Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers can take away a lesson or two as they proceed to 2012.
It is easier to win the big game having been given up for dead than it is to rule the regular season.
Maybe a whole lot easier.
If you break down the New York Giants' 21-17 win over the New England Patriots to its essentials, you can see that New York tore a page right out of the 2010 edition of the Packers.
A team, left for dead and on life-support, gets a couple of breaks and improbably makes the playoffs.
A Dallas Cowboys turnover here, A New York Jets turnover there and this team is watching the commercials with the rest of us.
But that team plays with a 'nuthin' to lose' attitude and catches fire.
It goes on the road and decimates seemingly superior opponents.
You have just read a description of the Green Bay last year and the New York Football Giants this year.
Heavy hangs the head that wears the crown.
When you rest, you rust.
Insert an apropos cliche here.
It's hard to operate when you are in everyone's crosshairs, week in and week out.
Overconfidence can creep in when you least expect it and the hunger for winning is slaked considerably when you actually win.
It's intoxicating and heady and very hard to reproduce regardless of injuries, personnel changes and the breaks.
Those things tend to even out over time, but crucial mistakes and looking past any foe for even a nanosecond can be fatal.
And so it was for Green Bay.
When it looked like all the pieces of the puzzle were in place, receivers dropped balls, running backs fumbled and all went slipping through the fingers like gossamer.
The good news is the solid scaffolding is in place for a run at the Lombardi Trophy next year and in the foreseeable future.
General Manager Ted Thompson will likely take a dip into the free agent pool and shore up the lackluster pass rush.
Depth in the secondary is always a pressing need and outside linebacker has to be less of a position by committee next year.
TT will continue to find nuggets of pyrite and turn them into krugerrands.
Who knows...maybe even Mike Neal will be one of them, if he can ever stay on the field.
The better news is it is already next year in the NFL, a 12-month proposition these days.
The Draft, the OTAs, minicamp and training camp are not that far away.
In other words, here we go again!
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