The air in the Green Bay Packers' hype balloon escaped in a torturous nine and a half minutes on Sunday. The Packers looked to be in position to cruise to 3-0, continuing on with their lofty aspirations. But instead, the team suffered its first loss in embarrassing fashion.
The situation becomes more uncomfortable when a player starts discussing the possibilities of going undefeated just days after a veteran leader warned about getting too comfortable with winning in the NFL.
But there's nothing inherently wrong with Rasheed Walker's comments about running the table perfectly. Micah Parsons helped contextualize those thoughts himself, leading into the contest against the Cleveland Browns.
In the NFL, there's nothing wrong with bizarrely losing one game when you have Super Bowl aspirations. After all, there's only ever been one perfect champion in this league since the NFL-AFL merger 59 years ago.
Parsons backed up those thoughts after Sunday's loss.
Micah Parsons doesn't sugarcoat Packers' painful lesson in Week 3
"Sometimes, just like today, you [expletive] the bed," Parsons said after the game. "That's just the reality of it. It happens to the best teams. Even the best Super Bowl champs make mistakes, and they pay for it early."
"You go back to the history of the champions and who've they've played and games they should've won. It's just part of the [NFL]. It's just that competitive. It's that hard to win. It's hard as hell to win football games. So, when you win football games, it's a celebration. But when you lose, it sucks."
Of course, that harsh reality of life in the NFL doesn't soothe the discomfort in how the Packers lost in Cleveland. The Packers were pelted with penalties and weren't complete enough on offense to put the game out of reach before the last-minute chaos unfurled.
But Parsons also pointed out that there are 18 weeks of regular-season football in the NFL. Who they were in Week 3 isn't good enough, but there is little reason to believe that this is who the 2025 Packers are, as if they didn't squash two NFC contenders in the weeks prior.
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It was a chaotic weekend in the NFL, and the Packers weren't the only team with higher aspirations that lost in an undignified manner. The Los Angeles Rams had the defending Super Bowl champions in an even more precarious position and still lost.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers needed more Baker Mayfield heroics to overcome the New York Jets with Tyrod Taylor at quarterback. The Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons lost on the road in their own division despite being the favorites in their respective games.
Any given Sunday is the cliche fans lean on after embarrassing losses. But transitioning into the next week, there's another thought that stands true — the transitive property doesn't exist in sports.
The Browns will likely continue to lose more games than they win, and the Packers will do the inverse. That outcome won't be surprising, even with the outcome of Sunday's game hanging over the week leading into Parsons' revenge on the Dallas Cowboys.