Last Sunday was a really tough day for me as a Green Bay Packers fan. Now, before I go on, I want readers to know I understand the relative significance of what I am writing about. On the scale of things to be upset about, your favorite sports team losing an important game should rank right up there with a hangnail. Honestly, there are lots of real people with lots of real problems all over America. People are unemployed. People have health problems. There’s injustice, inequality and discrimination. If you look around the world, there are a billion people hungry. Nonetheless, as trite as it may be, I am going to whine about my beloved Packers losing a football game. For those who may not be predisposed to knowing such things, the Packers blew a 12-point lead in the final few minutes of the NFC Championship game in Seattle against the Seahawks – who henceforth I shall refer to as the Seapigeons. So instead of going to the Super Bowl in Arizona, the Packers packed it up and headed home to Green Bay. It wasn’t so much that they lost. It was the way they lost. It was one of those times in sports when the best team truly didn’t win. I don’t think even the most ardent Seapigeon fan would argue that Seattle was the best team on the field last Sunday. Well, I take that back. Seapigeon fans are delusional. But seriously. Nobody – and I mean nobody – gave the Packers a snowball’s chance in San Tropez of beating the Seapigeons at Seattle. I even had my doubts. When I was explaining to my wife – also a Packers fan – why the Packers were 7.5-point underdogs, she would have none of it. She threw up the palm of her hand and said she didn’t want to hear it. Then she made some Biblical inference like, “Oh ye of little faith.” Well, as it turns out, she was right – to a point. The Packers pretty much dominated the Seapigeons for 56 of 60 minutes during the game. The Packers’ defense gave Seapigeon quarterback Russell Wilson all he could handle. At one point toward the end of the first half, Wilson had passed for 8 total yards, had three interceptions and a quarterback rating of 0. By the end of the game, he had thrown one more pick and a TD pass to boost his quarterback rating all the way up to 44.3. Let’s put that in perspective. The worst QB performance in a post-season game came from Craig Morton in Super Bowl XII. He was 4-15 for 39 yards and 4 interceptions. His rating was 0. Fran Tarkenton put up a 14.1 rating in Super Bowl IX. Then there’s Joe Flacco in 2009 with an 18.2; Donovan McNabb, 2004, 19.3; Billy Kilmer, Super Bowl VII, 19.8; Tim Tebow, 2012, 35.8; Kerry Collins, Super Bowl XXXV, 38.5; and Jake Delhomme, 2009, 39.1 Next, along comes Russell Wilson with his stunningly subpar 44.3 rating in Sunday’s big win. So let’s think about this for a moment. This kid turns in the ninth-worst quarterback performance in the history of NFL post-season play – and he’s goin’ to the Super Bowl. Heck, to make the top 50 post season QB performances you need to get to 70.8. And all the top guys are over like, oh, I don’t know, 100. Maybe somebody like Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers who went 39-61 for 304 yards and 3 TDs and a QB rating of 111.5 in Super Bowl XLV. Green Bay beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-25. Aside from that, the most annoying thing about last Sunday’s game is the fact that every possible thing just swung the lucky little Seapigeons way in the last few minutes of the game allowing them to erase a 12-point deficit in just under 4 minutes. The hail Mary pass for the two-point conversion. The onside kick that was bobbled and then bounced just the right way. Even the darn coin toss. Why did Rodgers call tails? You never call tails. Call heads! Throughout those sorrowful final 3 minutes and 52 seconds of regulation time, I remember thinking: Well, that’s OK, we’ve still got the ball ... Well that’s OK, we can run a little clock ... Well that’s OK, we’re still up 8 ... Well that’s OK, we’ll cover the onside kick ... Well that’s OK, we’ll stop them here ... Well that’s OK, we’ll stop the two-point try ... Well that’s OK, we’ll tie it up and get ‘em in overtime. Well ... we lost. How in the world did we manage to lose? I hate it when the best team loses. It’s just, well, un-American. I know some readers might be saying this is just sour grapes. I beg to disagree. This isn’t sour grapes. This is rancid, moldy, stinking, salmonella-infested grapes. Go Pack!
