Coming off my worst week of the season 7-7 despite winning some gambles like Packers over the Texans at Houston, Cleveland's first win of the season and the Skins breaking their long home field losing streak at the expense of Minnesota I missed on several meat and potatoes games leaving me 54-37 for the season.
The mediocrity of my record means I will keep this short:
We started last night with San Francisco over Seattle—barely so I am 1-0.
Buffalo wins at home over Tennessee
Cowboys to win at Carolina—Both teams stink but I will go with the Dallas talent level.
Houston knocks off beaten up Baltimore—Unless the Ravens are one of those "team of destiny" types they are too banged up to win a game of this caliber on the road.
Colts beat the Browns at home—Cleveland got its win last week, Colts are "Chuckstrong" at home.
Vikings will beat the suddenly struggling Cardinals.
Giants to beat the Redskins on the road.
New Orleans will win again at Tampa Bay
Pats to rip the J E T S Jets, Jets, Jets --In Foxboro.
Raiders win at home over Jacksonville
Steelers get a road win at Cincy Sunday night
Bears over the Lions on Monday night.
The Packers are looking to win two games in a row for the first time this season! The 42-24 pummeling of previously unbeaten Houston at Reliant Stadium Sunday night is an indication of what this Packers team is capable of. This weekend they will attempt to, in the words of coach McCarthy, "stack success."
I want to take you back a number of decades for a little perspective on the importance of the Packers game at St Louis this weekend.
In 1968 the Packers were the three time defending World Champions. They were struggling along under first year head coach Phil Bengston, Vince Lombardi's had picked successor.
The NFL was trying an experiment with a concept called Monday Night Football. They held one game that season on a Monday night. To make a splash in prime time the league picked the two premiere franchises in the game at that time, the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys in a rematch of the previous season's NFL Championship game (The Ice Bowl).
It was Monday night October 28th and the Champs went to Dallas with a rather pedestrian 2-3-1 record. Bart Star returned to the lineup that night and the old Packers rose to the occasion in knocking off the Cowboys 28-17.
The Pack was back home the next week looking to win two in a row for the first time that season. Their archrivals the Chicago Bears were in town and the game came down to a rare free kick. With the score tied at 10-10 Donny Anderson's short punt was fair caught by the Bears at the Green Bay 43-yard line with 26 seconds to go. Chicago coach Vince Dooley called for a free kick by Mac Percival and the Packers stood by helplessly as Percival made the field goal and the Bears scored a 13-10 victory over the Packers.
The win at Dallas the previous Monday had showed the might of the Champion Packers. It showed what they were still capable of, but the loss to the Bears and another loss the following week to the Vikings proved that the old Packers were no longer capable of sustaining championship performance. So instead of being the turnaround moment of the season, the Monday night victory over the Cowboys was merely a glimpse of what once was for the greatest era in Packers history. In other words it was just a moment.
Green Bay went on to a 6-7-1 season, missed the playoffs and won two games in a row only once that season (over New Orleans and at Washington in November). The Lombardi era was over, the former coach left his GM job in Green Bay after the 1968 season and went on to coach the Washington Redskins in 1969.
I know you might consider this a stretch because this is a much different era and in fact the NFL is a different type of game today than in the sixties, but the 2012 Packers face a moment much like their predecessors in 1968. The Packers are coming off their most impressive victory of the season. They have not won two games in a row yet and they are favorites going into a game they should win. Lose this game at St Louis and or the following week against Jacksonville and the impressive victory at undefeated Houston becomes merely a glimpse of their capability and not a turnaround to the season.
Not sure you are buying all of that but as I see it, the difference between the Packers of 1968 and the Packers of 2012 is that the '68 Packers were over the hill. The '12 Packers are in the middle of their "window" of Super Bowl possibilities.
So this weekend the Pack will "stack success" 28-17 over the Rams.
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