Re: Can the Packers actually win on Sunday?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 11:40 am
A lot of folks are calling this the worst post-season loss in Packers history (which I can't argue) or possibly ever by any team (which is open to debate).
But I was thinking -- If Sunday's parade of screw-ups and missed opportunities has a distant antecedent in Green Bay history, it might be the 1960 NFL Championship game at Philadelphia. In that game (if I read the game book correctly), the Packers reached the Eagles' 5-, 13-, 8- and 7-yard lines, but got only 6 points out of those possessions. On one of those, Paul Hornung missed a 7-yard –- yes, 7-yard –- field goal just before halftime. Also, the Packers twice went for it on fourth down and came up short (a third time, Max McGee took off from punt formation and made the first down).
Nonetheless, they held a 13-10 lead in the fourth quarter, only to give up a 58-yard kickoff return (yep, a special teams disaster) that led to Philadelphia's go-ahead touchdown. And then of course on the game's final play, Bart Starr eschewed a pass into the end zone from the Eagles' 22, and instead threw underneath to Jim Taylor, who was dumped at the 9 as time expired. Can you imagine how some of those plays and coaching decisions –- in what was then a much smaller-scale equivalent of the Super Bowl –- would be picked apart now?
But I was thinking -- If Sunday's parade of screw-ups and missed opportunities has a distant antecedent in Green Bay history, it might be the 1960 NFL Championship game at Philadelphia. In that game (if I read the game book correctly), the Packers reached the Eagles' 5-, 13-, 8- and 7-yard lines, but got only 6 points out of those possessions. On one of those, Paul Hornung missed a 7-yard –- yes, 7-yard –- field goal just before halftime. Also, the Packers twice went for it on fourth down and came up short (a third time, Max McGee took off from punt formation and made the first down).
Nonetheless, they held a 13-10 lead in the fourth quarter, only to give up a 58-yard kickoff return (yep, a special teams disaster) that led to Philadelphia's go-ahead touchdown. And then of course on the game's final play, Bart Starr eschewed a pass into the end zone from the Eagles' 22, and instead threw underneath to Jim Taylor, who was dumped at the 9 as time expired. Can you imagine how some of those plays and coaching decisions –- in what was then a much smaller-scale equivalent of the Super Bowl –- would be picked apart now?