View from the Mouse-hole

The defeat of Green Bay (by the New York Giants) was much too devastating for PackRat to stomach and Minnie was elected to finish the season finale of the 'View from the Mouse-hole', featuring GB Packer commentary delivered by the faithfuls most recognizable fan, Mickey the PackRat.

The Packer team looked as rusty as the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, and New York QB Eli Manning became the Wicked Witch from the East, who ruined the Green Bay party.

GB receivers dropped eight QB Aaron Rodgers passes and Packer running backs coughed up three fumbles, a seasons worth of miscues, eventually costing the organization a chance to host the NFC Championship Game next weekend.

The biggest game in football.

Manning torched the GB secondary for over 300 yards and 3-Tds, the game totals about average for the Packers defense this year.

Poor Rodgers had not seen the football against any opponent since Christmas and a lot of the team had not played together in weeks, including WR Greg Jennings (who claimed he was healthy to begin the game) yet was seen leaving in the second half with an undisclosed injury, finishing with four catches... and two drops.

PackRat realized the NFL year was over for the defending World Champion Green Bay Packers late in the fourth quarter when WR Donald Driver caught a TD pass, closing the gap at 30-20, and never performed the 'Lambeau Leap'; instead he turned and kissed the faithful 'goodbye' for the season, and perhaps forever.

A great end to a fantastic NFL career for a deserving GB receiver, who played 13 seasons as a Packer, racking up over 10,000 receiving yards.

A extremely disappointing end to the 'dream year' for the hard-core faithful, despite the unbelievable 15-1 regular season record.

Expectations were high for Green Bay to at least make it to the 'big game', and to lose the first playoff contest at Lambeau Field in five years is truly hard as a fan to endure, especially when the defeat was to a team the Pack had beaten the previous two meetings, the last time at the Giants' haus, Metlife Stadium, in December.

The only silver lining in the black cloud of defeat is that the faithful now do not have to worry about the team losing the NFC Championship Game or even worse, the Super Bowl.

So the loss actually becomes a blessing in disguise, considering how horrible the clubs' defense performed this past year.

We were not going anywhere (Super Bowl) anyways.

The Green Bay organization is beginning to show cracks in the infra-structure as defensive coordinator Dom Capers and offensive coordinator Joe Philbin already have offers on the table from other clubs.

Capers was offered the Head Coaching job at Oakland and Philbin the General Manager position at Seattle.

Maybe Capers wanted to exit after winning it all last year, that's why he designed defensive game schemes that allowed a stat-shattering 6600+ yards this past season. Hmmmm....

The off-season starts today for the deserving Green Bay Packers who really had nothing left to prove to anyone after winning it all last year and recording a franchise record 15-1 regular season mark this year.

Minnie wishes the team the best in all future endeavors and looks forward to the next NFL year when the Packers will again have something to prove and succeed beyond the critics wildest expectations.

PackRat (and Minnie) also will return next NFL season, rooting on the greatest franchise in the NFL, the NFC-North Champion Green Bay Packers.

Until then faithful readers Minnie bids all 'adieu'.