HarveysWBs

Stop scoring so fast!

The all-important battle of the kickers is all knotted up. Really going to come down to the wire.

And now the attrition starts

He’s probably already in the press room.

Atta boy, Carlson

Nixon and Carlson the only negatives so far. Unbelievable half of football.

Hahaha, Savage!

I’m not expecting either one to finish the game. I just hope Watson doesn’t tear a hammy. He needs the offseason to get his body right, and a bunch of rehab on top of that isn’t ideal.

Good. We can just eliminate the fig leaf of objectivity now. Let’s at least be honest and clear about what is being offered for public consumption in our media.

Carolina is the definition of a poverty franchise. That just keeps looking worse and worse.

Another January injury to a key contributor right before the playoffs. Can’t make it up. Then again, I also had the same thought as @homer—this team has been playing quite well in the secondary with Valentine and Ballentine, attorneys at ball. But then again, Dallas is a different beast. This is the most complete passing attack our defense has played all season (and is likely to see in this whole tournament). We may be about to find out how much smoke and mirrors Joe Barry has left in the bag.

After the Lions game on Thanksgiving, I was telling a buddy at work that, for the first time all year, I was simply looking forward to watching the Packers play. I had reached the perfect equilibrium between thinking they could win, at peace with the idea that they probably won’t, and genuinely excited to see what they come up with. I haven’t felt that feeling much as a Packers fan, pretty much forever (my earliest football memories are of the 1994 and 1995 seasons, so most years have been high expectation ones for me). After getting a little over my skis after they beat the Chiefs and I assumed they’d win at least 10, I’m back to the golden mean. And I’m not saying this is predictive or anything, but I haven’t felt like this since…2010? I mean, they probably won’t win a single playoff game, but, could they win any given game? Wouldn’t shock me, not even the 49ers, who can lay an egg with the best of them. I’m just ready to have fun now. [Somebody quote this at me when Carlson misses a FG and an ExP, please…]

Good job to the kids! Got get a taste of the postseason!

Rivalries just aren’t what they used to be.

Another cal l could have gone either way. This just feels like a loss.

Bottom line is, we shouldn’t be leaving it to the zebras anyway. This should be well in hand.

Getting hosed

And they decided it so quickly. I just don’t get this one.

Good grief, we’re getting no breaks, and not helping ourselves. Bad combination,

Just ridiculous. But believable.

Imagine what this offense will look like if everyone ever gets on the same page…

Dang it. That’s a killer

What the heck is Valentine doing?

LaFleur’s offseason assignment: play Madden until timeout decisions become automatic. Passcatchers’ offseason assignment: tackling dummies every day until they learn to fight to the sideline.

Well, here we are. Not sure what to say about this game, or this season. If you would have told me in August that the Packers would be right around .500 and a play-in game Week 18, I’d have been pleasantly surprised. If you would have also told me Jordan Love had an outside shot at leading the league in TD passes and would steadily improve heading into January, I’d have been thrilled. And if you had told me the defense had acquitted itself poorly enough to make replacing Barry a (seemingly) foregone conclusion, I’d say that is a pretty successful season. And yet…somehow, that doesn’t quite say it. It isn’t just where the Packers have ended up, but how they got here. So many close losses to (probably?) inferior opponents. So many unexpectedly good wins. If you’re like me, you go into today’s game with the feeling that the 2023 Packers, despite how many disadvantages they were overcoming, could have had considerably more success than they had. And things seem to be coming into place to allow a (little) January run. And yet again…doesn’t it all just add up to a team that doesn’t do what it is supposed to do—losing when they are supposed to win, and winning when they are supposed to lose? This team is the essence of inconsistency, and something tells me they will remain that way until they develop a defense they can count on, which isn’t going to be this year. And if they are rightly favored to win this game, their recent history makes me pretty nervous about that. So I guess I really just have no idea what to expect today. I think the only result that would surprise me is a double-digit Bears win (even against our defense, I don’t think the Bears have the type of offense that can truly pull away in this one). Beyond that, I give us a coin flip chance at best, and am most interested in seeing if Love remains as unflappable as he has been all year in the most pressure-filled game of his career. Should be fun!