Spotty Packers didn't have any more "wishes" left to bail them out against overrated 49ers

Being a football fan can be a heart-wrenching experience, although sometimes you just have to accept the inevitable. After all, you are not the coach, even though you think you could do a better job. With first-and-goal at the nine yard line, you won’t get another set of downs unless there is a pass interference penalty in the end zone. The odds of scoring a touchdown on the ground decline radically after a first down run of one yard. So why—when your team supposedly has an “elite” quarterback and reliable receivers--do you run on second down, leaving only one more play for a pass attempt? When the Green Bay Packers thus settled for the tying field goal instead of scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 5 minutes left in their NFC Wildcard game, there must have been some wishful thinking going on that the Packer defense would come-up with a miraculous stop—or better yet, a turnover—to set-up a game-winning field goal try and escape with a miraculous victory over Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers—a combination that had thoroughly embarrassed the Packers the last couple of turns. 

Of course it didn’t happen. Kaepernick once more left the Packers’ flatfooted while running for double digit yards at the most inopportune times. Every time the Packers needed a third down stop at a critical moment, there he goes again. Yet despite being out-played most of the game by a team most observers declared was much superior, the Packers still somehow had a chance to win this thing. After they took a 17-13 lead early in fourth quarter, it seemed like only a matter of seconds passed before the 49ers effortlessly sailed down to score a touchdown to retake the lead. The Packers did not burn off enough clock to justify not scoring a touchdown on their next possession when they had that first-and-goal; perhaps Mike McCarthy thought that if the 49ers scored, they would do so quickly as they had before, and there would still be time to respond. And once more McCarthy was out-smarted by the other side’s coach--who wanted to make certain that didn't happen. 

Even the supposed frozen weather that was supposed to immobilize Kaepernick didn’t materialize as predicted; instead of game time temperatures of -2 degrees, it was a downright “balmy” 17 degrees. For much of three quarters, it was the Packers who looked like they had never played in cold weather before. 

As a Packer fan, I’ve seen more than my fair share of disappointing results. The wild aerial circus that was the 1983 season ended with the Packers missing the playoffs on the last play of their season when Chicago kicked a field goal to win 23-21. In 2004, the Packers were a fourth-and-26 stop away from the NFC Championship game, before Donovan McNabb improbably connected on a 28-yard pass play to some nobody named Freddie Mitchell, which eventually helped propel the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl. In 2007, another Brett Favre interception in overtime against the sixth-seeded New York Giants ended a return trip to the Super Bowl. 

I suppose that deep down I realize that an 8-win team has no business beating a team that was a Seattle loss away from being the top seed from the NFC, that they were even “lucky” to be in the dance. But when you are a fan, sometimes common sense goes out the window, and you believe the even the most fanciful hallucinations, like your team has no chance unless the starting quarterback is in the game, when you know he’s “capable” of a stinker or two, like this game mostly was. Or your team’s banged-up defense will always get that interception to interrupt the opponent’s offense carving them up. You actually swallow whole the notion that your team even has a legitimate shot going all the way to the Super Bowl, like two 9-7 teams—the Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants—have done. 

Unfortunately, the Packers had already expended their three “wishes” against Atlanta, Dallas and Chicago, so when the playoffs arrived they had nothing to compensate for too-spotty play even against an overrated 49ers team--who would not even have made the playoffs themselves without last minute victories over Seattle and Arizona. It is probably better that the Packers lost now, because then the despondency that comes from being absorbed in a fantasy becomes even more pronounced the closer to the Super Bowl. It might also be pointed out that outside the 2010 Super Bowl run, Aaron Rodgers' playoff record is 1-4.