☹️🏈 THUD! — Cold, Snowy 13-10 Loss To 49ers Ends Pack’s Super Bowl Quest, Possibly Closing “Rodgers’ Era” In GB!

☹️🏈 THUD! — Cold, Snowy 13-10 Loss To 49ers Ends Pack’s Super Bowl Quest, Possibly Closing “Rodgers’ Era” In GB!

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Exclusive

Jan. 23, 2022

The #1 seed Green Bay Packers (13-5) laid another playoff egg before stunned fans at frigid, snowy (0 degree wind chill) Lambeau Field Saturday night. The Pack lost to the underdog San Francisco 49ers (11-7) and their much maligned quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, 13-10 on a “walk off” 45 yard field goal by Robbie Gould, who remained perfect in playoffs. 

This deflating loss comes in a post-season where the Pack was one of the odds-on favorites to win the Super Bowl. It could be the “swan song” in green and gold for future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers and his sidekick, superstar wide receiver Devonte Adams.

The Packers got the opening kickoff and went on an impressive 69 yard drive, ending with running back A.J. Dillon plowing six yards into the end zone taking more than five minutes off the clock. Sadly, however, for Packer fans, their team was unable to repeat that success.

Basically, Rodgers and the offense took the rest of the night off, mustering only three more points on a field goal. Another field goal try was blocked at the end of the first half.

That left the Pack’s fate in the hands of a defense that was somewhat inconsistent over the regular season. This time, they showed up and almost pulled it off, holding Garopollo and his offense out of the end zone.

Unfortunately, however, the Green Bay “D” fell victim to the offense’s anemia, compounded by more chronically lousy special teams play, an Achilles heel for the team during the season. After the offense failed to move, deep in Packer territory, a blocked punt was scooped up by SF and run into the end zone for a then-tying touchdown.

On the ensuing possession, needing a sustained drive resulting in points to clinch a trip to the Conference finals for the second straight season, Rodgers and the “O” fired a blank — big time! Following a quick and inept three and out, consisting of poorly conceived plays without realistic probability of success, they punted the ball back to the 9ers, thus giving them a shot at winning a game in which they had never led.

Everybody in the stadium knew that SF was likely to lean primarily on its running game, rather than put the game solely in Garopollo’s hands, particularly since he had already thrown one ridiculously bad interception to kill a drive in the red zone.

This time, the worn-down Packer defense could not get the 49ers off the field. The killer came on third and seven on the Green Bay 38, about a minute left in the game, and the Pack out of time outs. SF faced a possible dilemma. If the Pack could hold them to no gain, Gould would have had to attempt a 55 yard field goal in the freezing cold and swirling snow. A miss would have given Rodgers the ball near midfield with about half a minute on the clock. Even a make would have given Rodgers two or three plays after the kickoff to get into field goal position.

But, that moment of truth never came. The Packers let SF all-purpose star Deebo Samuel run for nine yards and a first down at the GB 29. The 49ers then ran the clock down and called on the reliable Gould for the 45 yard game-winner as time expired and the Lambeau faithful looked on in shock.

So, despite a league-best 39 wins over Coach Matt LaFleur’s first three seasons, most in Packer history, the Pack again find themselves as Super Bowl spectators for the 11th consecutive year since winning it all in 2011.

It’s also quite likely the end of the road for the Pack and Rodgers, who almost refused to play this season. And, if Rodgers goes, his friend and All-Pro wide receiver Davonte Adams, who will be a free agent, is likely going with him. 

If AR does reach his second Super Bowl, it will probably be in a different uniform. Tennessee, Indianapolis, and Cleveland seem like logical possibilities. All have strong running games and basically are “a quarterback away” from championship contention. 

Another intriguing possibility is the Washington Football Team. Rodgers, Adams, paired with existing receiver Terry McLaurin, healthy tight end Logan Thomas, and a revived defense with Chase Young back would be a formidable combination.

The Pack is likely to go into “modified rebuild mode” behind quarterback Jordan Love who will be entering his third season. Love seems like a nice young man with some arm strength. But, frankly, I don’t see him making fans forget Rodgers or getting very deep into the playoffs.

Case in point, Rodgers threw 531 passes this year with 4 interceptions and 0 lost fumbles. Love threw 62 passes with 3 interceptions and 1 fumble lost.

Indeed, Packer fans might well find themselves spared the suspense and disappointment of season-ending playoff losses for some years to come in the “Post-Rodgers Era.” I’m among those “die-hards” to remember the very gloomy quarter-century hiatus between the “glory days” of Lombardi and Starr and the arrival of Holmgren and Farve and a long-awaited return to relevance for the NFL’s oldest franchise.

Perhaps, the strongest factor favoring the Packers’ future playoff chances is that they play in the NFC North. Their divisional competition, Chicago, Minnesota, and Detroit are among the most inept franchises in football these days, with all of one Super Bowl victory among them (Chicago — 1986 ) in the “modern age” of the NFL.

With the Packers off the field until next fall, the “action” is likely to shift to the “off-season drama” between Rodgers and the Green Bay front office.

“Who is Aaron Rodgers?” Maybe, the “answer” will be: “Former Packer quarterback who was both a contestant and a guest host of Jeopardy.”

NIGHT SHIFT W/ TAL @ CNN – “CLARIFYING” THE UNCLEAR STATUS OF DACA IF CONGRESS PUNTS AGAIN – “It’s Complicated!” — PLUS “BONUS COVERAGE” OF OTHER IMMIGRATION “HOT NEWS” BY TAL & HER CNN COLLEAGUES!

“Intrepid 24-7-365” Immigration Reporter Tal Kopan and her wonderful CNN colleagues provide up to the minute coverage of the latest developments. Thanks, Tal, for all that you and your colleagues do!

Despite fight in Congress over immigration, the DACA deadline is up in the air

By Tal Kopan, CNN

When President Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, he created a March 5 deadline for protections to end, designed to give Congress time to act to save the program.

But while lawmakers have continued to use the March 5 date as a target, court action and the realities of the program have made any deadline murky and unclear.

As a result, there currently is no date that the protections will actually run out for the roughly 700,000 DACA recipients, young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children — but there remains a large amount of uncertainty about whether they could disappear at any time.

Trump himself mentioned the March 5 deadline in a tweet Monday.

“Any deal on DACA that does not include STRONG border security and the desperately needed WALL is a total waste of time. March 5th is rapidly approaching and the Dems seem not to care about DACA. Make a deal!”

The original plan proposed by Trump in September was that the Department of Homeland Security would phase out DACA by letting the two-year protections and work permits issued under the program expire without the option to renew them. But the administration allowed anyone with permits that expired before March 5 a one-month window to apply for a renewal, which would reset their two-year clock.

However, 20,000 of the 150,000 eligible to renew didn’t. They were either rejected, unable to pull together the paperwork and $500 fee, or unwilling to trust the government with their personal data and enroll again. Further complicating things, some of those rejections were later reopened after DHS acknowledged that thousands may have had their applications lost in the mail or delivered on time but rejected as late.

Then, in January, a federal court judge issued an order stopping the President’s plan to phase out DACA, and DHS has since resumed processing applications for renewals for all the recipients who had protections in September.

But the administration has also aggressively sought to have the judge’s ruling overturned by a higher court, including the Supreme Court, only adding uncertainty to the situation. If a court were to overturn the judge’s ruling, it could have several outcomes, including letting renewals processed in the interim stand, invalidating all of those renewals or even ending the whole program immediately.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/02/06/politics/daca-deadline-march/index.html

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McConnell holds all the cards on next week’s immigration debate, and he’s not tipping his hand

By Tal Kopan and Lauren Fox, CNN

In a week the Senate is supposed to debate and vote on major immigration legislation for the first time in years — and only one person might know what it will look like: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“That, you’d have to check with the leader on,” said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, Monday about the process as he left a GOP Senate leadership meeting.

“You’ll have to ask him,” echoed fellow leadership member Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. “He’ll have to decide what he wants to do.”

“Sen. McConnell hasn’t announced his intention,” Majority Whip John Cornyn told reporters.

Lawmakers of both parties told reporters Monday repeatedly they had no idea what the legislation or the process they’d be voting on likely next week would look like.

McConnell promised to turn to immigration on the Senate floor after February 8, the next date that government funding runs out, if broad agreement couldn’t be reached in that time. The promise, which he made on the Senate floor, was instrumental in ending a brief government shutdown last month, with senators of both parties pointing to the pledge for a “fair” floor debate as a major breakthrough.

The reality is, though, that McConnell has a lot of discretion as to how such a vote could go — and as of now, he has not given many clues.

Even in a meeting with White House chief of staff John Kelly, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and White House legislative director Marc Short, a source said McConnell “wouldn’t indicate what he’s going to do.”

“Total poker face,” the administration official said. “He’s not going to tip his hand.”

But the group came for the meeting, the official said, to “make sure he hears from the administration.”

On Monday, lawmakers expressed hope that such a deal could come together before the Thursday funding deadline, but wouldn’t call it likely. That tees up a vote next week with an uncertain end.

“Probably if nothing is agreed on this week, which I would not be optimistic will happen, then Mitch’ll call up some bill next week and let everyone get their votes on their amendments and see where it goes,” Thune said. “My assumption is that in the end, something will pass. But I guess we’ll see.”

McConnell’s choices will be instrumental in deciding how the debate goes, lawmakers and experts say, and he has a number of options on how to proceed, from the base bill, to the amendment process.

“There’s a lot of different conversations that continue, I don’t think anyone has narrowed it down to one, two or even three paths at this point,” Gardner said.

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving GOP senator, was the only lawmaker who seemed to know how the debate would look.

“I have a pretty good sense. I’ve been through it a hundred times,” he said, laughing. Asked if that meant a mess, he added, still chuckling: “It’s always a mess.”

Plenty more: http://www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/politics/senate-immigration-debate-no-clarity/index.html

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Bonus story: Latest on the drunk driving crash that is shaping up to be a new flashpoint in the immigration debate:

http://www.cnn.com/2018/02/06/politics/colts-drunk-driving-crash-undocumented-immigrant/index.html

Trump: ‘Disgraceful that a person illegally in our country’ killed Colts player in crash

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that it was “disgraceful” that an NFL player was killed by a man who police believe is an undocumented immigrant in a suspected drunk driving accident over the weekend.

“So disgraceful that a person illegally in our country killed @Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson. This is just one of many such preventable tragedies. We must get the Dems to get tough on the Border, and with illegal immigration, FAST!” Trump tweeted.
Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and another man were struck and killed in a suspected drunken driving accident early Sunday morning. Indiana State Police say the man they believe hit them is an undocumented immigrant who has been deported twice.
“My prayers and best wishes are with the family of Edwin Jackson, a wonderful young man whose life was so senselessly taken. @Colts,” Trump said in a second tweet Tuesday morning.
The crash occurred when Jackson and the other man were struck on the shoulder of Interstate 70 in Indianapolis.

 

Read the complete report from Tal and Meagan at the above link.

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There’s always something “shaking” in the “hot button” world of 21st Century Immigration.

PWS

02-06-18