I’ve heard it said that for a good team, the difference between just missing the playoffs or setting yourself up to get a first-round bye and go deep into the playoffs is as little as five plays over the course of a season. Your defense comes up with a couple interceptions they shouldn’t have. Your opposition misses a couple they should’ve had.

A discarded Heisman winner learns to run with abandon and dance the robot.

In the blink of an eye. A single play. Reversal of fortune. Look at this past Sunday’s game between the Cowboys and the Redskins. Get several of those plays to swing your way over the course of a season, and your team can go from 8-8, on the outside with noses mashed against the fogged glass, watching the partygoers inside having a great time, to 11-5, on the inside, with a hottie on each arm and a pocket full of party balloons.
The Packers gave up that many plays in this single game, so it should be no surprise they didn’t have a W to pack in their suitcases for the trip home. A misplaced toss inside the Packers 15, a doink off Favre’s 2-bar, and of course the endzone carom from Donald Driver’s hands to Ko Simpson (to name a few), and you’ve all but written the ending to this story. Nevermind the Packers nearly tripled the passing output of the Bills and were moving the ball on the ground the way I used to as a kid in the backyard when I ran against my little sister. They gave up those few plays you just can’t give up and expect to win.

Packers lose to Bills

I’m hearing some locally blaming McCarthy’s play calling as part of the culprit, calling a play requiring a bullet into traffic at the one, when they should’ve just kept pounding the rock like they had been throughout that same drive. Maybe McCarthy needs as much time to grow into the job as the players into the new system. Let’s hope they figure it out quick, because after next week, the Packers are going on a sleighride through a meat grinder.

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