And now for a special comment….

Packers fans received quite a scare during last Sunday’s game against Oakland as All-Pro receiver Greg Jennings went down with a knee sprain, Green Bay escaped disaster when an MRI determined that Jennings had not torn his A-C-L which would have ended his season…

So with the Packers on the brink of clinching home field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, is the quest for perfection worth possible injury to their best players, thus potentially ruining another Super Bowl bid?

I say, yes…

The final three weeks begin with a road game at struggling Kansas City, followed by back-to-back home games against Chicago and Detroit on Christmas night and New Year’s Day. You would think there is no way the Packers lose to a Chiefs team with nothing to play for, then you have Da Bears!, well their season is in shambles after losing both Jay Cutler and Matt Forte, and the Lions, well Detroit has not won at Lambeau Field in twenty years….

Three games that the Packers should win, so a perfect 16-0 regular season is definitely within their grasp, a win Sunday over the Chiefs locks up the number one seed meaning the road to Indy will go through Titletown…

Is 16-0 truly worth it? I have been enamored with the Packers pursuit of perfection, yet after watching Jennings hobble off the field on Sunday, I must admit that I began to waver in my beliefs…

Jennings is Aaron Rodgers favorite target, number-12 would be the first to admit that number-85 makes everyone around him better… Jennings caught two touchdowns in last year’s Super Bowl victory over Pittsburgh, the other TD went to Jordy Nelson, it’s no coincidence that number-87 is enjoying a breakthrough season for the Packers in 2011….

Head coach Mike McCarthy said after beating the Giants two weeks ago and again this past Sunday against the Raiders that you can’t play football scared, that his players need to put their ‘big boy’ pants on and win football games. That certainly doesn’t sound like a coach that is going to let his foot off the accelerator…

Only one team has gone unbeaten in NFL history, the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the 2011 Green Bay Packers would love to join that exclusive party, listening to veteran cornerback Charles Woodson, the only way to top last year’s Super Bowl championship is to repeat with perfection… I agree…

Sure the Packers dodged a bullet with the injury to Jennings, he will be back in time for the playoffs, but if Aaron Rodgers is lost in these final three weeks, I think most of us would agree there won’t be a championship belt to raise in Indy on Super Sunday….

I believe these are risks the Packers are willing to take, for it was legendary coach Vince Lombardi that said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing….”

The game had been over for just a few moments, and the players were still struggling out of their shoulder pads when the murmuring finally reached full pitch. For weeks the Green Bay Packers had existed in a blissful bubble, insulated by their good nature and their distant locale from the ceaseless questions, the ballooning expectations and the mounting fatigue of a chase for football’s most elusive goal. They have been dominant this season but not domineering, oddly under the radar for a defending champion on the path to something even greater.

More related to this story

But after the Packers’ victory over the Giants on Dec. 4, there was no avoiding the target that has bedevilled two other teams in the last five years and that now awaits the Packers in the final month of the regular season. As coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers quickly moved to head off the looming story line – “I’m not going to talk about 16-0 or anything,” Rodgers said unbidden after the Giants game – Rodney Harrison watched from a New York television studio, letting his mind wander back to 2007, often marvelling at the differences that may favour the Packers’ chances of completing what the New England Patriots could not.

“Because of Spygate, everyone hated the Patriots,” Harrison, now an analyst for NBC’s Football Night in America, said in an interview. “We were like the villains. Everyone wanted us to lose. The Packers, on the other hand, are a fairy-tale story. They’re a bunch of good guys, we want them to win, it doesn’t bother us as much. We had even more intense pressure because everybody hated us. Any time you’re the first team to do something, you carry all that pressure. The Packers, even if they do it, they’re the second team to ever go 16-0. There’s no pressure on them because we already attained that goal.”

Maybe so. At 13-0, already the NFC North champions and with a quarterback who is having an extraordinary season, the Packers have the same lustre that burnished the Patriots in 2007 and the Indianapolis Colts in 2009 when they pursued undefeated seasons.

Those teams may have inadvertently done a favour for the Packers, who defeated the Oakland Raiders on Sunday. They were almost perfect, the Patriots losing their relentless pursuit of flawlessness with a defeat by the Giants in the Super Bowl and the Colts forsaking it by resting many of their best players with two games left in the regular season.

Because they employed wildly different strategies – and absorbed the second-guessing that accompanied each – without achieving their ultimate goal, no blueprint for success has been established that would box in the Packers. They will be free to carve their own path, perhaps informed by bits and pieces from each of the two most recent contenders, but they will do it freed of the spotlight that fell harshly on the Patriots.

Harrison said he thought the lockout created a distraction that limited the hype that usually attends a Super Bowl champion. When training camps finally began, the Eagles stole the headlines. Since then, Tim Tebow has been the biggest story, overshadowing a Packers team with few flamboyant personalities, a perfect formula for a low-key drive to something extraordinary.

The Packers’ attempt to construct the first undefeated season that ends with a Super Bowl championship since the 1972 Miami Dolphins (the NFL played two fewer regular-season games then) has carried none of the controversy, and little of the darkened narrative, of the Patriots’ run. That season opened with cheating accusations and continued with klieg-lighted stars like Tom Brady and Randy Moss and a hooded coach who was regularly accused of running up the score. Attracted by a whiff of scandal and the air of inevitability – the Patriots won by an average of 19.7 points, a touchdown more than the Packers’ margin of 13.2 – the national news media began covering every Patriots game once they reached 8-0.

In Miami, members of the 1972 Dolphins, and their coach, Don Shula, indicated that Spygate, the Patriots’ covert filming of Jets defensive signals in 2007, would diminish a perfect season by New England. In a recent Florida radio interview, former Dolphins running back Mercury Morris said that he did not like the Patriots’ style in 2007, but that if the Packers completed a perfect season, he would view them as a credit to the sport.

Even last week, Shula acknowledged that he and others viewed the Packers’ pursuit differently.

“Why do you think that is?” Shula said in a telephone interview. “Spygate was important.”

About the Packers, Shula said: “I’ve felt that if it happens, I’ll be the first guy to pick up the phone and congratulate the coach. I think our players will acknowledge and congratulate their players. Until it happens, we’re happy we’re the only ones.”

The game had been over for just a few moments, and the players were still struggling out of their shoulder pads when the murmuring finally reached full pitch. For weeks the Green Bay Packers had existed in a blissful bubble, insulated by their good nature and their distant locale from the ceaseless questions, the ballooning expectations and the mounting fatigue of a chase for football’s most elusive goal. They have been dominant this season but not domineering, oddly under the radar for a defending champion on the path to something even greater.

But after the Packers’ victory over the Giants last Sunday, there was no avoiding the target that has bedeviled two other teams in the past five years and which now awaits the Packers in the final month of the regular season. As coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers quickly moved to head off the looming story line — “I’m not going to talk about 16-0 or anything,” Rodgers said unbidden after the Giants game — Rodney Harrison watched from a New York television studio, letting his mind wander back to 2007, often marveling at the differences that may favor the Packers’ chances of completing what the New England Patriots could not.

“Because of Spygate, everyone hated the Patriots,” Harrison, now an analyst for NBC’s “Football Night in America,” said in an interview. “We were like the villains. Everyone wanted us to lose. The Packers, on the other hand, are a fairy-tale story. They’re a bunch of good guys, we want them to win, it doesn’t bother us as much. We had even more intense pressure because everybody hated us. Any time you’re the first team to do something, you carry all that pressure. The Packers, even if they do it, they’re the second team to ever go 16-0. There’s no pressure on them because we already attained that goal.”

Maybe so. At 12-0, already the NFC North champions and with a quarterback who is having an extraordinary season, the Packers have the same luster that burnished the Patriots in 2007 and the Indianapolis Colts in 2009 when they pursued undefeated seasons.

Those teams may have inadvertently done a favor for the Packers, who host Oakland on Sunday. They were almost perfect, the Patriots losing their relentless pursuit of flawlessness with a defeat by the Giants in the Super Bowl and the Colts forsaking it by resting many of their best players with two games left in the regular season.

Because they employed wildly different strategies — and absorbed the second-guessing that accompanied each — without achieving their ultimate goal, no blueprint for success has been established that would box in the Packers. They will be free to carve their own path, perhaps informed by bits and pieces from each of the two most recent contenders, but they will do it freed of the spotlight that fell harshly on the Patriots.

Harrison said he thought the lockout created a distraction that limited the hype that usually attends a Super Bowl champion. When training camps finally began, the Eagles stole the headlines. Since then, Tim Tebow has been the biggest story, overshadowing a Packers team with few flamboyant personalities, a perfect formula for a low-key drive to something extraordinary.

The Packers’ attempt to construct the first undefeated season that ends with a Super Bowl championship since the 1972 Miami Dolphins (the NFL played two fewer regular-season games then) has carried none of the controversy, and little of the darkened narrative, of the Patriots’ run. That season opened with cheating accusations and continued with klieg-lighted stars like Tom Brady and Randy Moss and a hooded coach who was regularly accused of running up the score. Attracted by a whiff of scandal and the air of inevitability — the Patriots won by an average of 19.7 points, a touchdown more than the Packers’ margin of 13.2 — the national news media began covering every Patriots game once they reached 8-0.

Story continues below

In Miami, members of the 1972 Dolphins, and their coach, Don Shula, indicated that Spygate, the Patriots’ covert filming of Jets defensive signals in 2007, would diminish a perfect season by New England. In a recent Florida radio interview, the former Dolphins running back Mercury Morris said that he did not like the Patriots’ style in 2007, but that if the Packers completed a perfect season he would view them as a credit to the sport.

Even last week, Shula acknowledged that he and others viewed the Packers’ pursuit differently.

“Why do you think that is?” Shula said in a telephone interview. “Spygate was important.”

About the Packers, Shula said: “I’ve felt that if it happens, I’ll be the first guy to pick up the phone and congratulate the coach. I think our players will acknowledge and congratulate their players. Until it happens, we’re happy we’re the only ones.”

Harrison was a captain of the Patriots in 2007, one of a small group of veteran players who told Bill Belichick not to take them out of two late-season but meaningless games. With the benefit of hindsight, Harrison cautioned the Packers.

“When you’re trying to be perfect, trying to play the perfect game, you put a lot of pressure on yourself,” he said. “It drains you, mentally and physically. A lot of players played a lot of plays that year. I was tired. I was mentally and physically exhausted.”

McCarthy has indicated he has a plan. He will be ready to discuss it after the Packers clinch the top seed in the playoffs. Harrison believes they will try for a perfect season; Tony Dungy thinks they will achieve it. With the San Francisco 49ers two games behind the Packers in the conference standings, the Packers could get another break — they might be able to forestall a decision a bit longer.

Dungy, the coach who took the 2005 Colts to 13-0 before losing, always thought the perfect situation for a team was to be chased as long as possible, so that winning was necessary for something more than just the pursuit of an undefeated record. Dungy, now an NBC analyst, said he started thinking about an undefeated season after about the 10th victory, and he embraced the Colts’ organizational decision to rest players, rather than risk injury.

Next Page »

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers are still perfect and heading to the playoffs.

Aaron Rodgers engineered a last minute drive to set up a 31-yard field goal by Mason Crosby on the final play and the Green Bay Packers remained undefeated and clinched a playoff berth with a 38-35 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday.

Rodgers hit three passes of more than 18 yards on the drive in the final 58 seconds as the Super Bowl champion Packers (12-0) won their 18th straight game and handed the Giants (6-6) their fourth straight loss.

New York, which was blown out by New Orleans Monday night, tied the game on a 2-yard Eli Manning touchdown pass and a 2-point conversion run by D.J. Ware with just under a minute to play.

However, Rodgers, who threw four touchdown passes, wasn’t going to settle for overtime after a touchback on the ensuing kickoff.

On first down, he completed a pass to Jermichael Finley just over the outstretched hands of rookie linebacker Jacquian Williams and the tight end rumbled 24 yards up the right sideline to the 44.

A 24-yard pass to Jordy Nelson down the left sideline moved the ball to the New York 29 and an 18-yard pass to Greg Jennings two plays later moved the ball to the 12.

Green Bay called time out with 3 seconds to go, and then Crosby delivered his winning kick.

The Packers would clinch the NFC North if Detroit lost to New Orleans on Sunday night.

For the Giants, everything wasn’t terrible. Dallas also lost, leaving New York a game behind the Cowboys with four games to go. The two teams will play twice over that span.

Rodgers, who was harassed by Giants front and sacked three times, finished 28 of 46 for 369 yards. He threw touchdown passes of 7 and 13 yards to Donald Driver, 20 to Jennings and 12 to Finley.

Linebacker Clay Matthews also returned an interception 38 yards for a score in the second quarter.

Manning finished 23 of 40 for 347 yards. He had a 67-yard touchdown pass to Travis Beckum and touchdown tosses of 4 and 2 yards to Nicks. Brandon Jacobs scored on a 1-yard run after a rare interception of Rodgers and Lawrence Tynes kicked two field goals with a 50-yard in the fourth quarter getting New York within 28-27.

Rodgers hooked up with Driver on a 7-yard TD with 3:34 to go to push the lead to 35-27.

However, Manning hit tight end Jake Ballard on two 15 yard passes and connected with Victor Cruz for 22 yards to set up the game-tying score that New York thought would send the game to OT.

Rodgers had other ideas, though, and the Packers continued their run at trying to match Miami’s perfect season in 1972.

It’s not surprising New York gave them a game. The Giants ended the Denver Broncos perfect season at 11 games in 1998 and they knocked off the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl in February 2008 when Tom Brady and company were a game from perfection.

The Giants let the Packers know early they were going to be in a for a battle this week.

Manning and Beckum, who had one catch all season, combined on a 67-yard catch and weaving run for a touchdown on the third play of the game.

Rodgers tied the game with a 12-yard TD pass to Finley on Green Bay’s second possession, only to see New York take the lead on a 38-yard field goal by Tynes.

New York seemed to be in control until Manning made a mistake on a play action pass on the first play of the second quarter. With his primary receiver covered, Manning threw a sideline pass to Ahmad Bradshaw in front of the Packers bench and Matthews jumped the route and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown and a 14-10 lead.

Rodgers had only been intercepted four times all season but linebacker Chase Blackburn, who was signed on Wednesday, picked him off at the Green Bay 21 and returned the ball to the 12. Two plays later, Brandon Jacobs plowed in from the 1 to give New York a 17-14 edge.

Rodgers atoned for the error on the next series, driving the Packers 80 yards in 11 plays with the biggest play being an 11-yard scramble on a third-and-10 from New York 43. Rodgers capped the march with a 13-yard, third-down touchdown pass to a wide-open Donald Driver on a play in which the Giants secondary blew the coverage.

Rodgers pushed the lead to 28-17 on the opening series of the second half with his fist TD pass to Driver but Manning got New York back in the game later in the quarter with his first TD to Nicks.