Did anyone else feel this way on Black Sunday?

[Chicocheese]

I just feel like I need to ask. On Sunday, January 15(?) did anyone else have a knot in their stomach? Did anyone else have this gut feeling that we weren't going to win that game against the Giants? Granted I was yelling at the TV for the bad stuff, and cheering for the good stuff, the initial feeling was still nagging at me all game. I felt like maybe I wasn't being a good fan... it started to drive me nuts. How can someone be a fan of a team, especially a team like the Packers and think that they're team is going to lose? I didn't WANT them to lose, but I had this feeling that couldn't be shook.

I don't claim to be psychic or have premonitions or anything but Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before the game I just felt off. I felt weird. I knew the Giants were going to give us hell. I had a feeling that I tried to suppress and hide from others. The Packers were going to lose. I didn't want to admit it to myself, let alone any other Packers fans.

I have been a Packers fan since I was about 9 years old. I am 25 now. Out of all the sports I follow, and my favorite teams from each sport, the Packers are the team I love the most and the team I follow the closest. After the loss, I did not lose any love for them...but I just felt like my soul was shot in the head. It was hard to be happy about much of anything. I even went back and started watching Super Bowl XLV on youtube and I just couldn't get excited.

The sting has worn off, but the "what if.." and the "we shoulda..." is just killing me still. This was OUR season, damnit!

I am excited about next year, and getting to Super Bowl XLVII and winning it, don't get me wrong. I feel that the team is going to come out of the gates strong and never let up. XLVII is OURSSSSS!

Still, do my previous feelings at the end of our season make me a bad fan? I love the Packers, always have and always will be I feel so bad about how I felt before that Giants game that I just can't keep it bottled up anymore... I just had to ask you guys/gals and vent.

Thanks for lending an 'ear', so to speak.

--Rob.

 

[GWheels]

To tell the truth, I had more confidence going into the post season last season then I did this year. I don't know if it was the fact we got so hot towards the end of the season or because we were 6th seeded and the pressure wasn't as great. This season it was expected we do well and the fact our defense couldn't stop anyone is what made me extremely nervous about this post season.

 

[FrankRizzo]

I tried to caution a lot of fans who thought we were invincible, the greatest cheese since......
And I am always scared. I was more worried about the Giants than any other team because why: Because they are more built for cold frozen weather than we are.
They are physical. We are not. We are finesse offense, precise passing game which relies on touch and feel, precision, and the cold weather, like it or not, is not condusive to that.
It's why Greg Jennings said last week on Dan LeBetard that he and Jordy talk about wanting to dome Lambeau in the winter.

I bet on the Giants a lot of $ (for me), but wanted to lose my bets so badly.
I still thought we'd win the game but knew it would be close.
I was wrong about that though, it wasn't even close. We were basically blown out because we fumbled 4 times, dropped passes, misread routes, it was ugly.
Sad. Scarring. Seasons like this 15-1 don't come around often. Our offense let us down.

 

[longtimefan]

I never felt confident in this team for the playoffs. The lack of our defense was the reason.

It never got better and showed improvment

 

[Dan115]

I have been a fan since 1961. I expect The Packers to win every single game.

 

[FrankRizzo]

I have been a fan since 1961. I expect The Packers to win every single game.

I have been a fan since 1976 and I too, HOPE the Packers win every single game.
But I have watched enough to know that anyone can win any week so I don't get my hopes up usually, always have part pessimist inside to keep myself from being crushed.

 

[7thFloorRA]

I had a very bad feeling from the point in the Raiders game where it was a total blowout and they started to step off the gas. That feeling was reaffirmed during the xmas night game when Khalil Bell, some undrafted nobody out of ND and McCown were having no problem getting yards against the D.

 

[Forget Favre]

I was really nervous about the blimp blowing up.
But thankfully Robert Shaw towed it away to safety.
Whew! That was a close one!

 

[Rocky11]

I guess I saw it coming or felt it coming. You could tell that things were slowing down the last few games. The Kansas City game was not a real shock. It seemed that they started winding down mentally. I hoped that the loss would fire them back up but it really didn't. I was concerned that McCarthy sat out so many guys for the Detroit game. I know that Flynn played a record setting day but I thought that those records belonged to Aaron Rodgers. I sided with the people who thought they should have played at least the first half. Truthfully it probably didn't matter either way. You are right it was a black day. And did it have to be the Giants AGAIN? You could see them getting stronger and stronger their last few games. Oh well, I am excited about next year. We will be in the hunt again.

 

[morningwood]

I bet on the Giants a lot of $ (for me), but wanted to lose my bets so badly.

I could never bet against my team.

 

[Rocky11]

I personally never bet. I am so bad at it. I might as well just give my money away.

 

[FrankRizzo]

I could never bet against my team.

Part of it is "heartbreak insurance" from my point of view.
But my heart still is broken as I wanted to repeat SO BADLY.
I felt we could 3-peat because I know this defense will get fixed this off-season.
Damn fumbles.

 

[GreenBayGal]

Extremely dissapointed. I don't love my team any less but my dislike for the Giants has doubled.

 

[Dan115]

I have been a fan since 1976 and I too, HOPE the Packers win every single game.
But I have watched enough to know that anyone can win any week so I don't get my hopes up usually, always have part pessimist inside to keep myself from being crushed.

You HOPE--- I expect.

 

[bozz_2006]

I felt very early on, like many of you I assume, that if all three phases of our team didn't make a marked improvement in execution and impact plays, we would lose.

 

[Kitten]

To be honest with you, Chicocheese, I felt the same thing you did. Last year I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were going to win the Superbowl. I actually had the feeling in the middle of the season when the team was struggling. I had this feeling and it was overwhelming, even when it made no sense and people were doubting whether or not the Packers would even make the playoffs. But, in contrast, this season, I had no such feeling. Don't mistake me, I had hope and love for my team, it wasn't a lack of that, but that feeling deep in my gut just wasn't there. It was really hard, because on some level I knew what was coming and I dreaded it. I hope next year that winning feeling returns.

 

[Rocky11]

I am sure the winning will continue. We have a lot of good players coming back to a system that they know oh so well. I think we will see some tweaks but no major changes. I hope to see some major changes to the defense but that is on another thread somewhere.

 

[Croak]

I was mixed in my feelings before that game. I figured Aaron would tear up that Giants secondary. And if you think about it, a few less dropped passes and the Pack may well have won. (Same with the Pats in the Super Bowl). I honestly don't think the Giants are that super, but they have the rings.

It was the drowning distraction, I think, that took my interest away from the game and made me feel the Pack wouldn't really show up to play. I mean, after all, they were at a viewing on Thursday, a Funeral on Friday and then had to play a game on Sunday. If a guy shooting off his mouth can be a distraction, think about the distraction of a 21 year old kid's sudden death. Coach Philbin was usually the center of the offense's game planning.

Then the defensive problems were another thing. It seemed like we kept hoping to see some new wrinkle and none came. I wasn't really surprised the team lost.

 

[fettpett]

Actually, I did have that knot, sinking feeling that we weren't going to win...I've had that feeling before, 2007 title game and a couple others. Only one I can think of that I did have it and they won was the Super Bowl last year

 

[AaronShockley]

The minute The Giants won and I knew they were coming to GB, I knew we had lost. I hated it, but they were the absolute one team I all but guaranteed we'd lose to. I thought even as crappy as we had been playing, we could beat anybody, but them. The way they play just matched up to well against us.

You're not alone in your thoughts, and you aren't a bad fan. Some people are just realists, and understand what the likely scenarios are.

 

[GeeDogWarrior]

I was thinking we'd be in a dog fight, probably a shootout, I figured we win out in the NFC, we're superbowl champs, I figured Dom would come up with a way to get pressure and help Clay not get double teamed so much, I figured the secondary will quit looking at their stats and start covering guys, I figured the oline was healthy (clifton back), Greg was back, ARod would be fresh and hungry to shut up the "He's a system guy" talk the two weeks before the game.

What happened was our offense pulled a Favre and fumbled/missed/dropped the ball/panicked.
Our Defense showed up in the 3rd qt, only for our offense to score 3 points.
Dom doing the whole 3 guys at the QB thing was dumb, we won 15 games blitzing the house and getting burned/interceptions.

 

[Rocky11]

I knew it too but I did not allow myself to think it out loud. The focus of the Pack was increasingly lessening. The Giants were peaking at the right time. We peaked way too soon. This years failures will turn into next years successes.

 

[Ed DeCosmo]

I just feel like I need to ask. On Sunday, January 15(?) did anyone else have a knot in their stomach? Did anyone else have this gut feeling that we weren't going to win that game against the Giants? Granted I was yelling at the TV for the bad stuff, and cheering for the good stuff, the initial feeling was still nagging at me all game. I felt like maybe I wasn't being a good fan... it started to drive me nuts. How can someone be a fan of a team, especially a team like the Packers and think that they're team is going to lose? I didn't WANT them to lose, but I had this feeling that couldn't be shook.

I don't claim to be psychic or have premonitions or anything but Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before the game I just felt off. I felt weird. I knew the Giants were going to give us hell. I had a feeling that I tried to suppress and hide from others. The Packers were going to lose. I didn't want to admit it to myself, let alone any other Packers fans.

I have been a Packers fan since I was about 9 years old. I am 25 now. Out of all the sports I follow, and my favorite teams from each sport, the Packers are the team I love the most and the team I follow the closest. After the loss, I did not lose any love for them...but I just felt like my soul was shot in the head. It was hard to be happy about much of anything. I even went back and started watching Super Bowl XLV on youtube and I just couldn't get excited.

The sting has worn off, but the "what if.." and the "we shoulda..." is just killing me still. This was OUR season, damnit!

I am excited about next year, and getting to Super Bowl XLVII and winning it, don't get me wrong. I feel that the team is going to come out of the gates strong and never let up. XLVII is OURSSSSS!

Still, do my previous feelings at the end of our season make me a bad fan? I love the Packers, always have and always will be I feel so bad about how I felt before that Giants game that I just can't keep it bottled up anymore... I just had to ask you guys/gals and vent.

Thanks for lending an 'ear', so to speak.

--Rob.

You were not alone. The Giants were on a roll. A roll, we must admit that was similar to the Packer drive in the previous year. But if the Giants didn't make it to the playoffs, would the Packers have been ok?

I am wondering, is the NFL getting like the NHL. Hockey has two seasons: regular and playoffs. The last two Super Bowl champions were not exactly super in the regular season.

 

[Rocky11]

I think the Packers would have had a hard time with San Francisco. Their defense was punishing. They hit as hard as anybody. Alex Smith would have looked like a superstar against our defense. Hard to say because it didn't happen. I would have loved to watch it.

 

[Bogart]

No I felt more disappointed in the ENTIRE 2011 season as a whole.


Down the line of decades, this year will be forgotten quicker than seeing the Buffalo Bills get pounded in back to back to back Super Bowls.


Think about it.


We had 3 quarterbacks reach the 5,000 yard mark and 2 that came close to it, and they all had ridiculous god like numbers that everyone dreams of having. I'm a big fan of Drew Brees, but the fact that (not just him) 3 quarterbacks came to topping Marino's All Pass Attack no Run Game offensive record just goes to show something is wrong. Marino didn't set that record with a run game either. Anyone that watched the Dolphins in the mid 80's knows the offense consisted of him throwing the ball 80% of the time. I would say it was much much harder for him to even set that record in the days that you could hit as hard as you can, and a good hit didn't turn into a flag, and you had the likes of Ronnie Lott knocking receivers out as hard as he could (would never happen without the flags everywhere today)

I just think it's kinda boring knowing the NFL is starting to get a video game like feel with all offense and no defense.

A 9-7 team won the Super Bowl with the WORST ranked running game. This is beyond sad, knowing now when you look back at playoff games that were lost by QB's that put it in the air 40-50 times a game, and had no running back to share the offense with, someone can point out and say "The Giants won a Super Bowl with the 32nd ranked rushing offense!" Also, a 9-7 team should not even be in the Super Bowl, especially with the worst ranked run game, and the 30th ranked defense. The Giants really should thank Jason Garrett for icing his own kicker against Arizona, and Romo for throwing 3 picks against the Lions. Take those 2 **** ups away, and Dallas goes 10-6, and we get a crappier team in the playoffs that wouldn't have advanced.

Worst ranked defenses and top ranked offenses. The Packers, Saints, Giants, and Patriots all had a top offense and a horrible defense. What is up with the teams being totally one sided? Are we ever going to see another team like the 1980's and 1990's 49ers that could be ranked in the top 5 of BOTH Offense and Defense?It also goes for defense. You have teams like Denver and San Francisco and Baltimore who had top defenses and average at best offenses. Well, you can exclude Baltimore, if Joe Flacco don't play like flak.

How does a team win 15 games and their defense break statistical recordings for being so god awful in the pass defense? That's something I still haven't figured out.Yeah they got turnovers so what, but for that number of turnovers, you would think they would at least be able to limit points.


In all honesty, I think everyone had to believe one way or another the Packers defense would blow it in the playoffs and give up 400 yards and 35+ points cause what did you really expect when they averagely gave up gobs of points and so many yards a game? 15-1 don't mean jack **** if a 9-7 team can win the Super Bowl.


The Super Bowl itself may have been a close game, but it was really two average teams that had no business being there. New England with the 2nd worst defense in the league, and the Giants who got lucky to get there with a 9-7 record.



To sum up the 2011 season, it was a mystery. You had teams that were totally one dimensional being all offense and no defense, and when it came right down to it, the best teams didn't win, they lost.