Will The Packers Trash Their Perfect Season Like The Colts Did?

[MAC]

To use an analogy...

Imagine an Olympic athlete, say a runner, has a chance to break a record. Instead, with a comfortable lead in the race, he pulls up and walks the last 50 yards to the finish line because he might pull a hamstring or maybe he'll trip if he runs it. Then after the race he says, "the point is to win a gold medal." That would be true in one sense, but anybody watching would have questioned what the heck he was doing.

You're analogy only proves the Colts point.

If that race was a training race building up to the Olympics, and "going for the record" would have taxed his body too much to be competitive in the Olympics, than the circumstances you describe would never happen. The runner would be pacing himself slower to begin with. If it was the Olympics, then that would be the runners "Super Bowl", and they would have been giving it everything they have. Just like the Colts in the playoffs.

[GoPats]

I still to this day think that 2007 Pats ran out of gas in late December and January . . . I remember in the 4th quarters of the Phila and Balt games getting really really stressed out, especially the Baltimore game, so stressed out that it felt like a playoff game, that is, if we lose this game, we are done for the season and go home . . . I remember thinking and reflecting after the Baltimore game, why am I going through these playoffs "you lose and your season is done" feelings when were are in the regular season and are in the driver seat for the #1 seed, and have an at least two game lead in mid December . . . then i got to wondering if I am feeling it what are the players feeling . . . not to mention that was a dog fight each week (with our opponents going 1-14 the following week [NYG not included as the season was over}] . . .

I remember that as well, and think you described that feeling spot-on. As ridiculous as it sounds (and maybe the added pressure of Spygate ramped things up even further), I remember feeling, even during that Super Bowl, a sense of disappointment because they weren't killing the Giants. Obviously I didn't see what was coming because my only lament at the time was that it wasn't a blowout. In hindsight, I would have taken a 3-0 win!