2011 Wk 9 @ SD

Tuesday 08th November 2011
at 09:52pm

Hello all, hoping you had a terrific bye week.

Again, I want to open with a little foreword to commiserate with the Badgers. I was sad to see them let their season slip away indefinitely with another loss, this time to Ohio State. Unlike the Michigan State game I didn’t get to see this one, the loss though is a terrible one all the same. It’s too bad that Russell Wilson gave up what slim hope he had at the Heisman (even if I do think all of that talk was a little premature). And it’s sad too that a shot at the National Championship, no matter how far-fetched that might have seemed in the company of LSU and Alabama, seems like nothing more than the pipe-dream most cynical fans already believed it to be. I find it a real shame, there seemed to so much potential. I read that somebody commented on Facebook that they’d be lucky to play in the Salad Bowl now, which, despite the fact that I’m sure that’s a really old joke, had me cracking up every time I thought of it. (Charlie Peprah photo credit - AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

Anyway, that’s about all I can say on the topic before I expose myself as being a complete band-wagoner (insert smiley face here.) Let’s move straight on to the Packers and Week 9.

I write this entry somewhat reluctantly as, for most of the year, it was this week that I had planned to have our family back in the grand ol’ U.S of A. After the Super Bowl win I managed to get cracking on the rewrite of my book. Once the season schedule was released I ear marked this game as the start of a four week book tour, if you could call it that. You see, we have to fly into LA to get Green Bay and because of the age of our little ones, we tend to plan a few days there just to break up the travel.  With that in mind I figured, fly in, see the Chargers game, holiday a little, get to Green Bay for back-to-back home games and go via Detroit to get home instead of Chicago so that I could see the Thanksgiving game as well.

Alas, those plans haven’t materialized so instead I’ll continue on my merry way until the first week of February when we touch-down in Indianapolis to see our team go to the Super Bowl again. I keep telling myself that back-to-back Super Bowls are better than back-to-back home games.

As for this week, the Chargers, Giants, Lions and Bears look to be the only teams on our schedule that might come remotely close to having a crack at stopping what has become the league’s best winning streak since the ‘07 Patriots. The jury is still out on the Lions for me but the other three pose somewhat of a threat. And today, we got to see just how we’d handle a team, and quarterback, capable of playing us at our game, on offense and defense; away from home no less.

Again, the timing of the game for me was tough so I managed a mix of television before I left for work, game pass for audio on my phone whilst in the car, a peek of the iPad for some NFL.com highlights as I ordered my morning coffee and regular NFL app updates for the score whenever I could. Of course I watched the entire game off DVR once I got home and the family was asleep but by then, I knew the score and all that had happened.

Still, seeing the first half materialize the way that it did was incredible. I don’t care what anybody says about our defense, I think they’re awesome. I appreciate the O are putting up some big scores and that’s helping us in the win column, but fair suck of the sausage as we’d say down here, give the D a break. Two pick sixes following Aaron’s first touchdown had us up 21-0 before the Bolts realized it was Sunday afternoon and the game had actually started.

Even at the back end, the Chargers only got as close as they did ‘cause Philip Rivers had no choice but to air it out completely. And we need to be fair dinkum about who we’re dealing with here, Philip Rivers may not be the greatest quarterback to play the game but he’s one of the best going around these days and his numbers over the last few years back that notion up. I appreciate this year has been rough on him but he’s still Phillip Rivers and he’s still capable of putting up basketball sized numbers on any defense in the league.

Throw in a successful onside kick (what were you thinking, Jordy?) and it’s little wonder they got as close as they did. Again though, when it really counted, Charlie stepped up and took his second pick of the day, third for Rivers on the day to seal the win once and for all.

I truly believe in situations like this that the defense has a completely different game to play. It’s not about limiting yards and keeping the opponent to nothing, it’s about trying to tame a team that has no option than to attack in ways that conventional coaching and game play would discourage.

And that’s the beauty of our team as it has played this year. It’s not conventional, or normal. It’s amazing. And no level of amazing from any other team so far has been able to match it.

Go Pack Go!

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