And it's all over.
No repeat.
It's funny. Many times since the Packers became Super Bowl XLV Champions, I would say how I still couldn't really believe what the team accomplished, going from wild card to bringing home the Lombardi Trophy. It was so amazing, the thrill of victory.
Now, I can't believe the Packers lost the chance to get the XLVI Trophy.
The 15-1 season, while a spectacular achievement, doesn't seem to mean much. Winning the division and securing home field advantage throughout the playoffs didn't matter - the agony of defeat.
On Saturday, before the New Orleans - San Francisco game ended, I said to a friend that it looked like we'd be facing San Francisco in the NFC Championship game. He told me not to put the cart before the horse. I said that it was clear the Saints were going to lose. He said he wasn't talking about the Saints or the 49ers. He was talking about the Packers needing to beat the Giants.
I thought it would be a tough game, but the Packers would win. Of course, they would win.
From the Green Bay Press-Gazette:
The Green Bay Packers’ spectacular 2011 regular season went poof in little more than three hours Sunday.
For the second time in four years, the underdog New York Giants swaggered into Lambeau Field in the playoffs and crushed what appeared a seemingly inevitable Packers’ ride to the Super Bowl.
Coach Tom Coughlin’s Giants, who won the NFC championship game here in January 2008, upset the Packers again by winning the battle at the line of scrimmage, forcing turnovers from a team that rarely turns the ball over and exploiting a defense that up to now had taken away the ball enough to overcome its glaring shortcomings.
...“Fifteen-and-one was fun, but it doesn’t mean anything,” cornerback Charles Woodson said in summing up the shocked and empty feeling in the Packers’ locker room. “We play this game for one reason. It’s not for the individual things you do, it’s not for the records. It’s for the Lombardi Trophy, and we fell short.”
The Packers were 7½- to 8-point favorites to win this game and substantial favorites to advance to and win the Super Bowl in Indianapolis in three weeks after ripping through their regular-season schedule with win after win after win behind an offense that for much of the season appeared able to score almost at will.
But the Giants’ peaking defense kept the Packers from dominating offensively and ended several promising drives by prying four turnovers — an interception by quarterback Aaron Rodgers and fumbles by halfback Ryan Grant, fullback John Kuhn and Rodgers — from a team that had turned the ball over only 14 times all regular season.
I kept waiting for the incredible comeback. I kept waiting for the Packers to stun the Giants. I kept waiting for the dagger, until denial became pointless.
There won't be any repeat this year, but I haven't given up on my team. The repeat will just take a little longer to achieve than I had hoped.
Video.
2 comments:
You think they got complacent because of their 15-1 record and two week rest?
The Giants did a good job pressuring Rodgers. To me, it's a sign of desperation when your QB scrambles for so many yards. I don't blame Rodgers for that; it just shows he didn't see a better alternative to putting himself at risk by running for a 1st down.
Beyond that, Rodgers was not the precise surgeon in his passing game that we got used to this season. Add to that all the fumbles and dropped passes.
In summary, it sucked.
I don't know what the problem was.
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