Oh, the ever-important "Big Game." They seem to happen every week in the NFL, don’t they?
Over the past several years, it hasn’t felt like the Big Game has been the Packers' friend. Not by a long shot, even if the Packers are facing a team that would be considered a long shot.
There have been so many Big Losses by the Packers since that domed night in February four years, seven months and 16 days ago, when Aaron Rodgers "got his" and Mike McCarthy bought himself several years of coaching this team. They are the kind of losses that normal, regular-season victories against divisional rivals just don’t seem to heal anymore.
Last night's win just felt...different.
After the utter debacle from last season in Seattle—a loss so bad it made any article about the Packers this offseason almost unreadable—I wanted to physically shake any writer picking Green Bay as Super Bowl favorites this year and ask them, "Do you even WATCH this team?!"
This has been a team that will build you up only to let you down in the postseason. The cacophonous pit of ravenous hyenas known as "NFL fans" won’t let Seattle off the hook after they let two yards get between them and a dynasty, and the wolves are starting to circle on Green Bay fans as well.
Is Aaron Rodgers really only going to win one Super Bowl? Is the window on his prime closing? Has Mike McCarthy wasted one of the all time greats?
Sunday night's win does not make any of those questions invalid. And you can bet your bottom dollar the "this doesn’t change anything, it was just another pointless regular season game" crowd will be out in full force this week. There's no such thing as a "revenge game," they'll say. And maybe they're right.
But at least the Packers CAN beat the Seahawks. There are a number of teams Green Bay can't seem to say that about, not when they have seemingly rolled out of bed and stubbed their toes against the Giants, 49ers, and up until now, the Seahawks year after year.
For a team that makes you cry more than it makes you sweat in the big games, it just feels good to let this one soak in.