If this wasn't the worst NFC Championship game ever, it was close.
At least blowout games of the 1980s - before the balancing force of free agency eroded super teams from within - featured highly competent football on ONE side of the ball.
The Packer's 21-14 win over the Bears was just 44.5 minutes of one team betting the other one they had no chance to score two touchdowns in 3 quarters.
Not unlike one drunk, betting the other drunk at a bar, he couldn't bounce a quarter off the bar and into a shot glass on top of the liqour cabinet. Even with unlimited quarters until closing time, it gets pretty boring, pretty quick.
This was a fight with the big guy getting in one good hard punch, followed by a headlock that lasts until the police show up.
This game will also be remembered as the "Game That Changed Jay Cutler's Career."
The full story is not yet written, and I suspect there will be some interesting chapters that come out in the following weeks.
Conflicting medical reports. A snarky comment from Cutler himself, in some off-season interview months from now. A teammate, likely off the record, who rips his QB for being a, well, let's just say it rhymes with "complete pussy."
Cutler certainly belongs in the unwanted pantheon of "Least Inspiring NFL Starters Ever." Right up there with Jeff George, and modern day non-greats like Matt Leinart, Vince Young, and Rex Grossman.
I'm slightly more sympathetic to Jay Cutler knowing his body better than anybody, and assuming, that he didn't climb to this level of athletic success by NOT wanting to be in big games.
But that assumption has been proven wrong before with certain quirky athletes. Guys like Kwame Brown, Michael Westbrook, and Ricky Williams come to mind. Guys who ended up pros, basically because they were just very good at playing their sport, not because they had any genuine ambition.
This doesn't diminish Green Bay as the clean and deserving winner on Sunday. They were, and are, a far better team, Cutler or not.
What was saved, is an embarrassing two weeks for Cutler and Lovie Smith. Can you imagine the questions? Do you coach up Hanie, and start him no matter how many shots of cortisone Culter gets?
Certainly, the Commissioner's office won't have to fluff up a -18.5 point spread game in Dallas. But Goodell's drumbeat of an 18 game season, along with the madness of this upcoming cold weather Super Bowl, will take a well deserved beating.
Hey Czabe, I can't believe you didn't say anything about the way they changed the NFC/AFC trophies from the old "ashtray" style. What gives?
ReplyDeleteLoved the fact that of the 3 people you mentioned as being high on talent and short on heart, 2 of them were drafted by Washington teams. :)
ReplyDeleteczabe talked about the trophys last week, much better now imo
ReplyDeleteHow long before the Shannys come calling for Cutler?
ReplyDeleteCutler just strikes me as a really odd person. Football or not. He seems pouty, sirly, and withdrawn. PMS perhaps?
ReplyDeleteSo, Jay Cutler endures a 50+ sack season, inclunding a HALF of a game with NINE sacks and a door prize of a concussion, and then just quits on his team in the Championship game in front of his home crowd?
ReplyDeleteYeah, Right.
I WOULD like to take this opportunity to thank the likes of "Doctors" Derek Brooks and Maurice Jones-Drews for their speedy and insightful Twitter diagnoses of Cutler's knee from hundreds(thousands?) of miles away.
Yo, Dr. "He can finish the game on a hurt knee, I played the whole season on one." Jones-Drew. Really? So that WASN'T YOU sitting out week 16 and 17 WHEN YOUR TEAM NEEDED YOU THE MOST and was still figting for a play-off spot? How about that lovely 46 yards at barely 3 yards a clip in your game against the Colts in week 15? Were you hurt, and maybe should NOT have been playing and dragging your team's running game down? Or did you just CHOKE in you team's BIGGEST GAME OF THE YEAR and then sit out the last 2 games because YOU quit?
Note a brief aside from Troy Aikman during the broadcast, "The Packers brought B.J. Raji in as a defensive tackle and moved him to middle guard." THE END.
ReplyDeleteNot "...moved him to middle guard so he whined and bitched and moaned and was such a pain in the ass, his teammates hate him and the coaches want to get rid of him."
No, Aikman did not say that. Must be nice...
BTW, a HUGE coaching mistake was actually Mike Martz leaving Todd Collins at #2 on the offensive depth chart. Collins is obviously a stiff and can't play anymore. Hanie should have been in from the start. (While taking more reps at practice too.)
Todd Collins. All the mobility of the John Hancock Building but without the observation deck.
ReplyDeletePush rushers could find him if they were BLINDFOLDED.