MMQB: Packers go up big early and win going away by 30: Can anybody slow them down? The Tee-Broncos? PLEASE!

Did the Green Bay Packers play on Sunday? If you watch the post-game highlights or scan the Intert00bs, you would have thought that the only game going was Broncos vs. Bears. Yes, it was a miracle finish, for Teebow and the Broncos to beat the Bears (or maybe we should credit the Bears for sucking so completely) but the real story was going on in Green Bay, Wisconsin as the Packers were dismantling the overmatched Oakland Raiders.

How can you not love the Broncos? Simple: the Broncos and their QB are an awful team for 55 minutes. Then they suddenly come to life and play out of their heads and win. I will say this now and shout it from the highest mountain top: I WANT the Broncos vs. Packers in the Super Bowl. The Packers will not be within one score in the last five minutes against that team. In fact, I would predict the Broncos to be down by at least 21 in the last five minutes of a potential Green Bay/Denver SB tilt.

But I’m sick to death of the Broncos. I’m here to praise the best team in the land:

• Where has Ryan Grant been hiding all year? Has it been the steady production of James Starks that hid Grant’s resurgence? I’m not sure but I have to say: Grant looked like Ahman Green back there catching passes, bursting through the holes, scoring TD’s. Gotta love having that in your hip pocket down the stretch.
• 
  
• Donald Driver, the venerable one in the Packer receiver corps, has his third straight big game. Never the guy with the most catches or the most yards, just biggest catches and the biggest yards. With the injury to Jennings looming, Double D will need to step up and fill a role. I can’t imagine a guy more able to do it.
• 
  
• Jermicheal Finley, loosing a battle for possession in the end zone, has officially fallen off my list of Packer weapons and moved into my dog house. And probably Aaron Rodgers’ too: after that fiasco, he wasn’t never thrown to again. In the final year of his contract, I cannot see Ted Thompson shelling out big bucks to retain a guy who has become inconsistent and edging into the area of a liability. 
• Can you do more than Mason Crosby? Damn that guy is good. After two weeks of iffy play, he went 4 for 4 including a long of 49. On a night when the Packers red-zone magic was suddenly absent, Crosby salvaged 16 points for his team. Gotta love that.
• For the second straight week, the Packer defense adds points to the scoreboard. You just can’t put a value on that kind of play. It not only short-circuits an offensive opportunity, it puts points on your side of the ledger and demoralizes the opponent. No one in the NFL is doing what the Packers are doing in that arena.
• I simply love he NFL Mobile ad that has Matthews making a tackle-for-loss and throwing the “Predator” move, repeated by fans watching including sportscaster Rich Eisen. Too much fun.
• The Raiders hang their hat on being able to run the ball and stopping the run. The Packers are just not the team you would expect to run the ball. How did that turn out? Grant and Kuhn ran for 131 and 2 TD’s, Bush found 78 yards and 1 TD. I’d say that’s a win a for the passing team, wouldn’t you?
• The opportunistic Packer defense should really have been able to post a shutout over the Raiders but for two poor series. The safety given up by the offense in slop time was troubling (who the hell was blocking on that play? Anyone? Buehler?). On a Sunday when they Packers won by 30, it really wasn’t that close.

Now we get down to the last three games of the season and 16-0 is within reach. Can any of the final three opponents beat the Packers? Chiefs: not even in the same league. Their only advantage is home field. Bears: they are missing their starting QB and franchise running back. And they lost to the Broncos. Their season is done. Lions: Did you watch them against the Vikings? Up by 21 in the first quarter, they barely hung on for the win. If the Queens were even the teensiest bit better, it’s a miracle come back and a Lions loss. No, I’m sorry: any team can beat any other team on any given Sunday, but I just can’t see the Packers losing to any of these stiffs. Unless, of course, Mike McCarthy sits his starters. I just don’t see that in his character, but the ultimate goal is a Super Bowl win. I will trust MM to do what needs to be done to meet that goal.