As Michael Scott of “The Office” once perfectly stated: “I’m not superstitious, but I am a little ‘stitious.’ ” The Madman is not among those who believe in jinxes. But sometimes things happen that make you think.
True story: Once, late at a college baseball game we were covering years ago, someone in the press box mentioned that the pitcher was throwing a perfect game. On the next pitch, a walk ruined the chase for perfection.
“Well, at least he still has a no-hitter,” the guy said, seconds before the first hit destroyed that pursuit. That’s when we chimed in: “Well, someone has to say something about the shutout now, right?” Another hit, and the first run scored.
Perfect game gone. No-hitter gone. Shutout gone. And all it took was a bit of well-timed jinxing, some acutely directed superstition.
Fast-forward to Sunday. In the previous week or two, the Madman had become agitated by the continued struggles of Aaron Rodgers. After spending a season preaching patience, we had turned on Rodgers. He continued to struggle, his receiving corps wasn’t getting any better and they were always hurt. Whether in print, on social media, on radio, we now were telling anyone who would listen: Bail on Rodgers, and more broadly, retreat from the Packers’ passing game entirely.
Then came the Great Christian Watson Emergence. Watson has been banged up much of the season — nursing various injuries and missing three games. There were no signals or Easter eggs foretelling of this Emergence. Only more slack Pack performances seemed on the horizon.
And now, in one scorching afternoon on a chilly day in Green Bay, Christian provided us with something we had lost: Faith in the Packers’ offense.
But … take a moment to, as the coaches would say, “review the film” — or in this case, mostly the box score.
Watson had three touchdowns (and 32.7 PPR points). That is great, phenomenal! And he had 107 receiving yards. Nice. But he did it on just four catches. Hmmm. Obviously, such a TD rate is unsustainable. Also, he had those four catches on eight targets. A 50 percent catch rate isn’t great.
So, clearly Watson is a one-week wonder, right? Well, not so fast. Though it is important to acknowledge these aggravating data points, also consider: He got eight targets. That is twice as much as he had in any game this year and the catch rate can improve. Also, there is reason to believe his role will continue to grow.
Though Rodgers might not be Hall of Fame-level at this point, we think he still can be very good. Plus, this is exactly the rype of Emergence we had hoped for and waited on since early this season. It just took a little longer to arrive than we hoped.
So yes, we believe in Christian. And all it took was abandoning our faith in the Packers’ offense to make it happen. And if he fails, well, that’s just the jinx at work again.