Packers clinch the #1 seed with a week to spare. Road to the Super Bowl goes through Lambeau.

I had completely forgotten about this rant that Vikings play-by-play guy, Paul Allen, went on after the Vikings beat the Packers earlier in the season:

Annnnnd the Packers have won every single game since this speech. Whoops!

Anyway, the Packers did exactly what they should have done with the #1 seed on the line last night and the Vikings starting a quarterback who looks like an, ‘area man,’ from an Onion article:

They dominated. Little slow in the red zone to start, but eventually got on track and synched up the #1 with a week to spare. Things you love to see: That.

• Aaron Charles Rodgers is on his way to back-to-back MVP’s, and his 4th MVP overall. Another masterful performance yesterday. I love Jonathan Taylor, I even like Cooper Kupp after he led me to a fantasy championship this season, but Rodgers is the best player in the game right now. If you asked the GM of the Colts if he could have JT or Rodgers for the 2022 season, he takes Rodgers 100 times out of 100. Is this good?

• I had no idea who David Moore was before last night but based on what we’ve seen from Amari Rodgers and Malik Taylor returning kicks this year I’d say he’s a MAJOR upgrade. Guy looked like Desmond Howard reincarnate compared to the alternatives. He actually went forward on a few kicks!
• ^Semi related: Has the kicking game kind of gotten it figured out? (sort of?)(maybe?)
• I have no idea what the Packers are going to do with Davante next season and beyond, but they’ve got to find some way to lock him up. Some of that may hinge on what Rodgers does, but Davante is rapidly approaching ‘greatest Packer receiver of all time,’ if he isn’t already there. He’s so smooth. He makes it look so easy. He broke his own franchise record for single-season catches yesterday, and he’s 21 yards short of Jordy’s single-season receiving yards record. If he gets a 4 or 5 year extension he’ll have every Packer receiving record, and if Rodgers stays, he might approach some elite, ‘All Time NFL’ records. The guy is headed to Canton.
• I could write a master’s thesis on things I’d rather do than try and tackle AJ Dillon when it’s 5 degrees outside.  Hell I’d be terrified to see him flying at me during one of his Lambeau Leaps. It’s like he was made in a lab to be a cold weather back in Green Bay.
• Preston Smith just keeps cashing those sack-bonus checks. The fact that he’s adding $750,000 to his contract on each one of these makes them that much sweeter.
• Mike Zimmer’s nose was giving off some serious ‘Tom Coughlin NFC Championship Game 2007’ vibes in the cold last night.
• Speaking of, just guys being dudes:

Guy on the far right looks like he went into hibernation when Lynn Dickey was the quarterback and just woke up. You may not like it, but this is the male body at peak performance.

Last year, in my sports depression following the Packer loss at home in the NFC Championship Game to the Bucs, I thought, ‘man, it was all there for them. How are they ever going to get that #1 seed again and have the playoffs come through Lambeau.’ Of all of the NFC Championship Game losses in the past decade, last year’s stung in a different way because they had it set up perfectly. Well, about a year later, they’re in that exact same spot again. They’re 8-0 at Lambeau this year, and they’re two home wins away from the Super Bowl. Rodgers said in the postgame that he expects his toe to be at 100% for the Divisional Round and he also thinks Cobb/Bakhtiari/Za’Darius/Jaire/Myers are all going to be ready for the playoffs. It’s all there again.

Now the question is: Who do you play in a meaningless game in Detroit this coming weekend. The ol’ rust/rest debate. Davante is close to some single season records and said he wants to play, and he thinks the stars should play. Rodgers said he doesn’t think he needs to play, but he’s expecting to play. I realize that if they rest everyone and then come out flat in the Divisional Round LaFleur is going to get roasted, but I just don’t think they stand to gain anything by putting Rodgers in harm’s way. This Detroit team is still playing hard and playing nasty for Dan Campbell. There are going to be a LOT of Lions players just trying to put something good on tape so they impress someone out there who might sign them in 2022. The last thing you need is a 300-pound defensive lineman getting a clean shot on Rodgers, or stepping on his toe, and putting his status in question heading into the playoffs. The man is about to be a 4-time MVP, he’s been doing this at a high level for almost 15 years, I don’t think taking 2 weeks off is going to hurt him. If you want to throw Davante out there for a quarter, or a half, or just until he breaks that record, fine. If you want to give some of the other starters a little run to stay sharp, fine. But Jordan Love should be starting this game on Sunday.

PS: Story of the day in the NFL was obviously Antonio Brown

Dude is the definition of a wild card. I don’t know if there’s any kind of mental health issues going on there, if he just likes mixing it up and doing crazy things for attention, no clue. But we haven’t seen a specimen like this in sports since Dennis Rodman. That’s the only comp I can come up with. The type of guy/player where you have no clue what they’re going to do on or off the field at any given moment.

Double PS: What in the fresh hell was this on the Viking Twitter page before the game?

I saw someone compare this to a graphic you’d see at a bowling alley when you get a strike and that comparison could not have been more accurate. Bizarre.