Sunday Night Football: The Pack is Back From the Dead
By Jason Lisk
Faster than you can say, “why would you ever punt to DeSean Jackson?”, Green Bay is right back in it. I won’t say that tonight’s game is meaningless, because a win would prevent the Bears from being able to secure the division tomorrow night, but the Packers went from in serious trouble to still controlling their own fate for a wildcard spot even with a loss tonight.
The Buccaneers loss to the Lions was huge for the Packers, and virtually eliminated the Bucs. This is because the Packers and Bucs are now tied on the common opponents tiebreaker (2-3 for each against Atlanta, Detroit, Washington and San Francisco), so the Packers would win the tiebreaker at 10-6 if they win the last two conference games against New York and Chicago, because of the Strength of Victory tiebreaker. The Giants’ crushing loss also means that the Packers can catch New York with a win next week. If those three teams end in a three-way tie at 10-6, Green Bay would win the tiebreaker on Strength of Victory as well.
As for the game, it would appear that the Patriots, who have been absolutely steamrolling on offense the last two weeks, have a significant upper hand for tonight’s game with Matt Flynn starting on the road in Foxboro. I’ll reprint here, though, what I wrote earlier, where I picked the Packers to keep it closer than people think (I still like New England to win):
"I’m just going to take you down memory lane back to a season called 2007. You might recall the Patriots were an unstoppable force, and when they played the Philadelphia Eagles on a Sunday Night, Donovan McNabb had gotten hurt the week before, and the Eagles were forced to start A.J. Stinking Feeley. The Eagles had been favored in 8 of 10 games that year, but with a backup QB going against the dominating Patriots on the road in primetime, the line shot up to 24 for that Sunday Night game. The Eagles almost won. I’ll remind everyone that the Packers have not lost outside of the final seconds all year, and though Rodgers is a very important player, they don’t exactly have chopped liver on the defensive side. The Packers are playing for their playoff lives. Flynn, who wasn’t sharp and had some key breakdowns, especially the goal line interception, still wasn’t Brodie “Croyled Milk” bad. He’ll have a week of preparation this time around. Yes, I think the Pats are the best team, and I think they win tonight, but I expect a good effort from a proud Green Bay team. [photo via Getty]"