This Week's Game

On the one hand, it counts just as much as the Week 8 Bears game. It counts the same as any other game. Well, out of conference games are pretty low down the list of games with playoff implications. I suppose there must be some advanced analytics that could be applied here. Intuitively, I know that division games are always the most important games on the schedule. Those games carry huge playoff implications. Aren’t they actually worth more than 1.0 games in the standings because of tiebreakers? 1.05? 1.1? Can someone with math skills help me out here?

 

The Patriots have games in the standings and the tiebreakers to back that up. Even if they lose this game with the Packers the Pats will still hold the #1 seed in the AFC. Still. This is an undeniably big game. These are two of the elite teams in the NFL. Because they play in different conferences it’s an obligatory Super Bowl Preview! Cue the human interest stories! Are any of these players friends with a terminally ill child? How about a feature with Olivia Munn and Giselle Bundchen?

The players for both franchises have gone out of their way to praise their opponents during the lead up to Week 13’s marquee matchup. I think the subtext actually goes something like “I’m going to make you my bitch on national television, bitch!” Something like that. Anyway, this is a measuring stick game (and you know what they’re measuring). The Patriots defensive backs – led by Darrelle Revis, Brandon Browner and Devin McCourty and I think we have mention Patrick Chung, too – want to add Aaron Rodgers to the list. The Pats have faced and beaten Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck. They’ve also beaten Jay Cutler and Matthew Stafford but I’m not sure I would put them on the same list with Manning, Luck and Rodgers. Anyway, the point is Manning, Luck and Rodgers are probably on your list of elite quarterbacks and New England’s defensive backfield wants to beat them all. Wants to own them. Wants to certify their badassedness.

You can bet the Packers defense wants to shut down Tom Brady, too.

Respect.

You know how they say about certain players, “He’d play even if they didn’t pay him?” That’s never true of course or as much as it is true it’s true about all elite athletes. It’s about winning. Poker on the plane. Dominoes. Tiddlywinks. The big game. The one-on-one matchups. Once they cross the chalk it has nothing to do with the paycheck, of course. Just men being men, doing the things men do.

Things men do wearing shoulder pads and helmets while tossing about an oblate spheroid.

I’m already worried about injuries. As amped up as I expect both teams to be, you have to assume several high speed collisions in this one. Hard to avoid helmet to helmet hits at max velocity. I’m anxious every time Gronk touches the ball, of course, but this game – well, it’s a Super Bowl preview! The Patriots have a deep and versatile roster but I’d much rather have a healthy, deep and versatile roster in January than a win in a non-conference game the last Sunday in November.

Can I have both?

This game looks like 34-31 to me, one way or the other. If it does wind up a blowout I’d be at least mildly surprised. If it does wind up a blowout I think it’s more likely the Patriots win. But who knows, really?

Maybe this is a Super Bowl preview. The odds are probably against it. After this Sunday there are still four regular season games left and those games are every bit as unpredictable as the one this Sunday in Green Bay. Then comes the single elimination tournament known as the playoffs. Lots of variables, lots of factors, more than a few polynomial equations. But trust me on this one. It won’t be about arithmetic, stats or advanced analytics this Sunday.

It’ll be football, just football, great football and maybe the best football we’ve seen this season because this is one of those games Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, Darrelle Revis and Clay Matthews and every other player on the active 46 lives for, the games that define greatness, even if it’s only for one week.

Super Bowl preview.

Can’t hardly wait.