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For all baseball-related intents and purposes, winter is now finally over. Spring training is here, and it’s glorious — this week, in fact, it’s when it’s at its absolute best. This first week of games is when baseball feels fresh, and exciting, and beautiful on its own merits, when it doesn’t matter who’s playing or how badly so long as someone’s playing at all. Essentially, this week is when how we feel about spring training is enough to dwarf the reality of what spring training actually is.
In a week or so, most of us will see spring training more clearly — meaningless games between lineups of non-roster invitees, with highlights delivered by poorly shot beat reporter cell phone videos. Spring training quickly becomes little more than the sum of the games that must be endured to get to Opening Day. Right now, though, it doesn’t feel like that. Right now, the fact that it is here and the fact that it is baseball give us feeling enough.
Green Bay wound up kicking a field goal after that. However, they didn’t manage to kill a whole lot of clock, allowing the Falcons to drive downfield once again. Atlanta put up its third touchdown of the quarter, making it a one-score game, but a couple big plays from the Packers allowed them to get in scoring position and effectively clear the clock.