Packers vs. Cowboys

As most weeks in the NFL playoffs go, the people of the sporting world have all week to talk about football with a limited number of teams to talk about.  This week a lot of the talk has turned to the Packers vs. the Cowboys.  More specifically Tony Romo and Aaron Rodgers.  Other than leading their teams to the playoffs what do they have in common?  Well Tony Romo was almost picked up in by the Packers.  Think about that.  Tony Romo as the Packer's quarterback and not Aaron Rodgers.  If Tony was picked up in 2003 there would be no need to draft Aaron 2 years later.  Tony would be the successor and Aaron would be making some other team in the NFL look outstanding.

There is so much more to this game though than just these quarterbacks.  Think back to the 1967 NFC Championship game.  The Ice Bowl.  The game that is forever known for being the coldest game in NFL history.  The game that sealed the identity of the Superbowl trophy.  Bet you didn't think about that.  If you think about it, if the Cowboys hold the Packers at the goal line and prevent them from scoring, then Tom Landry and the Cowboys most likely go on to win the Superbowl that year.  The there is an outside chance that the Lombardi trophy is named the Landry trophy.  Again this is a big if, but still it could have happened.

Now back to this weekends game.  Who really has more to prove?  The Packers?  Well Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson are trying to prove to the organization that their way of drafting stars and not acquiring them via free agency is the best.  Aaron Rodgers is still trying to get over the Brett Favre hump and silence the rest of the haters in Packer land.  He is trying to prove that he is the best weapon for the Packers.  Jerry Jones and the Cowboys are trying to keep their "America's team" name that they've had since the 90s.  They haven't done much since then and it is starting to look like, that if Jason Garrett doesn't lead this team to victory that he could be looking for a new job this postseason.  Tony is trying to prove that he can win playoff games, and that last week's win over the Lions was not a fluke.  He is trying to get rid of his non clutch nature.

The Cowboys probably have the bigger thing to prove this weekend in my opinion with Jerry, Jason and Tony.  This doesn't mean that I am in anyway rooting for the Cowboys this weekend.  It's always great to have an old Cowboy calling the Packer Cowboy game.  It's not like he'll be rooting the entire game. (Sarcasm in case you didn't catch that.)

Really the Worst Call?

Who's fault really was it though?  Was it the referees? Was it the players?  well really both are to blame but that is human error in the game of football.  I am talking about the Lions vs. Cowboys game this weekend.  The game itself seemed to have come down to the call on the field.  Well the blown call I should say.  Yes the referees missed a crucial call that could have changed the game drastically but is it really the turning point in the game?  I don't think so.  You see the game of football is played by humans, and refereed by humans which means that there is a significant amount of human error in the game.

If the game were to change and it were to become a bunch of robots playing the game or at least refereeing the game people would begin to hate the game because it doesn't allow for human error.  As a fan I'm sure that a call has gone your team's way one or two times at least (that you can remember).  This is what makes the game exhilarating.  The thought that a call can be blown at anytime and that your team or the other team could start to walk away with the game is very exciting.  This can change the way that people view the game of football forever.  We have all heard about point shaving by the players but haven't really seen anything that involved that kind of controversy with the referees.  Sure the was the fail marry with Green Bay and Seattle a couple of years ago but that was a bunch of replacement referees, not ones that do this at this level all of the time.

Back to the game.  The referees are to blame for missing a call yes, but what I want to know is how is it that the flag can be thrown by an official across the field seeing that it was blatant pass interference but not by the referee that was standing the closest.  Then after the play the conversed about the play and were convinced by that same referee that didn't see the pass interference because he didn't want to  be thought of as not being able to do his job at the highest level.  Basically he missed the call and didn't want to take the blame for missing the call so he stuck to his guns, knowing he was wrong.  He just didn't want to seem wrong to the entire nation.

Finally the game was not lost on this call although the call had it gone the Lion's way could have changed the layout of the game.  It was lost by the Lions! Yes I'm not blaming the referees! The Lions constantly couldn't do anything with the ball in the second half.  This is a team that is supposed to be competing for NFC North titles on a yearly basis.  Your offense should know how to step up in the playoffs when the game is on the line.  This team was built with so many good pieces on the offensive side of the ball that there should be no excuse for not being able to move the ball.  I understand that there is not a lot of playoff experience on the team itself but the team does have experience and they should be able to concentrate on the matter at hand.  There was absolutely nothing for them to be sidetracked with because Ndamukong Suh got off of his one game suspension.  The team and this offense specifically needed to step up and we saw them collapse.  I guess Matthew Stafford is less clutch in playoff situations than Tony Romo.  And that is saying something.