mere mortals

After winning 19 straight dating back 364 days, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers were reminded by the Kansas City Chiefs that it's hard to win football games in the NFL. Pressure on Rodgers and no takeaways were the key factors in the loss, and injuries on the offensive line look to make things difficult for Rodgers down the stretch.

Much of this season, Rodgers has had the luxury of time in the pocket to wait for a receiver to get open or for a running lane to develop to scoot through. On Sunday, the Chiefs were able to pressure Rodgers, due in some part to injuries to tackle Bryan Bulaga, followed by Bulaga's backup, Derrick Sherrod. Bulaga is out for Sunday against the Bears, and Sherrod for the season with a broken leg.

Against the Bears this weekend, Rodgers will likely face more pressure than he's used to, and he'll be forced to get rid of the ball sooner. If he does, the receivers need to catch them. Drops against Kansas City might have lost the game. Jermichael Finley, with four drops, especially did himself no favors in his quest to open contract talks with the Packers. Hopefully he turns it around on Sunday.

The injuries on the OL will probably limit the rushing game, as well. Though the Packers are definitely a pass-first team, the run game has been productive enough to keep defenses committed to stopping it. If the running game totally stalls, the play-action won't work, and the Packers' big-play offense becomes limited. Maybe the “next man up” mantra will work some kind of magic, and third-year pro Evan Dietrich-Smith plays like a man possessed, but don't count on it.

The defense failed to take away the ball from an opponent for the first time this season against Kansas City. Just one turnover could have been the difference. This is probably a fluke. The Packers defense will continue to give up yards, but they should continue to take the ball away, too. If they do, the Packers will continue to win.

Even after this loss, the Packers are the team to beat in the NFL. They can lock up home field through the playoffs on Sunday at home against the Bears. After that, the starters probably come out of the game early at home against the Lions in a game that should bear no weight on the standings. Then, it's a measly three game winning streak to their second Super Bowl Championship.

quickie wins the super bowl

The Packers' 31-25 victory over the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV was truly a microcosm of their 2010 season:

The team battled through injuries to key players. When Donald Driver limped off the field, my heart sank because Quickie is the man, and he deserves a championship. When Charles Woodson and Sam Shields went out, my heart sank because Jarrett Bush and Pat Lee aren't that good. Bush's excellent play on punt coverage and impressive interception don't change the fact that Hines Ward juked him out of his cleats, then his jock, then pantsed him in the end zone in front of 111 million people, all on the same play.

The defense played great in the first half, intercepting Ben Roethlisberger twice and keeping Rashard Mendenhall in check, but allowed the Steelers to score late in the second quarter and allowed them to make a game of it in the second half. It didn't help that kickoff coverage was weak, giving the Steelers good starting position most of the game. Once again, Clay "Bloodline" Matthews III bailed the defense out by knocking the ball loose from Mendenhall, ending a Steelers' drive that was making Packers' fans nervous. If Woodson is the spiritual leader of the defense, Bloodline is its enforcer.

The running game showed some sparks, but never caught fire. It really only served to keep Troy Polamalu guessing. Thankfully, Aaron Rodgers again played lights out football. If his receivers hold on to a few more of those perfect passes, the babbling heads on ESPN and NFL Network wouldn't be talking about one of the best performances by a quarterback in Super Bowl history. I'm talking 400+ yards and four or five touchdowns; maybe one on foot. They wouldn't have given him the MVP award, they would have named it after him. And he still had to answer stupid questions about the hillbilly from Kiln with the bad judgment. Ridiculous.

This is a team that was favored to win the Super Bowl before the season started, but lost numerous starters to injury, and struggled to find an offensive rhythm without running back Ryan Grant and tight end Jermichael Finley. It got so bad that they couldn't score a touchdown against the lowly Lions in week 14, and had to win their last two games to even make the playoffs (with some help from DeSean Jackson and the Giants' punt coverage team). That's five straight elimination games to get to the Super Bowl. They became the first #6 seed from the NFC to even make it to the Super Bowl, let alone win (the Steelers won it for the AFC in Super Bowl XL).

And while it's nice to bask in this win, Packers fans have reason to be excited for next season (if there is one). This is still the second youngest team in the NFL, and the way the young unkowns stepped in to play when starters went down makes Ted Thompson look clairvoyant. Driver indicated that he's coming back (go Quickie!), and Woodson will be back if he has to put screws in his broken clavicle himself. With Grant back, the backfield should be a little more worrisome for opponents, if not altogether formidable. Most importantly, Finley will be back, giving Rodgers another dangerous weapon in the passing game, and that's frightening. Defensive coordinators on the schedule next season are already having nightmares.

how far the mighty have fallen

After returning the Green Bay Packers to glory in the 90s and riding his gunslinger style and youthful exuberance to almost Olympian status, it appears Brett Favre has hit bottom, his cock and his Crocs aside. And he has brought the Minnesota Vikings head coach, and possibly the entire franchise, along for the fall.

I didn't get to watch (or even listen to) the Packers' dismantling of the Vikings yesterday, but by all accounts Favre and company hardly bothered to play the game. In post-game comments, Visanthe Shiancoe, Jared Allen, and Adrian Peterson couldn't definitively state otherwise. Tight end Shiancoe* was the most emphatic. When asked if he felt like his team is putting forth the necessary effort, he replied pointedly, "Nope. Nope. Nope." No players were named, but one can't help but assume that Favre, who famously skipped yet another training camp this season, was at least one target of those comments.

With the firing of head coach Brad Childress by the Vikings today, Favre's status as the starter is in question, and one wonders if he would continue with the team if benched, or if he would slink off to Hattiesburg in ignominy. My guess is ignominy. And for a man who could have been the hero of the greatest football story ever told, that's sad.

*With the spate of injuries to Packers tight ends this season, I would be thrilled to see Shiancoe in the Green and Gold. At least when his junk gets in the media, it's an hilarious accident, not a creepy incident.

a moot point

Charles Woodson made an MVP statement on Monday night against Baltimore when he knifed through the offensive line on first and goal to drop Willis McGahee for a loss. Tramon Williams intercepted a Favre-like pass by Joe Flacco on the next play to preserve Green Bay's lead at 10 points. On a defense that has steadily improved since switching to a 3-4 base, Woodson is the clear-cut leader. But on this play, he really stole the show in an already stellar team performance.

Check out the slow motion video at Cheesehead TV.

Ryan Pickett shoves the center into the path of the pulling right guard, which allows A.J. Hawk to beat the guard to the hole, and forces McGahee to bounce outside. Woodson never lets him get there.

But if Woodson misses that tackle, Collins has already shed the block of the fullback and is in good position to make a tackle himself. Which he probably would have.

If he didn't, B.J. Raji, who had previously engaged two offensive lineman on his own, and Brad Jones, who had crawled under the right end on the far side of the play, were both closing on the ballcarrier. Clay Matthews looked like he was held, otherwise he might have been in pursuit, too. Barring some kind of Keystone Kops routine, I don't see anything better for McGahee than sneaking out of bounds at the two or three yard line.

But Charles Woodson is a god. He made the tackle. The point is sort of moot.

just a thought

Has anyone thought to tell the birther clowns that if the President is deemed ineligible for the office we don't get a new election or McCain in the White House, we get . . . President Biden!

Careful what you wish for, jerks.

hometown blues

The people who built it they loved it like I do
There was hope in the trainyards and something inspired
It once was ionic, but it's been painted shut
I found passion for life in Tacoma

From "Thrice All American" by Neko Case

Sure, it's about Tacoma, but that song brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. Especially the last line of that verse.

I found passion for life in Tacoma

I envy people who have a sense of place, and that line expresses a sense of place so simply and beautifully. No matter where she finds herself, Neko Case knows she belongs to Tacoma, and Tacoma belongs to her.

As for me, I hate the question "Where are you from?"

I live in Seattle, but I'm not from there. As much as I loved living in Minneapolis, I never belonged to that city. I have a tattoo of a Wisconsin state highway sign on my chest, but I'm no more a 'Sconnie than I am a Minneapolitan.

My life has been spent adrift in geographic impermanence; never anywhere long enough to get a sense of place and always knowing that sometime sooner than I would like, the time would come to hang my hat somewhere else.

It's one thing to have a home, and I've had plenty, but it's another to belong to a place. That, I never have.

my best friend

Ordinarily sparse, the kitten cages in the cat room at the Humane Society in Golden Valley, Minnesota were full of kittens this visit. A scraggly-looking brown tabby with a giant head sat at the front of his cage, mewing plaintively and poking his huge paws between the bars, while his ink-black litter mate napped indifferently in the back. I stopped at the cage to tug at his paw, and he immediately purred, loudly and intensely, and his plaintive mew turned to a contended chirp. I was struck. This was my cat.

Castor and his brother, Pollux, came home to live with me in my little apartment on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis. They followed me to an apartment on Lyndale Avenue, and finally to Seattle, where they settled in to Liberty House like it was built for them.

Knowing Castor as I do now, I know he wasn't unhappy in that cage in Golden Valley. He wasn't begging to be adopted, or clamoring to be let out; he simply couldn't understand why, in a room full people, he wasn't getting any attention. It was the only thing he really craved.

After four years of a beatific life, my best friend passed away yesterday. I don't believe in the afterlife, but if I'm wrong, I hope Castor's is a perpetual Indian Summer with plenty of falling leaves to chase, lots of squirrels to stalk, and a warm lap to nap in whenever he wants one.

I'll miss him.