No One To Blame » Brats & Beer

Posted on January 25, 2008

Despite the prescription medication, the post-playoff funk still lingers. I have avoided most things football related this week (doctor’s orders) but I couldn’t help but read the torrent of articles from journalists and bloggers questioning why the Packers lost the NFC Championship on Sunday night. So far, though, there doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus of opinion.

Fingers have and will be pointed at the obvious culprits — Mike McCarthy, Brett Favre, the cold weather — and all of them had their roles I’m sure. Bob Sanders has to take responsibility for the defensive performance, and other individual players have to accept blame for their missed opportunities. (Looking at you, Jerrett Bush.) But with such a list of suspects, who’s most at fault?

Gameplan and execution are the key ingredients in any winning strategy, and the Packers gameplan appeared to be similar to what it was all season: play the down and distance with short passes and runs, keep moving the chains and wear down the offense. Unfortunately, Green Bay more often than not got stymied on first and second down and they couldn’t covert the third and long. The offense only ran 40 or so plays the entire game.

On defense, Green Bay’s front four, responsible for stuffing the run and putting pressure on the quarterback, could do neither to get off the field. Man to man pressure on the outside worked in 13 regular season games, but any scheme has vulnerabilities and the Giants exploited them faultlessly. (To his credit, Plaxico Burress also made some great plays; against a lesser receiver Al Harris has at least one or two picks in that game.)

The picture that emerges — to me at least — is one of a team that got outplayed one-on-one. New York knew exactly what they needed to do to win the game and they did it; Green Bay did not. That doesn’t sound like very sage insight and maybe it’s too simplistic, but I think the main thing this Packers team needs to advance further next season is experience and the motivation of a loss like this one.

So if we’re looking for someone to blame for losing the championship game, maybe we should blame the Giants for being the better team when they needed to be on a cold Sunday night.

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