Blog Post: Wegher Defends Clay Matthews and Says Packers 2012 Playoff Loss was Related to TeamTragedy

The words Clay Matthews uttered reverberated quickly. The backlash from players, fans and even radio talk show hosts in New York was swift.

"We picked the most inopportune time to play our worst ball," Matthews told Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports, recently. "The fact is [the Giants] didn't beat us. We beat ourselves. We need to play our best ball when it counts. This year, I expect us to be right back where we should be."

The reaction from New York was fast and furious.

Justin Tuck, the Giants defensive end, responded, according to the New York Daily News, by saying: "I guess people love living in Fantasy Land and want to make excuses for the situation."

On the other side of the ball, the response was similar: "If that's what Clay thinks, so be it," guard Chris Snee said, also to the Daily News in New York. "I have a brand new ring and we earned every bit of it. We went in there and beat them. (Matthews) was a non-factor. Maybe that's what he means."

The Giants defeated the Packers 37-20 in the divisional round of the playoffs last January 15. Green Bay was 15-1 before the game. New York, which went 9-7 during the regular season, had won a first-round playoff game over Atlanta, 24-2, the week before. The Packers had a bye that weekend.

Of course, in this day and age, it wasn't just the Giants players who reacted to Matthews's comments. Radio callers also got in on the perceived slight. And so, too, did radio commentators.

"You've got to give credit to the opposition," said Michael Kay, who hosts a daytime radio show on ESPN in New York. Kay added: "You can't say that we lost the game, they didn't beat us. That's taking a shot at the Giants...even if he's taking a shot at his own team, (by) proxy, he's taking a shot at the Giants."

Even before getting the pulse from callers, Kay had more to say.

"The pressure of the moment got to the Packers. Period," he said, referencing the plethora of dropped passes and penalties that beset Green Bay that day. "So then, how could you say you're better than the other eam if the pressure makes you wilt? Pressure does two things: it either cracks pipes or creates diamonds.

"And in this case, it cracked pipes. (The Packers) could not live up to the pressure. They did not play well and they deserved to lose that game...I'm sorry, the better team rises up in big moments."

After that diatribe, of course, it wouldn't be hard to guess what Giants fans thought of Matthews's remarks.

Tony from Queens said: "You know, it's ludicrous. Why [are] we even talking about Clay Matthews and what he has to say? He's a loser because it's sour grapes. You show some class...Don't make excuses. You sound like a crybaby. Man-up and give us your props."

The definitive word there might be "us." Matthews was dissing "us," the caller inferred. Which is an interesting commentary, in itself, about the nature of fandom and the extent to which fans identify with their teams.

One person who has a unique vantage point on Matthews's comments is his high school coach, Charlie Wegher.

Before heading to USC as a walk-on his freshman year, Matthews played at Agoura High School. He graduated in 2004.

"You know, Clay's a real smart kid," Wegher said. "And I think he was just being honest. I think he looked at it and said: 'You know what? We lost that game because we didn't get it done.' And there's nothing wrong with being confident and being honest about it.

"If those guys (the Giants players) took it the wrong way or took it differently than the way he intended, (then) that's the way it goes. I think he's just real honest about his evaluation of why they lost that game."

But then Wegher said something else that may not have been on the minds of any of the offended parties in New York. And sadly, it is something that was revisited upon the NFL this preseason when Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid's son, Garrett, died at the age of 29, on August 5.

"I tell you, last year for (the Packers), I think it all came down to their coach's son dying, unfortunately, the week of a playoff game," Wegher said.

Michael Philbin, the 21-year-old son of then-Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin (he is now head coach of the Miami Dolphins), was found drowned the Monday before the showdown between the Giants and the Packers.

"That had to affect them," Wegher said. "I mean, you have to be at such a high level emotionally to play and win when you're in the playoffs. Especially against a good team. They went to a funeral on Friday and there's no way that you're ready to play at your best."

Last year, Matthews and his former teammate Joey LaRocque were honored before a Chargers game during a bye week for the Packers, who were 7-0 at the time.

"Right now, we have a pretty good team," Matthews said that night. "I've had some success individually, but now, it's about staying on top and kind of maintaining that level of success."

It looked to most people like Green Bay would continue that success. The main question, at the time, seemed to be whether the Packers would go undefeated.

Wegher, who is in his 19th season as head coach at Agoura High, which opens its season at home on Friday night against crosstown rival, Oak Park, said prior to Green Bay's loss to the Giants the Packers looked unstoppable.

"I thought, 'This team's going to march right in there and win this thing again,'" he said. The Packers won the Super Bowl the year before after going 10-6 during the regular season.

Wegher does not believe Matthews's comments were meant as trash talk towards the Giants. Neither does he think they were a message to spark his own teammates.

"Like I said, I think he was just being honest about his evaluation and he believes that they're pretty good and they didn't play well that day," he said.

However, Wegher did touch on a subject brought up by Tony from Queens, though without the inflamed hyperbole. The subject of which, was the Packers' defense. First, from Tony:

"[Give credit] to the team that waxed you," he said on Michael Kay's radio show. "What [Green Bay] did, though, was they spent the entire draft fortifying that ridiculously (bad) defense - along with New England - the two victims of the Giants. So they know their deficiencies already."

Even if the Packers and Giants don't see each other in the playoffs this season, they will have a chance to sort things out at MetLife Stadium, in New Jersey, on November 25. Whereupon Green Bay's defense should be improved.

"I talked to Clay and he said their defense is going to be very good," said Wegher. "They got that kid from USC, Nick Perry, and Clay says, 'We're going to do some good things on defense.'"

Matthews has quickly become one of the most recognizable figures in the NFL since debuting as a linebacker in 2009. And in a league in which the average playing career is 3.2 years, he will have surpassed that when he plays in his fourth game this season.

"He's a veteran leader and he's earned it," Wegher said. "There's no question in my mind - he's the face of their franchise. He and [quarterback] Aaron Rogers."

And no one knows better than Matthews himself, that one game or even one season need not define a player or a team. He left Agoura too small to play at USC and wasn't afforded a scholarship as a freshman.

"It wasn't your typical college career in the fact that I had to walk on and kind of scratch and claw for everything," Matthews said at the ceremony at Agoura High last year. "But it all worked out. It's not where you start, it's where you finish."

Even Tony from Queens, in his more sane, or at least less partisan moments, would have to concede the truth: Clay Matthews has been nothing but a winner since the days when he sported a Roger Maris crewcut in high school.

Because of that, I'm sure, in their hearts, the Giants and their fans are wary.