I’m not entirely sure what the problem was Sunday night for the Green Bay Packers.
Maybe the team had too much turkey on Thanksgiving. Maybe New York was just giving off bad vibes.
Or, maybe the Packers decided to emulate a popular television show that was on at the same time: “The Walking Dead.”
On the whole, watching a bunch of survivors battle zombies – and human predators who would rather see them join the undead – was less painful (and less depressing) than watching the Green Bay game.
That Green Bay walked away with a 38-10 loss didn’t surprise me, per se. The Giants seem to have this penchant for humiliating the Packers just when the state of Wisconsin is expecting something big.
Brett Favre’s last season in Green Bay, aiming for one final Super Bowl title? Super Bowl, schmooper bowl. Toss an interception and a game-winning field goal and the Giants are winning the NFL title instead of the Packers.
A one-loss regular season with hopes of repeating at Super Bowl champions? Certainly you jest, said the Giants in downing Green Bay last January en route to yet another Super Bowl win of their own.
And then there was Sunday. It took all of about two minutes for the Giants to get on the board, and that should’ve been your first clue. There was hope when Aaron Rodgers hit Jordy Nelson in stride with a 61-yard touchdown reception on the next drive.
Really, there was. And Green Bay appeared capable of running the ball early. But from there, everything just went downhill.
A key fumble? Check. An interception? Check again. In short, the Giants played like they needed to win a game – which they did, make no mistake about that after the November they’ve had.
Green Bay played like a wild-card team that knows as long as it can manage three more wins in the five games remaining – heck, the way the NFC is playing out this year, two wins might do it – it’s in the playoffs.
Simply put, Green Bay looked like there was little to no motivation for being on the field Sunday night other than to show off the mustaches that many on the team have groomed – presumably as support for a cancer fundraising effort.
Green Bay needs to find that motivation – and fast. Certainly, hosting Minnesota and Detroit in back-to-back games could provide a boost, especially in the friendly (if chilly) confines of Lambeau Field.
But then the Packers need to hit the road in Week 15 for Soldier Field and the Chicago Bears. I have a friend who has been talking trash since the Week Two defeat the Packers handed the Bears, and frankly, he might be right. I don’t know if anyone has confidence of Green Bay’s ability to go into Chicago to pull out a win right now.
After that, Green Bay gets the currently 4-7 Tennessee Titans at home, then hits the road for what is traditionally the toughest road trip of the season – a jaunt to Minneapolis to take on the Vikings.
Just what has happened to what was supposed to be another glorious Green Bay season? We have a kicker who is struggling to kick, a quarterback who is an MVP some games and being outplayed by Eli Manning (sorry, no love for the Manning boys here) in others.
And of course, we also have more injuries than you could dare shake a stick at. No, scratch that. If you shook a stick at the Green Bay Packers right now, it would probably put someone’s eye out and place them on the injured reserve.
It’s late in the year, and Packer nation is fretful – with good reason. But there are only a handful of people who can solve the problem, and that’s the Green Bay coaches and players.
Here’s to hoping they, at least, have a solution. Or, at the very least, aren’t committed to watching zombie shows on AMC.
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