Gary Seymour, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
They say you can’t win ‘em all, nor in the National Football League preseason do you really even care to.
The irrelevance of preseason games was never more clearly demonstrated than by the 2008 Detroit Lions, who breezed through the exhibitions games with a 4-0 mark but failed to outscore any of their opponents in the regular season.
Their 0-16 mark surpassed the previous standard bearer of bad, the ’76 Tampa Bay Bucs, whose 0-14 finish produced not only inept football but some self-deprecating zingers from their coach John McKay, who when asked after another loss about his team’s execution said, “I’m in favor of it.”
For the deluded among Lions fans encouraged by the perfect ’08 preseason, the toppling of high hopes was never louder.
In falling to the Kansas City Chiefs 17-7 last Saturday, the Green Bay Packers finished with a 3-1 record in a preseason that, despite the setback at Arrowhead Stadium, was arguably as close to perfect as it gets.
Unlike last year, the Packers will enter this season with most all hands on deck, the two most notable of which belonging to wide receiver Jordy Nelson. Back at a reported 100 percent, Nelson’s presence makes quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the offense more potent by orders of magnitude.
This time around, it was the defending NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings who took it on the chin in the preseason injury department. Their quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater, was lost for the year to a knee injury. If there is a season-ending injury more damaging to an offense than one suffered by its best wide receiver, it is one to the starting quarterback. Minnesota will need an extraordinary year from running back Adrian Peterson and its defense to have any chance of repeating as division champions.
As for the Packers’ defense, Packers linebackers Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers were both cleared in a league investigation involving performance-enhancing drugs, which although not a huge surprise was good to hear nonetheless.
As it sits today, the pieces are in place for a run at Super Bowl LI as the Packers prepare for Sunday’s season-opener in Jacksonville. They are favored by a little less than a touchdown to beat the improved Jaguars.
In fact, the Packers have been installed by at least one computer that runs these types of programs as the favorite in every single one of their games.
Not to say that they’re projected to become the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to finish a perfect season, and so far no one has drawn any parallels between this year’s Pack and the ’07 New England Patriots, who averaged more than 36 points a game in going 16-0 during the regular season.
But at this moment, in sizing up all 16 of the matchups on their schedule, the Packers are favored to win every one of them.
Packers fans not excited by this may want to check for signs of a pulse.
Someone once made this remark on the interminable slog of one of his favorite, but rather protracted pastimes: The only thing longer than a bowling league season is infinity.
In a similar vein, the waiting has been the hardest part for Packers fans curious to find out how their team at full strength really stacks up with the other big dogs.
After a disappointing 2015 that often felt like the team was made to play with one hand tied behind its back, some answers are finally nigh.
Good thing, too, because the proverbial window of opportunity on winning a Super Bowl has a way of inching shut like a retractable dome.
Summer is almost over, which is never a good thing until you realize what that also means. The unbeaten Packers are hungry, at full strength and finally playing for real.
Not a minute too soon.