Howdy folks! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving break! Spending a week at deer camp is one of the high-lights of the year for me, but getting back to the comforts of home sure is nice. I was talking with Old Uncle Ambrose on Friday about deer behavior and the Packer's recent three-game winning streak, and he remarked that the wins were nice, but that there was still too many things to complain about. I guess, dear readers, I have to agree with him on that.Sure, we've got the inside track for the wild-card in the NFC, but Looky-Here! We still have too many penalties to take the team serious, and the other nagging issues are still there in the shadows. We very well may get to the playoffs, which I didn't think would happen after the disaster in Tampa, but what is the point if we can't return three punts without getting two penalties? Every single game???
So like Wisconsin, which is not producing lake ice do to un-seasonably-warm temperatures the last three weeks, the Packers appear hot, but are they hot in reality? Or are they, like Wisconsin, standing under an artificial heating lamp, or like my kitties, laying by the whispering wood-stove near my slippered-feet?
I watched the Sunday Night game between the Ravens and the Steelers with great interest, as we'll be playing both tough teams in the coming weeks. Just as I viewed the Cowboys-49ers-Lions stretch as a 'Mini Schedule', I view the upcoming Ravens-Bears-Steelers three-game stretch as it's own little universe. I think we ought to win two of these games, even though the latter two are on the road, and doing so would put us in a great position to make the playoffs, leaving us at 9-5 with two games remaining.
The team gets a nice 'mini-bye week transitional' between the Thanksgiving Day win at Fort Detroit and the Monday Night home game against the hard-hitting Ravens, and this is a game I am marking as a 'true test' as to where the team really stands after 13 weeks. Frankly, this is a game the Packers really need to win if they are gonna convince me the hot-streak is real.
While I am hoping like a hungry hippo that the Packer's hot streak is real, I am also hoping with equal enthusiasm that the hot-weather-streak in Wisconsin is a fluke. The forecast looks mighty nice over the next week, with lows in the 20s almost every night, but I doubt we'll be setting tip-ups the first Saturday of December like we have done the last three years. Yes, dear readers, I consider bitter cold weather "nice." If you don't ice fish you wouldn't understand, I guess. Let me just say, I'll never migrate south during the winter like a lot of senior citizens. Winter is my favorite time of year. Maybe, if the ice doesn't cooperate I'll have to spend the Packer-less-weekend practicing my ice-balance and fixing a big batch of hot-wings for the pivotal Monday Night game instead. Ha-cha-cha!
Until next time, then,
FG
