The Green Bay Packers continue to roll right along and they are now two games away from running the table following a 4-6 start. While the original statement from Aaron Rodgers was regarding the regular season, after knocking off the number one seeded Dallas Cowboys in Dallas, it’s time to include the postseason as well. They have to finish this historic run with a championship.
Easier said than done, obviously, as the case can be made the second seeded Atlanta Falcons are a better team than the Cowboys, certainly their offense is more explosive, and their front seven on defense is better. But more on the Falcons later, I’m still basking in the glory of the Cowboys win.
The Packers had many heroes in Sunday’s win, we all know about Aaron Rodgers and Jared Cook, but Micah Hyde came up big again with several big plays including an interception on a screen pass that was just an insane play and took points off the board for the Cowboys. Hyde has been a key player during the Packers’ eight-game winning streak, none bigger than his pass breakup in Chicago that setup Rodgers to Jordy Nelson’s 62-yard pass.
Of course, the other hero of that game in Chicago was a hero of the Dallas game as well. Kicker Mason Crosby has all-of-sudden become Mister Clutch. He hit the game winner in the bitter cold and then hit three 50+ yard field goals in the last 93 seconds Sunday, even though only two of them counted. Crosby barely survived 2012 when he only made 60-percent of his field goal attempts. But since nailing that 50-yarder in Seattle in the NFC Championship to send the Packers to overtime, he has been money. Amazingly he is only 32 too, he might be around for quite a while.
The Jared Cook catch is going to go down in history as the play of the game, and what is a little ironic is that Cook is one of the very few free agents that general manager Ted Thompson has signed over the years. Another free agent signing, Charles Woodson was the key to the Packers’ 2010 run to a Super Bowl title. As successful has been when dipping into the free agent pool, one wonders why another player or two couldn’t have been added over the years, maybe the Packers wold have another Super Bowl or two. But I digress, it is no coincidence that the Packers’ run started with the return of Cook from injury, Cook is the key ingredient the Packers were missing last year and the reason why they couldn’t overcome the loss of Jordy to a preseason season ending injury.
I expect Rodgers, Cook, and the rest of the offense to continue it’s run in Atlanta, but they better be prepared to score 40 or more points to pull out this one, that Falcons’ offense is unbelievable. Fortunately, as a fan, I don’t have to worry about that until Sunday.