It has also started to occur to me this week, as I wait for a Saturday that seems it will never arrive, that this is the last week I will really get the feeling of playing with house money. I don’t know about how anyone else sees it, but the whole “they shouldn’t be here and they shouldn’t win” vibe worked last week and will again this week, but no longer.
In the hypothetical realm, an NFC championship game comes against either Tampa or Detroit, and that’s a very winnable game either way. Then, once you’re in the Super Bowl, you can’t just be happy to be there. There’s no “aw shucks, we’ll get them next year” for the losers. Even if we face the defending champ Chiefs, or S-tier Ravens, or the red-hot Bills (and we’d be deserving dogs in all those matchups), you have to find a way to win. Rodgers never got back to a second one, so you have to get it when the getting is good, no matter what.
So I’m once again trying to remind myself that this week is the postseason at its best. I have no expectations for this game, and it can be pure fun (so long as I don’t think about previous playoff matchups too often). Next week is going to be a different feeling either way.