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Clay Matthews: The New York Giants 'didn't beat us'

There are a lot of juicy nuggets in Michael Silver's piece for Yahoo! Sports about the Green Bay Packers.

Aaron Rodgers has debuted "nice white-guy dance" in practice that looks like a stripper routine. (The moves apparently will stay in practice.)

» The Packers are honest about their defensive shortcomings during the 2011 season: "We just felt like, 'Hey, at the end of the day, the offense will put up enough points, we'll win the game and move on.' That was probably to our detriment," the Packers' newest safety Charles Woodson said.

» Defensive additions like Anthony Hargrove and a strong rookie class -- the Packers took USC defensive end/linebacker Nick Perry in the first round of April's draft -- have brought more "juice" and "personality" to the defensive line, which Rodgers says is deeper than it's ever been in Green Bay.

» But the pull quote that will get the headlines, including the one above, comes from linebacker Clay Matthews.

"We picked the most inopportune time to play our worst ball," Matthews said of January's divisional round loss to the New York Giants. "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 Packers made a lot of mental mistakes against the Giants. They were also pushed around. That was a game we felt Green Bay was lucky to stay close for as long as they did. New York won almost every physical battle up front.

Matthews is right that the Packers played their worst ball, but the Giants soundly beat them. Line those teams up 10 times that day, and that Giants team is going to win most of them.

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