The Green Bay Packers are the NFC North Division Champions! How sweet it is! Just think, if you are like myself you just solved many of your Christmas present dilemmas. Especially for my out of town relatives. Hats, t-shirts and jerseys. I love it. Of course, there are things more important than my Christmas list, like the Packers locking up the NFC’s No. 2 seed. With Packer-killer Jason Hanson missing a one-yard field goal for the Detroit Lions yesterday, the Packers can be assured of a trip to Dallas if they want to go to the Super Bowl. Can you believe that? Hanson has never missed a field goal against the Packers even when the Lions aren’t playing the Packers he hurts us. Just another reason why he is one of my all-time most disliked division foes.
Lost in my Hanson rant was the fact that the Packers bounced back from the loss in Dallas by destroying the Raiders in Lambeau Field and winning the North in the process. My new hat sits on my ugly melon right now. It was a great day to be at the Lambeau, very reminiscent of the 1990s when the Packers were expected to win at home and always did. This team seems to have that mentality and that lone blemish to the hated Bears looms larger and larger each week.
The fact that the Packers have not lost to a team that they should have beat handily just shows an ability to put the previous week behind them and focus on the task at hand whether the opponent is good or bad. I thought that was most evident in the win over the Raiders. For the first time this year Brett Favre said during the week that he thought the Packers would respond well and that scared me more than anything. All season Favre was worried about this team being too loose and wasn’t sure if they were overconfident or just that good. Three games left, but at eleven and two, I think this is the best Packers’ team since 1997 or maybe 1998. None of former coach and general manager Mike Sherman’s teams had this level of consistently good football, not to mention the toughness this team seems to have over Sherman’s teams.
The Packers have a chance to lay a huge egg when they visit St. Louis this weekend, but I’m thinking an indoor game and the fact that the Cowboys looked like dung in Detroit will keep them focused. Just for luck’s sake, I’ll probably predict a close game later in the week, but right now I think the Packers should roll. I’m still more worried about the Bear game, even more so now that Kyle Orton has taken over as starting quarterback for the Bears. Just kidding, but still, beating the Packers twice will make the Bears horrible season just a tad less excruciating.
More to come…