Usually this is the time when we have T.J. Bryce do a “Stock
Market Report," essentially a refreshing way to review a football game.
However, for the NFC championship game Sunday afternoon in Atlanta, there's
really no point. There's nothing to review. That game went how he predicted
that it would it would go, down to the minute by minute details. He predicted
that “Packers would come out flat on offense, the Falcons would jump up big early,
and the Packers would score late to save face.” So after the mourning period
had passed, we thought we would post his last Packers post of the season.
“I'm not mad. I'm not angry. I'm not upset. I'm not even
sad. The Packers did not choke, they did not blow it, they did not screw up,
nor did they fold under pressure. Don't blame the controversial non-safety in
the second quarter. It was the correct call. Don't blame the Mason Crosby
missed field goal. That had very little effect on the outcome of the game.
There's nobody to blame here. Literally. There is nobody, anywhere, they can
blame for this loss.
You want to know what you blame? They ran out of players, and
that's where you lay the blame. This goes way beyond the typical “oh they have
suffered a lot of injuries.” I've been sitting here the last few weeks laughing
at the Packers injury updates. That's all you can do. Their choices at
cornerback today were a badly wounded Damarious Randall, who had no business
playing in this game, or these playoffs for that matter. Randall has been
playing with a pulled groin for a few weeks now. Have you ever tried to move
with a pulled groin? Yeah, it hurts, BAD. But he had had to play, because they
had nobody else. Their next choice was the also badly wounded Quinten Rollins,
who just cleared concussion protocol late this week, has dealt with injuries
all season, and the only reason he was active for this game was because it was
the NFC championship game. If it were week number three in September, neither
Randall nor Rollins would have been anywhere near the field today. The rest of
their choices were LaDarius Gunter, whom the original plan was for him to be
the fifth cornerback this season, and the 13th and 14th
or whatever they're on cornerbacks they have played this season. So yeah, let's
recap. Their number 2 and 3 corners, both badly wounded, 5, 13, and 14. Just
think about that for a while. To make a long story short, they finally ran out
of street free agents to run out there on defense and their offense got so
banged up they couldn't carry them anymore.
I knew this was coming though at some point, I knew all week
it was going to happen, and I knew it was going to go down in this manner.
Joyrides, no matter how much fun they are, always end in a crash. Packers fans got in Aaron’s car back in early
November, went for a joyride with him, and finally crashed, Sunday afternoon,
in the Georgia Dome. He was behind the wheel,
and what a crazy, ridiculous, wild, insane, fun ride he took us all on. Forget
about the NFC championship game. For two months, Aaron Rodgers played the
quarterback position better than it has ever been played. You need eyes, not
stats, to realize this. I could go on and on about that right now, but that is
what I've spent the last two months doing. Instead, I will say this. Right now
I feel like I'm in a group of people that just crashed a car via a joyride, we
are all sitting on the ground, smiling, saying to ourselves, “that was fun.”
So, hats off to you Aaron Rodgers, and thank you for taking
us on this wild ride. I wouldn't trade the last two months for anything. Even
though it did not result in a Super Bowl win, that doesn't matter. The last two
months shall be forever remembered as “Mr. Rodgers’ Wild Ride.”
