boiga
01-11-2010, 05:42 PM
I promised last week to write up another after action report for last nights playoff game. So, despite the high probability that cumulative frustrated topic bloat will knock this off the first page within half an hour, I'll still go through the effort. Maybe it'll be cathartic.
While my wife enjoyed herself last week, she's had enough football for the year. So instead of enjoying her company for the game, my father flew down from Wisconsin for the event. After almost missing his connection in Las Vegas (the toilets had frozen on his Milwaukee flight) he successfully arrived at the Phoenix airport at 1:35, which meant that we had to book it to make it to the stadium on time for kickoff. As we were waiting in line for the security frisk, my father started his usual routine of making friends with everyone in the vicinity. He's a Mukwonago farm boy turned professor, so he can (and does) small talk with the best of them. Here's a pic:
http://img37.imagefra.me/img/img37/2/1/11/boiga/t_fppub9xm_5897e6d.jpg (http://imagefra.me/view.php?img=/2/1/11/boiga/f_fppub9xm_5897e6d.jpg&srv=img37)
So we get into the stadium right as the national anthem started (male tenor instead of young starlet-booo!) and by the time we make it to our seats in the upper deck, we've apparently already turned the ball over and are down seven points. WTF... He and I are commenting that this game couldn't start much worse when of course it does. Driver gets stripped and we are down 14. Quick punt by the O, defense finally gets a stop and the quarter ends 17-0.
What a horrible quarter of football. The Cardinals fans are ecstatic of course and they really brought the noise in this game. There are about half as many Packer fans as the week before. Dad's starting to wonder why he came down for this. I start thinking of all the other blowouts this last weekend and wonder how this could be happening to us. Here's the view from our seats :
http://img40.imagefra.me/img/img40/2/1/11/boiga/f_xw5yl2f6ubpm_aa1e054.jpg (http://imagefra.me/)
So the second quarter begins with a missed field goal. We wanted them to go for it. I won't give Crosby much flack over the miss as it looked like a long ass kick in real time. Still M3 showed a really lack of balls in the 1st half. So, here we were. Down 17 points, having given the cards great field position once more, and having shown no pride on Defense. We were feeling hopeless.
Then Fitz got stripped and Clay runs it back half the field. The Packer fans start showing that they'll try to make up for their numbers with sheer enthusiasm. The Cards defense starts showing that they want the Pack to make a game of it by giving them a PI to the one yard line and some weird substitution penalty to bring it the the 1 inch. We didn't think Rodgers made it in with the sneak, but we were finally gratified to see some spark from the Packers.
And then the Cards came back and scored easily. We had thought that the Packers had just started cold. No, the Offense started cold. The Defense never made the plane. In any case, so began the shootout.
Right before the half, the Packers made it down to the 5 yard line. We're thinking its 4 down territory and that we really need the score, when M3 decides to kick the field goal with 4 seconds to go from the 2. WTF!!!! Go for it already!
At the half, we're down 14 (it really should have been 10). The bathroom rush was insane, but the Cards fans were mostly cordial. My dad starts chatting up an older black man who had been chastising his college age son for not buying him an over priced pretzel after he had splurged on the tickets. I have to drag him away to get back to our seats in time to watch Warner march down the field again and bring the gap to 21. Misery.
Then Rodgers begins to work his magic. It doesn't matter if the Packers can't catch. 3rd and longs are nothing to him. We come back and score on his will alone. Awesome drive.
And then M3 made up for his earlier lack with the ballsiest onside kick ever. The crowd went silent. The packer fans didn't even cheer because we were caught off guard too. I'd never seen one of those actually converted before outside of the last minutes of a 4th quarter. That was our momentum shift. The cardinals fans were quiet the entire next drive while Go Pack Go started to be heard from the other side of the stadium.
The heavy set card fan (in a Schmecks 11 jersey?) in the seat in front of me actually got in my face about it. I'm yelling the chant with the crowd when he turns around and starts screaming at me from two feet away "Go Home Pack." I laughed him off. He sat down when he noticed the security officer at the top of the aisle, and we cut the lead to 7. It was a game again.
During the next cardinal drive, a couple of Packers D linemen start waving their hands to the crowd during a tv timeout and the Packer fans go wild. One thing I noticed as the game went on and the intensity rose is that the Go Pack Go chant started speeding up. By half time it was GoPackGo, and by overtime it was barely G'Pa'G G'Pa'G We were making some noise that entire defensive series, but it didn't stop Warner from making an easy score again. The D should be feeling some real shame today.
In any case, Rodgers got the ball back with five minutes to go. The only problem is that he scored to fast on the next drive to tie the game. Warner had nearly two minutes and all three timeouts to work with. We were feeling the futility again. Warner once more face no resistance with his quick passing game. Instead of going for the goal, they went for a short field goal with 14 seconds left. The cards fans were screaming at their win. Schmeck 11 and his son in a matching jersey got up and left.
And then we noticed the ref waving his arms no good. We were jumping up and down in the stands. We won the coin toss and knew that fate was on our sides.
Well, you people know how it went from there. Rodgers just missed Jennings deep. A holding call nullified a Grant 1st down. Jones gets 15 yards to make it 3rd and 5. And then Rodgers tried too hard and fed the ball to a Cardinal defender. Game over.
In the stands, I didn't even realize the Refs had jobbed us on that last play. I still don't know what really happened. We left the cheering Cardinals fans. I congratulated Shmeck for a good game (he had come back without his son for overtime.) The fans on the way out were good sports. One guy even saying that he thought these two were the best two teams in the NFC. I responded that they were the best two offenses maybe, but it's hard to credit the joint defensive effort in a 96 point game.
It took an hour just to get away from the stadium. I took my dad to a good seafood restaurant for dinner, left him at his hotel, and made the lonely drive back to Tucson. It's a horrible drive by the way, especially at night. It's a straight line for an hour and a half with a 75mph limit and most of the traffic going five under.
Well. That's that. Credit to Warner for having such an amazing game. Credit to Rodgers for bringing the team back with such grit. I won't really blame the refs, because if we hadn't gifted them 17 points, lain down on defense, dropped passes, or gone for it at the end of the 1st half. it wouldn't have mattered.
Nevertheless, it was a hell of a game to see. The teams marching down the field back and forth like a ping pong ball. Finley making a name for himself. Rodgers growing as a QB. The crowd energy was just thrilling in over time. Bittersweet ending, but I've got to say we got our money's worth.
Sorry for the length. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
While my wife enjoyed herself last week, she's had enough football for the year. So instead of enjoying her company for the game, my father flew down from Wisconsin for the event. After almost missing his connection in Las Vegas (the toilets had frozen on his Milwaukee flight) he successfully arrived at the Phoenix airport at 1:35, which meant that we had to book it to make it to the stadium on time for kickoff. As we were waiting in line for the security frisk, my father started his usual routine of making friends with everyone in the vicinity. He's a Mukwonago farm boy turned professor, so he can (and does) small talk with the best of them. Here's a pic:
http://img37.imagefra.me/img/img37/2/1/11/boiga/t_fppub9xm_5897e6d.jpg (http://imagefra.me/view.php?img=/2/1/11/boiga/f_fppub9xm_5897e6d.jpg&srv=img37)
So we get into the stadium right as the national anthem started (male tenor instead of young starlet-booo!) and by the time we make it to our seats in the upper deck, we've apparently already turned the ball over and are down seven points. WTF... He and I are commenting that this game couldn't start much worse when of course it does. Driver gets stripped and we are down 14. Quick punt by the O, defense finally gets a stop and the quarter ends 17-0.
What a horrible quarter of football. The Cardinals fans are ecstatic of course and they really brought the noise in this game. There are about half as many Packer fans as the week before. Dad's starting to wonder why he came down for this. I start thinking of all the other blowouts this last weekend and wonder how this could be happening to us. Here's the view from our seats :
http://img40.imagefra.me/img/img40/2/1/11/boiga/f_xw5yl2f6ubpm_aa1e054.jpg (http://imagefra.me/)
So the second quarter begins with a missed field goal. We wanted them to go for it. I won't give Crosby much flack over the miss as it looked like a long ass kick in real time. Still M3 showed a really lack of balls in the 1st half. So, here we were. Down 17 points, having given the cards great field position once more, and having shown no pride on Defense. We were feeling hopeless.
Then Fitz got stripped and Clay runs it back half the field. The Packer fans start showing that they'll try to make up for their numbers with sheer enthusiasm. The Cards defense starts showing that they want the Pack to make a game of it by giving them a PI to the one yard line and some weird substitution penalty to bring it the the 1 inch. We didn't think Rodgers made it in with the sneak, but we were finally gratified to see some spark from the Packers.
And then the Cards came back and scored easily. We had thought that the Packers had just started cold. No, the Offense started cold. The Defense never made the plane. In any case, so began the shootout.
Right before the half, the Packers made it down to the 5 yard line. We're thinking its 4 down territory and that we really need the score, when M3 decides to kick the field goal with 4 seconds to go from the 2. WTF!!!! Go for it already!
At the half, we're down 14 (it really should have been 10). The bathroom rush was insane, but the Cards fans were mostly cordial. My dad starts chatting up an older black man who had been chastising his college age son for not buying him an over priced pretzel after he had splurged on the tickets. I have to drag him away to get back to our seats in time to watch Warner march down the field again and bring the gap to 21. Misery.
Then Rodgers begins to work his magic. It doesn't matter if the Packers can't catch. 3rd and longs are nothing to him. We come back and score on his will alone. Awesome drive.
And then M3 made up for his earlier lack with the ballsiest onside kick ever. The crowd went silent. The packer fans didn't even cheer because we were caught off guard too. I'd never seen one of those actually converted before outside of the last minutes of a 4th quarter. That was our momentum shift. The cardinals fans were quiet the entire next drive while Go Pack Go started to be heard from the other side of the stadium.
The heavy set card fan (in a Schmecks 11 jersey?) in the seat in front of me actually got in my face about it. I'm yelling the chant with the crowd when he turns around and starts screaming at me from two feet away "Go Home Pack." I laughed him off. He sat down when he noticed the security officer at the top of the aisle, and we cut the lead to 7. It was a game again.
During the next cardinal drive, a couple of Packers D linemen start waving their hands to the crowd during a tv timeout and the Packer fans go wild. One thing I noticed as the game went on and the intensity rose is that the Go Pack Go chant started speeding up. By half time it was GoPackGo, and by overtime it was barely G'Pa'G G'Pa'G We were making some noise that entire defensive series, but it didn't stop Warner from making an easy score again. The D should be feeling some real shame today.
In any case, Rodgers got the ball back with five minutes to go. The only problem is that he scored to fast on the next drive to tie the game. Warner had nearly two minutes and all three timeouts to work with. We were feeling the futility again. Warner once more face no resistance with his quick passing game. Instead of going for the goal, they went for a short field goal with 14 seconds left. The cards fans were screaming at their win. Schmeck 11 and his son in a matching jersey got up and left.
And then we noticed the ref waving his arms no good. We were jumping up and down in the stands. We won the coin toss and knew that fate was on our sides.
Well, you people know how it went from there. Rodgers just missed Jennings deep. A holding call nullified a Grant 1st down. Jones gets 15 yards to make it 3rd and 5. And then Rodgers tried too hard and fed the ball to a Cardinal defender. Game over.
In the stands, I didn't even realize the Refs had jobbed us on that last play. I still don't know what really happened. We left the cheering Cardinals fans. I congratulated Shmeck for a good game (he had come back without his son for overtime.) The fans on the way out were good sports. One guy even saying that he thought these two were the best two teams in the NFC. I responded that they were the best two offenses maybe, but it's hard to credit the joint defensive effort in a 96 point game.
It took an hour just to get away from the stadium. I took my dad to a good seafood restaurant for dinner, left him at his hotel, and made the lonely drive back to Tucson. It's a horrible drive by the way, especially at night. It's a straight line for an hour and a half with a 75mph limit and most of the traffic going five under.
Well. That's that. Credit to Warner for having such an amazing game. Credit to Rodgers for bringing the team back with such grit. I won't really blame the refs, because if we hadn't gifted them 17 points, lain down on defense, dropped passes, or gone for it at the end of the 1st half. it wouldn't have mattered.
Nevertheless, it was a hell of a game to see. The teams marching down the field back and forth like a ping pong ball. Finley making a name for himself. Rodgers growing as a QB. The crowd energy was just thrilling in over time. Bittersweet ending, but I've got to say we got our money's worth.
Sorry for the length. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.