I take full credit for the Packers losing their last regular season game against the Jets. If I hadn't gone out of my way to rant about how the Packers can't get any respect they might have won the game. If you look back at this post from November 17th you will see that the last time I made similar remarks the Packers followed it up by losing to both Minnesota and Tampa. I don't know what I was thinking. My writing obviously influenced them to play perhaps the worst game I've seen them play as a team in the Holmgren-Rhodes-Sherman era. Losses earlier this season against Minnesota and Tampa were largely the fault of Favre and his interceptions, but the loss to New York was a full team job. The defense missed tackles left and right. The offense failed to execute much of anything. Longwell failed to comprehend that onside kicks have to travel 10 yards before any of his teammates can touch the ball. The coaching staff seems to have brought the team into the game completely unprepared. The player who comes closest to having little blame for the loss is punter Josh Bidwell.

Now that the Packers lost and blew their opportunity for home field advantage, I no longer fancy their chances of reaching the Super Bowl. The reasons are simple: 1) The Packers barely beat Atlanta the first week of the season with most everyone healthy. Without Donald Driver and perhaps Darren Sharper, I don't think they stand a chance. 2) Should the Packers win on Saturday, they'll either have to play in Tampa or Philadelphia, and I don't fancy their chances against either team. Should the same Philly offense show up that showed up against the Giants on Saturday, then the Packers might have a chance. Should the Tampa defense show up at all, then I don't give the Packers any chance, even if Brad Johnson doesn't play. It may be time to start thinking about next season.

In other football news, congratulations to the Golden Gophers on dominating Arkansas in their 29-14 win in yesterday's Music City Bowl. I was a little worried when I saw the ease with which Arkansas marched through the Minnesota defense on the opening possession, but then the defense stepped up and stuck it to the Razorbacks. The offense had one of their best performances of the season, capped off by touchdowns by Utecht and Tapeh and 5 Nystrom field goals. Additional congratulations go out to Dan Nystrom for becoming the new all-time field goal leader in Big Ten history. Of course, out of the 70+ field goals he kicked in his collegiate career, the biggest had to be the game winner a few years back against then-#2 Penn State. Rah rah ski-u-mah!