Not just having a shot every year and missing - having a shot every year and blowing it. There's losing, and then there's losing.
I give 'em a ton of credit for the fight they put up against the Arizonas, when very few people even gave them a chance, and for how close they came to another NFCCG, but the bottom line is they lost because one of the few veteran playmakers we have blew an assignment and gave up a pass that might not have been complete had he done what he was supposed to do. The year before? I don't think I even need to list all the blown plays that lost that game, which is good because the battery's dead on my calculator and I can't count that high on my own.
Year after year, we have been good enough to win it all, but we have beaten ourselves. Often it's McCarthy and Capers getting completely pantsed by better coaches, just as often it's players not making plays or blowing assignments. And, often it's both.
But the bottom line is, just about every season falls into the same category - they wind up blowing it in the playoffs. That's the story of the McCarthy era, and that's what bothers me the most about this team. Every year that they sit home watching the Super Bowl on television, they have nobody to blame for it but themselves - because they are almost always just as good as at least one of the two teams in that game, and they had their chance to be there - but they blew it.
Everybody who's ever been an athlete knows that the biggest lie in sports is "there's always next year" - because no, there isn't always a next year. Eventually, every player runs out of next years. And you never know, at the end of the season, whether that one was your last "next year." You usually only know it years later, looking back and realizing how close you came. Many of us on these boards are older and more mature than the players, and we understand that - many of them do not, at least not yet. And I think that's why it's so frustrating for so many of us to see them come so damned close and just throw it away, year after year. Once you're in the playoffs, there is only this year, there is only this game, there is only this play. Every single time the ball is snapped. And I'm just sick and tired of watching a team every year that just doesn't seem to understand that.
). I understand Pugger, but I'm inclined to go with diesel. Perpetually missing the playoffs is bad. Having a shot every year and missing, that's mediocre. Obviously, IMO.
