GREEN BAY PACKERS 2021: GAME #6

Vs. Bears; Sunday, October 17, Noon Packer (Central) Time (10 am Pacific)

Big week coming up, as it’s a division game, and if the Packers win, they’re up two games on the Bears (5-1 to 3-3), but if they lose, it’s a two-way tie at 4-2 for both.

My prediction, made Monday, 10/11:

Packers 30-24

So in today “Insider’s Inbox” on Packers.com, there was another “teachable moment” that was either ignored or misunderstood. It seems the reader/question-asker didn’t realize that after both teams have had the ball in OT, the first team to score after that wins, even if it’s a field goal (or a safety). He apparently thought that the Bengals could use the two minutes still on the clock at the time to try to match or better the Packers’ score. Yet the answerer (Packers writer) didn’t seem to understand the false impression the person was under. Note what was asked, and the response:

Oh, well. So it goes. Maybe the cat was joking, anyway.

Tuesday, 10/12/21

The big news in the NFL today is that Jon Gruesome got fired/resigned from the Lost Wages Raiders, due to the fallout from despicable comments he has made over the years. Of all the offensive things reported, from my perspective the worst is that he seemed to push back against player safety with his comments/reaction to steps taken by the NFL to reduce concussions.

The comments/emails he made and sent which “came back to bite him” were apparently mostly from a decade ago. I wonder how many people have said or written similar things, even years or decades ago, who are now shaking in their booties, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Past indiscretions can return with a vengeance; which underscores a point I made in a previous post: Everything matters. Everything you say and do can, and usually does, affect future events. The Internet never forgets.

On a different but related note (thinking about actions from the past which turn out to have been disastrous, turning the spotlight back on the Packers now): The playoff game against Seattle in 2015 following the 2014 season. It seemed the game was pretty much over when Morgan Burnett intercepted a pass with less than five minutes remaining. It seemed. Julius Peppers motioned to Burnett to get down, to “give himself up” (to avoid the possibility of his fumbling the ball and giving it back to the Sea-hoax).

I said at the time: “No! No! Get as much yardage as you can! Score if you can!” Even Morgan seemed to give Peppers a look like, “What? Why?” but he slid down anyway, deferring to the “wily veteran.”

Julius was probably right, from an analytical/statistical standpoint. The chance of fumbling was likely greater than the chance that Murphy’s Law would be enforced to the limit for the remaining five minutes of the game.

At that point, I told my wife that the game was not over—if everything went wrong for the Packers, they could still lose. Which is what happened: Murphy’s Law shifted into overdrive and the contest went into overtime. And then: Butterfingers Bostick, who was supposed to block and let Jordy Nelson field the onside kick, pulled an Uzzah, overstepped his boundaries, trying to be a hero.

And that leads to this: Playing not to lose (playing it safe/being conservative) often leads to losing anyway. I feel that, in sports and in life, you should always play to win. Even if it doesn’t work out, you at least know that you did everything you could—you left it all on the field, or court, or diamond, or what-have-you. However (there’s almost always a ‘however’), you cannot (should not) go against the explicit instructions of the coach. So: Morgan, go for it; Brandon, let it go.

Julius Peppers was a phenomenal player, and the Packers probably wouldn’t have made it that far without him, but I feel his gesture to Burnett to give himself up was his Bill Buckner moment. But at least Peppers thought he was doing the right thing, whereas Bostick knew better. But: let it go; it’s only a game. If that’s the worst thing either of them have done, they’re practically “saints” (not New Orleans Saints, though, thankfully).

It would have been so sweet for the Packers to meet and beat the Broncos in the Super Bowl that year (2015), to help erase the memory of Favre letting his idol Elway take over the Super Bowl between the Packers and Broncos in 1998. The first thing I said when watching that 1998 game, on seeing the look on Favre’s face as he was standing on the sideline before the game, was, “Uh-oh. Favre doesn’t look as if he thinks he can beat Elway.” Or, possibly didn’t even really want to.

Thursday, 10/14

Two things today: Brett Favre is in the news for playing the role of a reverse Robin Hood: taking from the poor and giving to the rich (himself). He says he is innocent. We’ll see.

I admit that I enjoyed watching Favre when he was quarterbacking the Packers, but he also drove me crazy. You knew it was going to be exciting when he played, but was “the gunslinger” going to make an incredible play, or boneheadedly throw the ball into triple-coverage? Weren’t all of his last passes interceptions? For the Falcons, Packers, Jets, and Vikings? Maybe even in college, high school, Pop Warner, and the back yard? It seems that way, at any rate. Now, if the reports are true, he’s the one intercepting money meant for other, more deserving, recipients.

In most games in which he played, Favre was both the best player on the field and the worst—sometimes on the same play. He could morph from Houdini to Charlie Brown in a fraction of a second.

Besides, he seemed to turn out to be a bit of a sleazeball. I much prefer Mr. Rodgers over the Kardiac Kid.

OK, the second thing today is yet another odd question on the Packers site:

Punting from the 2-yard line, or anywhere in the red (gold) zone would be a recipe for disaster: besides the possibility of the punt being returned for a long gain or even a touchdown, if the ball is punted through the end zone, the other team would get it on the 20.

What I think the reader actually meant to write was something like, “…anything longer than fourth-and-2 in the red zone was guaranteed to be a field goal attempt and, when a team was outside of field goal range on fourth-and-2 or greater, a punt” but that’s not what he wrote.

And please don’t use the “You know what he meant!” excuse. If you are to allow that “get out of jail free” card, and expect everyone to guess what others really mean—when what they say is wrong or nonsensical, at any rate—then Jon Gruesome could say, “You know what I meant! What I was trying to say was that DeMaurice Smith is one fine-looking individual. I would gladly undergo a face transplant with him so that he would be the one that has to look like Chucky!”

So my point is: Either edit yourself (read what you write at least twice before sending or posting it) or, in this case, the Packers writer should have either 1) pointed out and addressed the gaffe, or 2) silently edited it himself (if he really was certain that he knew what the cat meant).

Sunday, 10/17/21, 9:45 am

It’s almost that time; I notice in the Inactives list, Kevin King is on it again. The cat is a good player when healthy/available. They say the best ability is availability. If you’re hurt, you’re hurt—and you could hurt your team more by “gutting it out” when at 5/8 capacity—so I don’t blame him for being hurt and sitting out (it’s likely the smart thing to do), but still: A cat has got to be reliable (consistently available), so I doubt the Packers will give him a second contract. Too bad, because, as I wrote, he is a good player.

I will check in later. I’m recording the game, and won’t start watching it until noon.

2:30 pm (Pacific)

The notes I took during the game were: Myers out with a knee and finger injury; finger was his earlier problem; knee is more worrying, though (I don’t know how bad it is). Clark out briefly, but came back (boy did he, with two sacks late in the game just a play or two apart).

Bad call against ESB for PI, which did not seem valid; he was also at first counted as out of bounds, but he wasn’t. So it should have been a TD, instead a PI against him. Rotten officiating!

Another bad, or at least questionable call, on what looked like an INT by Famous Amos.

But later on, there was a questionable call or two in Green Bay’s favor, so it all worked out. Especially since the Packers won. My score prediction was off, but not too bad.

On to the Dismal Swamp next week! To play the Dismal Swampers, that is—in Lambeau. After that is a brutal stretch: at the undefeated Redbirds, then the Chiefs on a short week of preparation and recuperation, with both of those challenging games being away.