On a December evening in 2010, the Green Bay Packers played the New England Patriots in Foxboro. In a season that would eventually see the Packers go on to win the Super Bowl, the Packers were 14.5 underdogs in a game that was a presumptive cakewalk for Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and company.

The Patriots entered the game at 11-2 and were en route to a 14-2 season that would see Brady selected as the first unanimous MVP in the history of the league. 

(They would eventually be bounced in the divisional round in one of the greatest postseason upsets of the last several decades by the New York Jets.)

The Packers were such significant underdogs primarily because they were missing quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who suffered a concussion in a dismal loss at Detroit the prior week. For the first time since 1992, the Packers would have to start a quarterback other than Rodgers or Brett Favre, and oddsmakers did not like the team’s chances.

But it wasn’t just Rodgers the Packers were missing. To that point of the season, the Packers had already lost the following players to injury for the remainder of the season: Ryan Grant, Jermichael Finley, Mark Tauscher, Nick Barnett, Morgan Burnett, Brandon Chillar, Justin Harrell, Spencer Havner, Brad Jones, Derrick Martin, Mike Neal, Brady Poppinga, and Anthony Smith. Meanwhile, for this particular game they were without Cullen Jenkins, a forceful starter on the D-Lnie.

The 2010 season was a bloodbath for the Packers. They entered this game at 8-5, with their playoff dreams teetering on the brink of falling apart. 

There was little reason for anyone to think that the Packers stood a prayer in a game against a team everyone expected to romp to the Super Bowl in the AFC, let alone in prime time at their home stadium.

But the Packers came out ready to play, looking like a team that knew it had nothing to lose. 

Matt Flynn played the game of his life (to that point). The Packers gave a hell of a game to a Patriots team that certainly wasn’t expecting this much of a challenge. 

Ultimately, the game is remembered for Dan Connelly’s big man kick return and for the miscommunication and poor time management on the part of Flynn in the waning moments of the game. 

But it is also remembered as a “galvanizing moment” in the 2010 season for the Green Bay Packers. Despite all of the odds they faced, they rallied and kept the game close for its entirety, even takin ga lead into halftime and into the fourth quarter. Though they lost 31-27, the team somehow managed to gain momentum coming out of that game.

They would not lose again for the entire 2010 season.

There’s something extremely freeing about knowing no one is giving you a snowball’s chance in hell. All of the pressure is taken off. If you fail, so what? Everyone’s already expecting it anyway. But if you succeed, it will be remembered forever.

Tonight’s matchup against the Arizona Cardinals almost feels allegorical to that 2010 game. Though Rodgers is playing, a significant number of key contributors and all pros are not, and the Packers are being given about as much chance to win this game from national pundits as the Lions have of winning the Super Bowl.

As of Wednesday evening, the Packers were still a somewhat respectable 6.5-point underdog. But you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone without a rooting interest for the Packers picking Green Bay in this one.

The freedom this gives Matt LaFleur and his Packers cannot be understated. They’ve got a short week on the road against the top team in the league with a major disparity in health between the two sides. They get to come out of a mini-bye to face another powerful offense in the Kansas City Chiefs.

There are those who would have the Packers simply roll over, take the L and move on.

But this is precisely the type of opportunity the Packers should cherish. This is where you catch teams napping. 

A well-designed game plan and excellent execution from the players on the field should be enough to make a game of it in Glendale. 

If the Packers manage to pull off this upset, it will be easily the best coaching work of LaFleur’s brief tenure in Green Bay. 

Furthermore, it will be a testament to the depth built by general manager Brian Gutekunst, and the ability of this team to compete with top-notch competitors, even without many of their best players.

So don’t listen to the blowhards to give the Packers no chance. 

Ignore the fools with the losers’ mentality who think the Packers should sit their starters and count this as a preseason game.

This is the kind of game that can launch a title run.

Wisconsin Beer of the Week

The Black IPA (also known as a Cascadian Dark Ale) is one of my favorite styles of beer, but it’s almost impossible to find these days. It had its heyday around 2013 or 2014, but for whatever reason fell out of favor not long after. Basically, think about an IPA but with a dark-roasted malt instead of that pale grain you’d typically use for the style.

Well, when I found out the best brewery in Wisconsin was making one as part of its month of Halloween beer releases, I knew I was going to have to pick up a bunch. And thus I did, while also enjoying one on tap at the brewery (as seen above).

1840 Brewing Company’s Bats on the Bine Black IPA was released last week, alongside its Schwarzen Katze schwarzbier. This Black IPA is exactly what you hope for out of the style: moderately boozy, some good roasty character to the malt base, and a pleasant (but not excessive) amount of bitterness. 

The beer was brewed with CTZ, Chinook and Centennial hops and comes in at around 7.5% ABV. It’s a very difficult style to do well--a lot of breweries end up hopping it too much, which creates a really weird flavor profile when paired with the roasted malt. The bitterness needs to be present but not overpowering, and it can be difficult to maintain that balance. 

Happy to say that, as always, these guys have done an outstanding job with the brew. Very highly recommend.

New faces powering the Packers’ success

Brian Gutekunst said in his introductory press conference several years back that he would use all avenues to build his ball clubs. And boy, he wasn’t lying.

This year’s Packers team would not be 6-1 without some crucial additions made since the start of the 2021 offseason. As the Packers have lost key veterans to injury, other players have stepped up (or been added to the roster) and taken on major roles.

I’ve already talked at length about De’Vondre Campbell, but it’s worth talking about him one more time. Campbell is currently rated the #8 player in the entire league by Pro Football Focus, and the #1 linebacker. Think about that for a second. This guy is on his third NFL team at 28 years old and was a street free agent not many months ago. The Packers brought him in on a one-year prove it deal and, well, he’s more than proven it to the point where the team needs to be considering how they’re going to manage to get him back in 2022.

But there are other players who have also been key contributors who were not on the 2020 team.

Eric Stokes has been everything you could reasonably hope for out of a rookie corner. Cornerback is one of the hardest positions to adjust to in the NFL, and while Stokes occasionally gets beat, he’s almost never out of a play. For what he lacks in ball skills he makes up in stickiness in coverage, blazing make-up speed and pure swagger and confidence. He looks like the real deal, and I cannot wait to see him meet his full potential opposite Jaire Alexander.

Corey Bojorquez may be a punter, but you cannot understate how much of a different a high-quality punter makes. During the offseason I said punter may have very well been the weakest position on the Packers’ roster, and that the team could not go into a season with JK Scott for a fourth straight year. The team listened and traded for Bojorquez, who has shown tremendous versatility, in addition to a booming leg. Bojorquez’s punting performance this week was once again outstanding.

While everyone was begging for the Packers to find a way to trade for Stephon Gilmore, some joked the Packers would instead end up signing a guy off a team’s practice squad. And that’s exactly what happened, as the Packers brought in Rasul Douglas. Douglas had to enter the limelight sooner than expected thanks to injuries to Kevin King, but he has played extremely well in King’s absence. In fact, against Washington, Douglas was PFF’s highest rated Packer on either side of the football. It’s gotten to the point where, when King returns, he may have trouble getting back some of his playing time.

Offensive line rookies Josh Myers (currently injured) and Royce Newman have had their fair share of struggles along the offensive line, but they’ve also been a key part of a unit that has an excellent pass block win rate and has shown tremendous toughness and versatility against some very challenging defensive fronts this season.

Randall Cobb is back in Green Bay and has had a variety of critical catches in clutch scenarios. Rodgers clearly trusts him to be exactly where he needs him to be.

The jury is still out on what Jaylon Smith and Whitney Mercilus will bring to this team, but both had several impressive plays in Sunday’s game against Washington, and Mercilus looked like he still had plenty left in the tank as a situational pass rusher.

What a job Gutekunst has done putting this team together this season and surrounding his core with strong role players who can contribute to a title run.

A quick note about LaFleur

Should the Packers manage to find a way to win this week’s game, Matt LaFleur would move to 33-7 in his first 40 games as head coach of the Packers.

That would put him in first ALL-TIME in NFL history for coaches at that point in their career, ahead of:

Don Shula (31-7-2)

Chuck Knox (32-8)

George Seifert (32-8)

LaFleur still does not get the national credit he deserves for the job he’s done with this team. The naysayers say “yeah well he has Rodgers,” but Rodgers wasn’t exactly looking fantastic in 2018, the year before LaFleur took over. 

What a hire he turned out to be.

Around the NFC North

Here we go once again around the NFC North leading into week four.

-The CHICAGO BEARS are going to be an absolute laughingstock until they have new ownership. Matt Nagy should have been fired after 2020 but because they backed into a 7th seed they didn’t deserve he got another year. Justin Fields is nowhere near ready to be a starting quarterback in the NFL and the more he is exposed to the Nagy offense the worse it’s going to set him back. They need to burn this whole thing down and start from scratch.

-The DETROIT LIONS are now the league’s only 0-7 team. For as much love as Dan Campbell got for his emotional press conference a week and a half ago and for going all-out with the fake punts and onsides against the Rams, one has to really wonder whether he’s cut out for being a head coach in the NFL. I’ve seen all kinds of people saying “I’d run through a wall for him!” Which, great I guess, now the Lions have gone from a bad coach who everyone hated to a bad coach who people like, so at least that’s a moral victory of sorts?

-The MINNESOTA VIKINGS are about as average as it gets in the NFL this year, and it’s difficult to see a path to the postseason for them at this point when you’ve got teams like Dallas, Green Bay, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles and Arizona all clearly ahead of them and several other mediocre teams fighting to be the seventh best team in the conference. If anything, they’re an argument for why it was a bad idea to add a seventh seed.  Minnesota takes on Dallas on Sunday Night Football this weekend, so we’ll get a sense of how they stack up against legitimate playoff competition.

I will hear no candy corn slander

Hear ye, hear ye: Candy corn is not bad.

This seems to be quite the controversial take in certain corners of the internet lately, but I will say it loud and proud once more:

CANDY CORN IS NOT BAD!

Now, I do get grossed out by these viral pictures of candy corn bratwurst and abominations of that nature. But let me tell ya, there’s something about candy corn that feels like… going home. We always had it around the house as kids, as well as the candy corn pumpkins. It was always extremely satisfying to bite off the different levels of color to try to get it as close to a perfect, clean color cut as possible. 

The flavor is fine--it’s not one of my favorite candies, but I don’t see anything particularly objectionable about it. It feels like it’s almost become a meme to just hate on candy corn. 

This confection is a staple of the fall season, whether THE HATERZ like it or not. I will happily take on the unwanted candy corn of my fellow internetsfolk.

Trade deadline looming

I’ve already talked at length in this article and in last week’s column about the various midseason additions the Packers have made this year. It could well be there are more on the way with the trade deadline looming, and the Packers having a bit of extra time after tonight’s game to consider their options and scout potential targets over the weekend.

Kyle Fuller? Brandon Aiyuk? An edge rusher or two?

It wouldn’t at all surprise me if Gutekunst still has one final trick up his sleeve before the deadline hits. The team has already been quite aggressive (sort of out of necessity) with its midseason additions, and now there’s an opportunity to do it once more.

Prediction for Packers vs. Cardinals

As I said in the first section of this article, you would be a fool to count out the Packers in this game. LaFleur has shown himself numerous times to be capable of drawing up outstanding game plans in potentially adverse situations, and I think he can come up with a game plan that will take advantage of matchups against the Cardinals defense and keep this one competitive.

The smart money may be on the Cardinals to win, but this week I’ve just had a gut feeling that this is one that’s going to go the Packers’ way. It’s a similar intuition I had leading up to last year’s games against the Titans and the Rams.

Based on no logic whatsoever, I’m taking the Packers to win, 27-24.

Go Pack Go!