By Brian E Murphy

Eight playoff games have been played so far, and the home team won all of them, until the Packers offense laid an egg Sunday night, and the defense failed left and right in the first half.

There are no 5 stars of the game.

Pickett, Raji, CJ Wilson, Mike Neal, and the linebackers played pretty well. But the lack of tackling on Ahmad Bradshaw's amazing last second run to get out of bounds, allowing the hail mary, was unacceptable for everyone on the field.

Charlie Peprah, whom I have defended for two years, was awful from the opening drive. I still love the guy from Plano East, but I can't defend his play anymore.

The Giants started the game with the ball and the run defense did good... setting up a 3rd & 8 from their own 22 yard line. A stop there, and Randall Cobb would field the punt at about the 30-yard line and could work some early magic.

Capers sent a blitz from the edge and he came in quickly, but Manning threw it right away down to the right sideline, over one CB and before Peprah could get over. Could Nick Collins have gotten there in time to force it incomplete? Perhaps, he's done it many times before. He's a Pro Bowler, has great anticipation and speed.

That drive ended up chewing up about 7 minutes and they settled for a field goal.

Peprah was also too slow on that Bradshaw run and he couldn't get him tackled in bounds.

Then he, along with Woodson, Bush, and Shields, just watched Hakeem Nicks go up first and catch the crushing hail mary.

That's the defense in a nutshell. They did better than I thought in the 3rd & 4th quarter, actually allowing the offense to rally and win the game.

But with fumbles from Kuhn and Grant, and bad passes to Finley and Jennings, and between 7 & 9 dropped passes, depending on your opinion of a drop, the offense simply failed at all corners. Only Driver was impressive with his hands.

Rodgers was with his feet.

Nobody will ever know exactly how much of an effect the death of Joe Philbin's son had on the team. He clearly adds something to the team or else he wouldn't spend 50-hours a week breaking down film, and tendencies.

The mood of the whole team certainly was affected. These guys are all human. Death is hard for everyone. Rodgers had never even been to a funeral. Being somber like that certainly can take the edge off a person playing a game. Maybe not once they take the field, but maybe. And probably during the week when preparation was critical.

Then there was the layoff.

Rodgers was rusty, it appeared, and so was Jennings. Jennings missing time was not by choice though. But Rodgers and he should have hooked up for a first-drive touchdown to put the Packers up 7-3, and they just missed. It looked like Rodgers knew he had the outside throw which might have been for a touchdown. Jennings turned to the inside for some reason. The pass ended up being incomplete and the Packers settled for a field goal and a 3-3 tie. They would never lead in the game.

It was an absolutely sick way to end the season, and they became the first 15-1 team ever to not even win a single playoff game.

The saddest thing is that the Packers cannot move on from this for about 12 months because no amount of regular season wins will matter. Getting wins in the playoffs is all that counts now. Super Bowls are a high standard, but that is the goal of this franchise, and they are obviously good enough to get back.

For Packer fans, hopefully the ending to the story will be different.