Though heavy underdogs, Packers loss to 49ers frustrating in game they should have won

 

Coming into today’s divisional playoff game with a continuous rain likely to effect play, the 49ers had the Packers number in recent years, quite different than the Favre era when the Packers were 7-0 in the regular season and 4-1 in the playoffs against them; during the Rodgers’ era the Packers were a horrible 0-4 in the playoffs against the 49ers, and staring at 0-5 since Favre, being 10.5-point underdogs.

The Packers took the ball down the field on their first possession, but it ended touchdownless, (although I thought it was DPI on the pass to Romeo Doubs in the end zone); a short field goal was the result. On the 49ers first possession Darnell Savage dropped a pass right in his hands with a clear field before him, preventing a second-straight game with a pick-6. Brock Purdy may be a better quarterback than Dak Prescott, and I had this feeling that this play would be a bad omen for the Packers. 

A sack of Purdy gave the Packers the ball back. A pass to Musgrave was behind him, but another DPI gave the Packers another first down; 49ers linebacker Fred Warner made a couple of big hits to seemingly bring a halt to the drive, but Dobbs made a big 38-yard play on third down as the first quarter wound down; although the Packers out-gained the 49ers 102-22 in first quarter, they led only 3-0. In the rain, Love was apparently unable to consistently get a grip on the ball, and that also seemed to be a problem with Aaron Jones after the first quarter.

The Packers moved the ball down to the 49ers 14, but a quarterback sneak failed on fourth down. Again another failure to convert on a golden opportunity to score even a field goal that could have devastating consequences. The 49ers then drove the ball down the field effortlessly. A 32-yard pass to George Kittle made it 7-3 and I knew it was "over" then. 

Although Jones was effective on the first drive, he was mostly non-existent for the rest of the half. A long pass to Jayden Reed got the Packers down to the red zone for the third time, but consistent pressure on Love forced another bad pass and the Packers had to settle for a field goal (they could have retaken the lead had they settled for a field goal on the previous possession).

One had to feel the Packers were losing out on the opportunities they needed to take advantage of to keep the 49ers on their heels, because if the Packers fell behind, the 49ers were too good a team not to keep the pressure on Love. On the final possession of the half—meaning the 49ers would have an extra possession as they would open the second half with the ball—the Packer defense had an opportunity to keep the 49ers out of field goal range but failed, but fortunately a 48-yard attempt was missed. 

The 49ers went into the half with just a 7-6 lead. The problem of course is that the Packers had three red zone opportunities and should have gone into the half with a 10-point lead at least, and maybe more if Savage had held on to that easy potential pick-6.

Last week, despite dominating the game for the most part, the Cowboys outscored the Packers 25-21 in the second half. So yes, I was concerned, not the least because, well, the 49ers were the top-seeded team in the NFC, though still beatable. The Packers needed a defensive stop on the first possession of the half. They got that stop, but could they take advantage to take control of the game with a touchdown?   

After Jones lost 11 on a fumbled snap and with the officials missing a clear facemask penalty to set-up a third-15, another fortunate DPI gave the Packers ball for a fourth red zone opportunity, and Love managed to find Bo Melton in the end zone for a 13-7 lead. Could the Packers much maligned defense hold, and better yet, force a turnover?

Horrible coverage on third-and-long resulted in another 32-yard play by Kittle, and the next play Christian McCaffrey ran right through the defense on a 39-yard run, and the 49ers were back in the lead 14-13. As quickly as that disaster happened, Keisean Nixon responded by taking the kickoff 73 yards;  he fumbled the ball, but fortunately it was recovered by the Packers. In the red zone for the fifth time in the game, the Packers retook the lead on a pass to Tucker Kraft. 

The Packers made a questionable decision to go for two, but Jones was wide open on the catch and the Packers were up 21-14. This game clearly could have been a blowout like last week at this point, but instead the pressure was on the Packer defense to perform, which it did not do on the 49ers previous possession, giving up two huge back-to-back plays.

Nixon missed an easy interception deep on the 49ers’ end, but the Packer defense held serve this time. Could the Packers offense put the pressure on the 49ers by taking a two-score lead with decent field position after the punt? Jones was not having a good game since the first quarter, slipping on the wet field to lose yardage. Then came the play that Packer fans dreaded: Love threw a bad pass wide of Kraft that even if he didn’t tip the ball had interception written all over it, and the 49ers—instead of operating deep on their own end after a punt, had the ball at midfield.

The defense had a chance for an immediate stop, but allowed a conversion on third-and-long. The defense had a chance as long as they kept the pressure on Purdy who was throwing some of his own misfires. Heading into the fourth quarter the Packers still had a 7-point lead with a 49er field goal attempt around the corner. Up to this point the rain was clearly a factor, but especially for Jones, who had gained just 11 yards since the first quarter. It was up to Love to make the plays. The field goal was made, the Packers were clinging to a 21-17 lead, still “impressive” given the fact that they were 10.5-point underdogs.

The Packers continued to be unable to run the ball after the first quarter, although except for the McCaffrey TD run the 49ers were not running the ball well either. Love didn’t make the play he needed to make, as he narrowly avoided another interception with terrible pass on a makeable third-and-short, and the Packers were forced to punt for the first time. 

The Packers were still looking that game-clinching turnover, and they just couldn’t do it. Then came that effing play that made you start pulling your hair in frustration; on third-and-10, Purdy had all day to connect with Jauan Jennings on a 21-yard pass into Packer territory.

But this time it was Purdy who frustrated his fans, misfiring to force a punt. At that point in the game, Purdy completed just 17 of 32 passes, although it was noted that his was repeatedly wiping his hands even in the pocket. Did I say Jones was not having a good game? He just broke open for a 53-yard run. The Packers needed a touchdown; instead more misfires by Love was followed by Anders Carlson missing a 41-yard field goal attempt, and the game remained a one-score game, and the defense still looking for that critical turnover with over 6 minutes to play.

The 49ers methodically took the ball down the field, running out the clock as Purdy found the "touch," completing 6 of 7 passes. At the 2-minute warning the 49ers had a first down at the Packer 15. My heart sunk like a rock into the abyss. Purdy scrambled for 9 yards to the Packer 6, and McCaffrey took it the rest of the way for a 24-21 lead with over a minute left. 

The game ended with another poor pass deep somewhere in the general vicinity of Christian Watson that was intercepted, made worse by the fact that the Packers still had two time outs with just under a minute to play and didn't need to throw deep to at least get into tying field goal range.

You know where Carlson’s emotions were at, but there was plenty of blame to go around for the loss. The defense failed when it needed to show-up the most, but the missed easy interceptions were the most damaging. The offense also had much blame to shoulder, particularly the wasted opportunities in the red zone and bad misfires on Love’s part. 

Although Jones gained 100+ yards for the fifth-straight game, he scored no touchdowns and the one play that he made was wasted on the missed field goal. The earlier failure to convert on fourth down on an otherwise easy field goal opportunity also turned out to be a poor decision in retrospect.

So the Packers did make a game of it despite being heavy underdogs, but this was a frustrating game nonetheless since the Packers should have won this game. If the Packers had held on to win, the only "good" team left was the Lions (after the Eagles loss), with the Super Bowl beckoning. There is next year, and we perhaps we can expect something more from this experience.

Sometimes you just have to suck it up and take what the world will allow you to have

 

I must confess that I don’t really understand why there are so many people on the street, like this woman:

 

                   

Part of me feels sympathy, but another part of me says people have choices, and those can be either good or bad choices. I know what it is like not to have a place to live, but my mindset has never been influenced by what can’t be done, but what can be done. Making enough money to live and to buy things (like my video collection, which fills a 10x10 storage unit) has always been something that is “second nature” to me, and as bad as things can be, there is always a way to move on from one catastrophe to the next.

There is always temp work, and I am not particularly conscious of the fact that I have a university degree, which isn’t the first thing 99.99 percent of people I encounter perceive anyways (I encountered a white woman in Seattle the other day walking down the sidewalk who looked at me and said “Oh what the hell, you can have it.” What was she talking about? The “country”? Some "Great Replacement" bullshit? Hell, she can “keep” it and keep making a mess of it as we see happening in the other Washington; I just “live” here). What is the point of feeling any mortification in taking any job available? Especially ones requiring the minimum of interaction with judgmental people.

Frankly, all you need to get off your fundament is a phone number and a mailing address  (a mail box will do)--and a work "ethic." For some people, laziness is a habit, like a drug. Even if you live on the street like this individual, it is easy to at least get something on your “resume” if you at least have those things. For temp work all you have to do is walk in the door; if you are a female, there are certain jobs that only you are "capable" of doing,  if it requires being more “nimble” with your fingers.

I’m sure people will say that this had a bad childhood, or something; but that didn’t stop me from just moving on with life. There are pages and pages of women-only organizations specifically designed to help people like her if she wanted the help.  There were very few people or organizations designed to help me; I had to help myself, although it “helped” that I more or less had a good work ethic so that I lasted a little longer in jobs than I might have, given my “loner” nature that often makes me frustrated with the trials and tribulations of dealing with the vagaries of other people. Thankfully I’ve “tolerated” other people long enough to be near retirement age.

Still, what is the problem with this individual? I was in the alley long enough to observe her temporarily rouse herself in order for me to ask her if she had any place to go; she mumbled something that I didn’t quite make out, but I assumed it was in the negative. In the part of the building I was working in I could observe her from a window directly overhead. She went back to sleep, then roused herself again to light up what from a distance appeared to look something like a cigarette with some roundish object attached to the end of it…

 

…and what she exhaled was chalky-white smoke. I am not “street-smart,” so I had no clue what she was indulging in. Later I did some Google investigating and finally found this image which appeared to suggest what she was ingesting:

 

According to the accompanying article, what she was smoking was meth. Later I observed an individual stop to talk with her. I took this shaky video of what he was “helping” her with—smoking more meth:

 

I suppose that is what it "takes" to make life "tolerable" for some people; me, maybe a good book will do. Sometime after that she left the alley, taking her belongings save her blanket and pillow, so I assumed she would be back. However it rained the next day and these became soaked and unusable, so I figured she just found another place to sleep. What does she and others like her do during the day? From what I can tell, they just “hang out” on the sidewalks. If they need something to eat, there are 27 food banks in Seattle, and those are “busy.”

I have to admit that things have changed dramatically in Seattle in the last decade or so. I don’t know if it is because of a flood of H-1B visa immigrants with different cultural values and interests (particularly South Asian), or the “Amazon effect,” or the "generational" thing in which the current demographic is less interested in "philosophical" musings or artistic "merit." But one thing for sure is that people quit spending their money downtown, and that is why the city has a shuttered look, at least on the ground level. But while the subsidized low-income apartment behind the office I work in appears to be have been closed (with a lot of old refrigerators and bed frames cluttering up the alley for a few days),  Danny Westneat in the Seattle Times tells us that while homelessness in Seattle is thus rising, everywhere one looks things are at least  rising “skyward”:

Up and down Union, across from Rainier Square, almost every storefront is shuttered, with tents and scattered pockets of drug activity filling some of the doorways. Even inside the Rainier Square complex, which on a recent day felt fancy, fresh and very well-guarded, most of the street front retail spaces are empty. PCC will open another hole when it gives up after two years downtown in January. But up above, it’s another atmosphere. Same city. Same block. Much different story.

On the top floor, three out of the four penthouse suites are rented, while the fourth is currently available. “Starting at $19,999” per month, the ad says. Starting? That’s $239,988 a year in rent — the price to gain entry to a three-bedroom with 12-foot ceilings in the tallest residential tower on the West Coast. If that’s too rarefied, a few floors down on level 55 you can get a two-bedroom for $15,000 a month.

But even if you have that kind of money, there is simply nowhere to go in downtown Seattle anymore. No book, record, video or computer software stores for over 15 years, just the tourist junk shops on the piers, and Starbucks and that ilk. All the theaters that showed second-run and foreign films are gone. There used to be a 24-hour Burger King next to a redeye bus stop; those are a distant memory. There used to be four McDonalds in downtown; now there is just one that only has walk-up service. Hell, there used to be an adult store that did most of its business in the wee hours of the night. 

The once grand Bon Marche is dead to the world; it was rebranded “Macys” and then shuttered for good in 2020, and most of its floors were rented out to Amazon—but only "temporarily" since the company began pulling out of Seattle permanently allegedly due to “crime concerns” but more likely because it is cheaper to "farm out" staff returning from remote working to other locations. 

Crime is frankly a bit overstated because there are few places to "rob" and what does happen is usually between "consenting" adults with problems to "work out"; the highest incidence of the crime actually  occurs elsewhere, mainly in Rainier Valley, population two-thirds black/Asian (principally Filipino, from a country that has its own problems with gang violence). The only "worthwhile" place to go that is “free” is the central library, although when the weather is nice I just like to find a spot to sit on the pier and do my typing.

Of course if you are one of those people who spend their lives “hanging out” as professional vagrants, even at relatively young ages, it is the way of the world. People are who they are; I could be doing what they are doing, but I'm just not "wired" that way. I lost my "shame" about who I imagined myself to be long ago.

 

NYC high school migrant "controversy" brings out the best and worst in people--and of course the worst wins

 

So while House Republicans who have hypocritically refused to approve additional funding for border security and yet engage in their politically-motivated impeachment games with current target (after looking like idiots during Hunter Biden’s “surprise” appearance) being Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas—parading about their only piece of “evidence,” an anecdotal incident involving an MS-13 gang member who they forget to mention  was “bred” in the U.S.—as “proof” that the country is less “safe” with migrant families in the country.

Of course it is pointless to point out that crime statistics show migrants are much less prone to violent crime (since that is what they are escaping from in the first place), and border cities have less violent crime than most other U.S. cities, and that MS-13 and other Hispanic gangs account for only a tiny percentage of gang-related homicides in this country. That doesn’t matter; if they were not here, such crimes wouldn’t happen. Too bad that “logic” doesn’t apply to the “natives.”

Republicans and other xenophobic types of any ideology thrive on depicting migrants as something less than human, applying the worst characteristics to their “nature,” while ignoring their own massive defects. A recent incident involving migrants and a New York City high school once more gave us a picture of the dark heart that beats in some people, fed by hate and ignorance that is fueled primarily by the right but can also be found in those who believe in the victimhood of their own “group.”

On January 11, 70-mile-an-hour winds and rain persuaded NYC officials to give 500 migrant families being kept in a tent city at a mostly abandoned airfield 12 hours of crowded shelter in the gymnasium of the James Madison High School in Brooklyn, having students at the school take remote classes for a day. Some of these migrant families are from Ecuador, which I talked about last week, a once more or less peaceful country suddenly upended by the importation of drug violence in the past few years; they must feel this is the “price” they must pay for not being threatened with death every day.

Schools have often been used to provide shelter during emergencies, but only for “our people,” apparently. A human city education department spokesman said “turning our back on the most vulnerable is not what we stand for,” and one of the migrants from Ecuador said the experience at the airfield had been “nerve-wracking,” especially for the young children. But save for shelter from the wind, “sleeping” in seats in the school gymnasium until 2 AM when they were told to prepare to leave was apparently to some less “stressful” than the experience of students who just stayed home to do what they had been doing for a year during the pandemic.

The negative reaction from right-wing pundits, politicians, parents, a few students and even that moron Elon Musk demonstrates that ignorance of the situation migrants come from and the lack of public discussion about what behaviors this country can modify to create more livable environments for migrants to “happily” remain in their own countries—and because there is no such discussion, we see what is happening now, and some people are hypocritical enough to be “shocked” by it.

According to the local newsletter The City, “pundits raged about a supposed ‘takeover’” of the high school, despite the fact that  students were only “inconvenienced” with having “one day of remote lessons on Wednesday, with after-school activities canceled and a dance scheduled for that evening postponed.” Poor babies. For those concerned with “vermin” scurrying about their school, “School officials said the NYPD had thoroughly inspected the building and custodians gave it a deep clean before students and staff returned on Thursday.” As if the school hadn’t needed one for years. I’m not going to say where this school is located at, but it begins with a “D” and it is “open” for “business”:

 

While Musk opened his own filthy mouth to proclaim that migrants “will come for your homes next”—one wishes it would be his home, which could probably comfortably house 100 families—“Angry commentators flooded the school’s Facebook page... ‘They are putting these people over our students...That school needs to be disinfected.’” 

An “agitated mother” stood outside the school to heckle the migrant families entering the school in the rain, probably resembling the way “agitated” white parents “heckled” black students entering previously all-white schools during desegregation in the South. “During a Zoom call hosted by Principal Jodie Cohen and Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol, the two were shouted down by several outraged parents, several attendees said.”

Local politicians of course got into the act. The City went on “Assemblymember Michael Novakhov (R-Brooklyn) held a rally outside the school Wednesday where he invoked the white nationalist ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory, saying that ‘they wanna bring more and more people who rely on the government and vote for them.’ Republican Councilmember Inna Vernikov, who represents parts of southern Brooklyn, made the rounds on national television to complain that ‘our kids are really being punished.’”

How, exactly, are they being “punished”? Most students interviewed didn’t see what the “big deal” was, and some expressed sympathy for the migrant families. But of course there were a few influenced by their parents’ bigoted views: “’They put them over us students which is kind of crazy,’” said a 15-year-old. Another student lamented the school no longer felt safe for her. ‘It doesn’t feel like my safe space. It usually feels like my safe space.’” Like families with small children are “dangerous”? And you call yourself “human”?

The inhumanity and prejudice that underlies such views is truly despicable, although as usual the New York Times forgets its own reporting on events in places like Ecuador where some of these migrants are escaping, and feed into the paranoia: “The outrage was the latest political eruption over the tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border in recent months. Republicans have attacked Democrats over how they are managing a crisis that has overwhelmed government agencies.”

The outrage of the few naturally outweighed the humanity of the many who took the situation in stride, so long as it was for just a day; according to the Times “’We don’t foresee us using James Madison High School again,’ said Zachary Iscol, the city’s emergency management commissioner.” But this certainly wasn’t going to be the only storm that the poorly-sited migrant camp was going to face, which was already making travel to schools and services “exhaustive” for migrants. But that is of no concern to the bigots: “Every time there’s a flood, are they going to find a new school?” asked Vernikov, the conservative city councilwoman whined to everyone who would listen.

Note she doesn’t offer any alternatives, save, probably, to “go back where you came from.” I blame most of this on broadcast media. It is so eager to show people images of a border in “crisis” without explaining to them what created this “crisis.” I have talked about the reasons here ad nauseam, but one suspects that the powers behind the scenes do not want the public educated about any honest assessment of U.S. culpability. Gen. Smedley Butler once said this about  U.S. involvement in Latin America…

I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force -- the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for Capitalism. Thus I helped make Mexico...safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in...I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras 'right' for American fruit companies in 1903

…but economic exploitation  (which included U.S. companies adhering to their  own slave-labor “laws,” and destroying infrastructure they built after they were done exploiting so it could not be used by the natives they exploited) wouldn’t even be the worst of it. The only thing that has “changed” to any degree is the U.S.’ desire to run away from its guilt. Rather than “guilt,” we are told, there is “shock” that the high school story was even a “story.”

There are those who are embarrassed by all the publicity, but of course it wouldn’t be a “story” at all—or if it had to be, it could have been as an indication of the better side of human nature—unless one side wanted it to be one so they could exploit it for nativist political purposes to inspire fear and loathing; I mean why else would they be on national television using the episode to demonize and dehumanize migrant families who just wanted a safe place to stay for a few hours? I mean do these people even hear themselves? Sometimes I wish there was a “God,” because I know where these people won’t be headed to when they pass on.

The Packers still "own" the Cowboys as they have since 2008 with impressive Wild Card win

 

As I mentioned last week, the Packers have had the Cowboys’ number in the post-Favre era, winning 7 of their last 8 regular season games against them (one the 23-point come-from-behind win behind Matt Flynn), and two playoff wins. Make that three playoff wins against the Cowboys and 10 of the past 11 meetings against the Cowboys. The Packers actually won 8 of the first 9 meetings against the Cowboys—two of them the last two NFL championship games of the Lombardi era—which meant that the Packers were just 4-15 against them in between. Still, overall, the Packers are a “surprising” 22-17 against the Cowboys.

And the Packers had won five straight in the Cowboys new stadium, including the 2010 Super Bowl. So the Cowboys’ No.2 seed position didn’t mean much when the pressure was on; this was a team that had a reputation for not playing well under pressure, and could get into trouble if it fell behind early. Furthermore, despite winning one Super Bowl with the Packers, Coach Mike McCarthy had over time become the object of frustration for Packer fans during his tenure, although to what extent that was his fault could be speculated, as we saw the Matt LaFleur was no more successful that McCarthy in getting Aaron Rodgers to make the plays in the (next) biggest game.

McCarthy was probably familiar with the defects in Rodgers’ game, but he had never seen Jordan Love before. Listening to the game on the Packer radio network, it was just one big play after another as the Packers were seemingly unstoppable until their last three-and-out possessions that might have been concerning if the Packers were facing a Brady or Manning; but instead it was Dak Prescott, who threw two first half interceptions, one returned for a touchdown by Darnell Savage (his first INT of the season), and another by Jaire Alexander (his first of the season) that gave the Packers the ball in the red zone and another easy touchdown. The Packers had intercepted only seven passes in 17 games in the regular season.

Although the 48-32 score seemed “competitive,” it was hardly that for most of the game. Just how bad was the Cowboys' defense? They were so focused on stopping Cowboys-killer Aaron Jones—who topped 100 yards for the fourth straight game and scored three rushing touchdowns--that it allowed itself by the time the third quarter came around to be completely faked-out by TE Luke Musgrave, who pretended to be a blocker and was allowed to run out to a completely abandoned part of the field to catch a pass and run to the end zone unmolested:

 

For a Cowboys fan, it was that kind of day.  On a 93-yard drive aided by a 39-yard completion to Romeo Doubs and finishing with a 20-yard TD pass to Wicks, it was just that easy. Savage’s pick-6 in the second quarter made it a mind-blowing 27-0 before the Cowboys—who averaged 35-points-per-game during their 16-game home winning streak—finally found the end zone on the last play of the first half, but the way the Packer offense was lighting-up the field, this reminded one of the Seahawks blowing out the Broncos in the Super Bowl; the supposedly "superior" Cowboys looked like a beaten team with their minds too scrambled to understand what had happened to them and what to do about it.

Each team traded points in second half until a loss on downs by the Cowboys on their own end led to a TD pass to Dobbs and 48-16 lead early in the fourth quarter. The game felt over by then, but the Cowboys scored a couple touchdowns in “garbage time” and they actually got down to the Packer 29 with over a minute to play, and, you know, anything is possible with another TD and two-point conversion and then an on-side kick conversion and all of sudden it is “Hail Mary” TD pass and two-point conversion from OT. Fortunately with a team like the Cowboys that was pure fantasy, and the heavy underdog 7^th-seed Packers “stunned” the football world with their “upset” win in a game they clearly dominated throughout most of it.

As mentioned, Jones gained over a hundred yards and scored three touchdowns, and Love was nearly perfect, completing 16 of 21 for 272 yards and 3 TDs. The only “blemish” on his day was coming in at the end to throw an inconsequential incomplete pass, which ruined his chance to be only the fourth quarterback to have a “perfect” 158.3 passer rating in a playoff game. Prescott himself threw for 403 yards, but on 60 pass attempts. The Cowboys ran 89 total plays for 510 yards with 37 first downs, which really doesn’t look that great for the defense on paper, but fortunately the Packers did more with their own opportunities; their 54 offensive plays resulted in 6 touchdowns.

The Packers play next on the road against the top-seed 49ers, who lost to two teams—the Vikings and the Bengals—who didn’t make the playoffs. Do the Packers have a chance? Well, no one thought the youngest team in playoff history had a chance against the Cowboys, either. And younger guys play like they have something to prove.