that’s at Lambeau Field or in Phoenix or Dallas or wherever. This team is playoff bound. The only thing that matters is whether or not it has the formula to win in the Playoffs. We aren’t going to find that out until January so how about until then everybody just R E L A X.
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Ross Uglem is a writer at PackersTalk.com.
You can follow Ross on twitter at RossUglem
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3 responses to “PACKERS FOOTBALL FRIDAY: A Realistic Look at the Rest of the Season”
Jeff thanks for reading, but your reply is inaccurate. 4 years ago was the 2010 season. Dom Capers defense carried this team through an injury phase and the team won a World Championship with a top 3 defense in the league. The defense wasn’t bad until 2011. The team still won 15 games and then fell to the Giants, largely because of defensive failures. So realistically that was the “problem” and he’s had 2 seasons, not 4 to “figure it out”. While that’s still probably too long the job analogy and the “4 years” complaint is out of line. The defense was a problem in 2011. He should have used 2012 and 2013 to adapt and he did not. It’s impressive that you could use what I wrote above to go into a “Fire Capers” narrative but congratulations.
There is a lot of talent on this team on both sides of the ball and should go 6-2 for the rest of the year but what has my attention is the coaching, McCarthy is a good coach at times and others he has brain farts is what I like to call them. If he can call games to be unpredictable then they have a shot, Now for Capers, What can be said about this man he is a brilliant defensive coach but he has not evolved with the times in my opinion maybe its time for some new blood to call the shots, He has had 4 years to get it right and has failed, McCarthy said in big letters the defense would be better well they’re not!!! So ask yourself this if you went to work everyday for four years and did a half ass job do you think your company would keep paying you? I think not. After this year this team needs to find a new DC.
Jeff thanks for reading, but your reply is inaccurate. 4 years ago was the 2010 season. Dom Capers defense carried this team through an injury phase and the team won a World Championship with a top 3 defense in the league. The defense wasn’t bad until 2011. The team still won 15 games and then fell to the Giants, largely because of defensive failures. So realistically that was the “problem” and he’s had 2 seasons, not 4 to “figure it out”. While that’s still probably too long the job analogy and the “4 years” complaint is out of line. The defense was a problem in 2011. He should have used 2012 and 2013 to adapt and he did not. It’s impressive that you could use what I wrote above to go into a “Fire Capers” narrative but congratulations.