NFL Wild-Card Weekend thread

I was going to say "small sample size," but that's not bad either.

 

Roscablo-

Green Bay didn't host a playoff game between the Ice Bowl and the Barry Sanders game at Lambeau where he rushed for 0 yards on 11 carries or somesuch. A lot happens in a franchise inside 30 years, some more turbulent than others.

You might be able to fall ass backward into a 12-4(5) record for one season but you can't do it on luck for a lengthy basis.

 

Good point. For as much as people crap on Jerry Jones, he's actually a very good owner and the Cowboys are a solid organization.
Jones passionately cares about the product and has invested in it. He doesn't overreact and fire his coaches or demand a quarterback change because of a bad loss or two (perhaps to the team's detriment). They've drafted very well in recent years. Even at their worst, for the most part, they've been around .500. When they have been below .500 they don't stay there long. Since the three 5-11 finishes in a row from 2000-02, they haven't had back-to-back losing seasons.
They just haven't won in the playoffs.
It's really more mystifying than anything that a team that's been consistently decent hasn't caught a break or two that pushes them over that hump. Especially considering how much parity there is in the NFC on an annual basis, you'd think the law of averages would kick in at some point and it'd be their year.

 

Too late to tell NBC to go Lose Yourself?

 

Seriously? The defense was a complete sieve all game until it didn’t matter anymore.

 

Yes. The defense was terrible, and was the main reason they lost. Even once the offense got in gear the Packers shredded them and stayed a step ahead.
But Dak threw a pick-six and another interception that set the Packers up at the 20-yard line for an easy touchdown, both in the first half when sustained drives could have settled things down and kept them in the game. They also struggled on their other early drives.
Sometimes the defense has an off day and you just have to say, "OK, screw it, looks like we'll just have to outscore them." Those two interceptions made that impossible.
The defense gets the lion's share of the blame for giving up 41 points and another touchdown on a short field. Dak is far from blameless, though.

 

JFC, what happened in your childhood…

 

As Strahan, star of GMA and Fox Sports, ironically said about these Cowboys: It’s like the players — bc of the organization — are more about putting on a performance, a show, than just playing a football game and being players They weren’t loose last night and will never be loose under Jerruh.

 

Short version: My dad worked for the Lions when I was little-little, so I spent some fun times hanging out with Alex Karras and his family, among many others. Which was a lot of fun. Family moved to Ohio due to a job transfer. Loved every minute of that ever since. Sports are easy when you have no expectations and when there's 10 million other things to do.

 

The defense gave up TDs on 6 of the first 7 possessions. The offense was bad before garbage time and Dak had some killer picks. But the defense was utterly clueless all game and never looked capable of making a play.

 

Because most of them live in Florida now.