Nothing really matters, til January

[FrankRizzo]

Look, we've seen what happens in an NFL season very well these past 3 years.

2009- Packers finished on fire, the offense was unstopable. We won in week 17 at Arizona, who was not playing the game seriously as they had the #3 seed clinched.
We then played them in the wildcard game and everyone picked us. We were en fuego. I know an NFL player for the Cowboys and remember talking to him one morning that week of that game, and he expected us to make it at least to the NFCCG.
Then we saw our defense get humiliated by Kurt Warner in January, and Rodgers made 3 mistakes to ruin an otherwise historic playoff debut. We lost. January ended cruely.

2010- Crack. Another injury. Boom. Another injury. Up & down... lost to Donovan McNabb and the Dedskins. Lost at home to Chad Henne and the Fish. But sitting at 8-6 and on the outside looking in, the Packers got miraculous help by DeSean Jackson, by the pitiful (still then) Lions, and we won our last 2 games to squeek into the playoffs. In January, we barely won our wildcard game at Philly, then you know the rest his history. The month of January was lovely. Then the Fenruary Super Bowl was glory.

2011- Undefeated thru September. Undefeated thru October. Undefeated thru November. The talk of the world. Best team ever talk on ESPN and on websites like this. But the defense kept showing signs there were issues. But a lot of people felt that Aaron Rodgers could cover for all of the defenses errors. December 18th, a week before Christmas, the OL had a terrible day, especially the LT and injuries to both RTs. We lost.

January came around and Rodgers rested on Jan 1st.... the team had a bye the next week, and then ****, we forgot to show up in mid-January, just needing to win 2 home games to get back to the Super Bowl. Done. One & Done, just like the 2009 season. 15-1 quickly became 15-2 and a season on the brink of destiny & dynasty talk evaporated as fast as our budget deficit rises every minute.

So what does 2012 have in store for us? Who knows. Hopefully no key guys get injured. But some will as they always do.

The bottom line is this: I just want to see our defense getting better as the season goes on, and we need them to be GOOD-or-better by January. If that happens, and our offense is healthy, we know what the end of the rainbow will look like. Not just gold, but Packer gold. Cheese.

Again, the W-L record just needs to be good enough to get us into the playoffs. As we proved in 2010 and the Giants in 2011, that extra wildcard game is not always a bad thing. I'd always prefer a bye though, but playing at home in the post-season is not an advantage to us anyway with our pinpoint, precision, passing offense.
Unless Cedric makes this team have a legit rushing offense.

 

[DevilDon]

Well Frank let me ask you this. Was the journey any fun?
I can't speak for anybody but to be honest the Giants loss was why I actually watch the game. You just never know.
Hurt like heck but it's the game. Truth be told, I have watched the Packers since the 60's and I love when they win, cry when they lose but it's all relative. That is the nature of the sport.
Let me put it this way.... if anybody questions their abilities ask yourself this... how would it be to be a Lions fan? I wonder why we can't use "levels" to push the field vertical and horizontal but that's not what I do. So I trust the guys who do that and they've done pretty well.

 

[FrankRizzo]

Well Frank let me ask you this. Was the journey any fun?
I can't speak for anybody but to be honest the Giants loss was why I actually watch the game. You just never know.
Hurt like heck but it's the game. Truth be told, I have watched the Packers since the 60's and I love when they win, cry when they lose but it's all relative. That is the nature of the sport.
Let me put it this way.... if anybody questions their abilities ask yourself this... how would it be to be a Lions fan? I wonder why we can't use "levels" to push the field vertical and horizontal but that's not what I do. So I trust the guys who do that and they've done pretty well.

I understand what you are saying, and I too am old. I remember the 1970's and 80's which were miserable.
But still, those "journeys" as you call them had plenty of fun moments despite more L's than W's.

But the bottom line to me is this: The current Packers are capable of being one of those rare dynasties. The bar is set high with this team at the moment, and they could have won the past 2 Super Bowls, going for the first Super Bowl 3-peat in history.
Hell, their offense was good enough in 2009 to win a Super Bowl then if they had a decent defense that year instead of one that refused to get close to Kurt Warner.

In any event, sure there were a lot of great moments during the journey last year, but when greatness is the goal, when history is the goal, the Title in Titletown means a lot.
I look forward to this season, but the end result will be judged in January & February only.
The final chapter is by far, the most important part.