{image1} When Antoine Winfield stripped the ball from Robert Ferguson's hands on the game's final kickoff return Sunday, a wretched football weekend was merely a short Minnesota drive and field goal away. Thank goodness for Ben Steele.
Mr. Steele is far from a household name among Packers fans, but somehow the backup tight end and special teams player ended up with the ball -- at least, as the referees saw it -- at the bottom of the scrum with 1:10 remaining in a tie game at Lambeau Field. Moments later, Ryan Longwell won it -- allowing a state to exhale, as well as to re-think the panicked notion of taking a sick day on Monday.
It just would have been too much. The Packers couldn't have blown a 14-point fourth-quarter lead to the hated Vikings, not the day after Wisconsin's Orange Bowl dreams and Rose Bowl aspirations were pounded into the Spartan Stadium turf in a 49-14 whipping by Michigan State. Steele, cut by the Vikings in training camp, was simply meant to recover that fumble.
Of course, Mike Sherman could have made things a whole lot easier. I'm certainly not suggesting Sherman should base his play calls on recent Badgers games, but the coach's ill-fated decision to go for it on fourth and one in the third quarter (with the Packers holding a 14-point lead in the red zone) felt eerily familiar. Like Anthony Davis' ill-fated dive before halftime Saturday, Nick Luchey may have been victimized by a poor spot, but the refs are taken out of the equation if you elect for a chip shot field goal. And you're also up 17 with 22 minutes left.
"That's it," I muttered as the Vikings got the ball back, still down just two scores with what seemed like an eternity to play. "They'll lose this game by three."
I was happily wrong on that one. Thanks again, Mr. Steele.
Incredibly, the Packers are now one game ahead of last year's division-winning pace, though the ebb and flow feels entirely familiar. When the game is placed in the hands of a capable and explosive offense, things are generally good. But if the defense needs a stop to close out a win, it's best to hope -- and the Vikings willingly obliged on Sunday -- that the ensuing score occurs quickly enough for Brett Favre to get one more shot.
Not only are the Packers in first place in a weak NFC North, they're also in the thick of the overall conference race. The 7-1 Eagles (pending Monday's game) and 7-2 Falcons are tracking toward first-round byes, but no other team in the conference, incredibly enough, has a better record than the once 1-4 Packers. I'm sure a couple steadfast Packers fans believed this would happen, but with seven games left?
A home playoff game is suddenly within reach. But with this defense, we probably shouldn't get too comfortable in the catbird's seat.
Meanwhile, UW is suddenly in the doghouse after an embarrassing performance against MSU. The 35-point loss matched the Badgers' 35-point win over the Spartans last season, which makes the whole thing even more mystifying.
ESPN analyst Lee Corso probably isn't too mystified, however. Mr. Corso predicted before Saturday's game that not only would UW fall to MSU, but that the Badgers will lose to Iowa next Saturday as well, finishing 9-2 and outside the BCS' top six.
That idea seemed more laughable than laudable when Davis sprinted 45 yards for a score in the game's first two minutes, but it went sharply south from there. MSU scored on a block punt, converted a pair of 99-yard touchdown drives and took the life out of Barry Alvarez's team with a surprise onside kick to begin the second half.
The obligatory chants of "Oh-ver-ray-ted!" cascaded down from the stands as the game got out of hand, and who can really blame some well-lubricated East Lansing co-eds the sentiment? UW has been a wonderful story all season, but they could have entered play at 7-2 Saturday as easily as they did 9-0. They leave at 9-1, which really isn't too bad, all things considered.
While Corso may have been on to something, I, for one, will take the drubbing with a philosophical grain of salt should the Badgers win in Iowa City. As the points mounted Saturday I kept thinking, "This team fights through adversity. They'll come back." As it so happened, it was my first erroneous prediction of the weekend.
But its veracity may merely be delayed. If the Badgers can beat the 8-2 Hawkeyes in Iowa next Saturday, it might not be enough to earn a Rose Bowl bid, but they'll have earned my respect. And maybe Corso's, too.
Sports shots columnist Tim Gutowski was born in a hospital in West Allis and his sporting heart never really left. He grew up in a tiny town 30 miles west of the city named Genesee and was in attendance at County Stadium the day the Brewers clinched the 1981 second-half AL East crown. I bet you can't say that.
Though Tim moved away from Wisconsin (to Iowa and eventually the suburbs of Chicago) as a 10-year-old, he eventually found his way back to Milwaukee. He remembers fondly the pre-Web days of listenting to static-filled Brewers games on AM 620 and crying after repeated Bears' victories over the Packers.
