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Rick Wood
James Starks is dejected on the bench in the final minutes.
What do you blame most for the Packers' loss?
Defense: 25%
Offense: 36%
Coaching: 16%
The Giants: 23%
Total Responses: 1132
Favorite Play
We asked for your votes to help decide the No. 1 favorite play of the Packers' 2011 regular season. And, the winner is...
Green Bay - Somewhere between the turnovers and the awful pass defense and the dropped balls and the boos that deservedly rained down on the Green Bay Packers as they sought halftime refuge, the mind drifted back to the idyllic and possibility-filled summer of 2011.
This was going to be the calendar year when our little ol' state ruled the sporting world. The Brewers were going to the World Series. The Badgers were going to win it all. And the Packers were surely going to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
Is it just me, or did it feel like a nuclear winter of reality blew in Sunday?
But, hey, at least we've got Miss America.
As a counter to outright cynicism and a measure of relief to this brutal Monday morning hangover, you'll take 11 victories from Wisconsin, even if it could have been so much more in the wake of another Rose Bowl loss. As a pragmatist, you understand the Badgers probably will never have the speed to win a national championship.
You'll take the NLCS because you get that not even the '97 Braves pitching staff could have stopped the Cardinals, along with, of course, the understanding that market size will likely always mean that the Brewers will be one or two players short.
But this 37-20 loss to the New York Giants?
What we're trying to digest now is the harsh truth that a team that won 15 times during the regular season could not win even one stinkin' playoff game. At home. And look Cleveland Browns kind of bad in the process.
The Brewers and the Badgers, OK, there is some level of acceptance. But this stunning end to the Packers' season? Sorry, there is no consolation whatsoever, no spinning it into a get-'em-next-year tale, not under any circumstances.
The outright beating from the Giants rendered a 15-1 season an outright failure. There is no other way to say it, no other way to consider it. Given the gravity of the situation, it might have been the worst performance of the Mike McCarthy era, shutouts by the Bears and losses to a winless Tampa Bay included.
And now you're telling me against the chill of such expectations that all we have to look forward to between now and spring training is the hope that the Bucks can keep it to 20 or fewer on the road?
That was the thought as Giants fans, much like Cheesers pretty much anywhere on the road, celebrated behind the New York bench while Lambeau Field cleared out like the lakefront when Elton John showed up for the Harley-Davidson 100-year bash.
"We did not play to our identity," McCarthy said.
A game before the NFC championship would not be the time to go to the dance dressed as the Vikings. But truth be told, the Green Bay defense did play to its true nature. It was horrendous. Clay Matthews and A.J. Hawk? Hair today, gone Sunday. But that's way too convenient a shot. No one on that side of the ball showed up, not even Charles Woodson, who, as usual, told it like it was.
"Anything that you've seen through the regular season happened to us today," Woodson said. "Missed tackles, assignments, not getting to the quarterback."
As much as you wanted to believe that the NFL's worst defense could make it happen when it mattered, there was no changing those spots.
And that silly 37-yard alley-oop to Hakeem Nicks with no time left on the halftime clock? Again, the Packers picked the wrong time to go all Bucky vs. the states of Michigan and Ohio with their, um, prevent defense.
With no rush, bumper-car tackling and little resistance toward Eli Manning, the defense was its usual self. Except this time, there would be no Aaron Rodgers to cover its mistakes.
Rodgers was so bad for once that his witty insurance commercials should be recalled. For a guy who is likely going to be the NFL MVP, missing open receivers, taking a fourth-down sack and putting forth a quarterback rating equal to the January highs in Phoenix was like taking a trip back to his early years against the rampaging New York defense.
But it wasn't just the quarterback. How many more passes does Jermichael Finley have to drop before an otherwise tremendous athlete is deemed unreliable? Is that your franchise tag? Really?
Give it to Rodgers, though, for speaking the truth about a failed season. This is the Green Bay Packers. Unlike their in-state cousins, it's the whole thing or bust.
"(Like) after the 2009 season when we lost to Arizona, it sucks," Rodgers said. "This team, this organization, this fan base expects championships. We had a championship-caliber regular season and didn't play well (Sunday)."
And that is the cold, hard reality.
Send email to mhunt@journalsentinel.com
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