| Nicole Haase. 12th November, 2008 - 4:36 pm
 Any Packer fan who’s followed the team this season has to be fed up with the excuses that are constantly flowing from the mouths of the Green Bay lineman to explain why Aaron Rodgers seemingly spent more time on his butt than upright and why they cannot, under any circumstances, seem to stop the run.
The O-line gave up two safeties, allowed Rodgers to be sacked four times and hurried six times. The offense managed just 142 yards in the air, the fourth time in nine games that Rodgers was held under 200 yards passing this season.
For at least the last three games, players and coaches have talked about the defensive linemen not holding their assignments and trying to cover for each other. They’ve told us this is a stupid mistake, and it can’t keep happening. And, yet here we stand.
There’s plenty of blame to go around. Blame Rodgers for being too cautious behind center, holding on to the ball so long sometimes that he looks as though he’s living in fear of the “Brett Favre interception.”
Blame Mike McCarthy for poor decisions.
Blame Ted Thompson for drafting just two linemen – one defensive, one offensive – with the 11 first and second round draft picks he’s had since he came to Green Bay.
Blame Defensive Coordinator Bob Sanders for not gluing a lineman to Adrian Peterson for the entirety of the game. Peterson was on the sideline begging for the ball. No one on the Packers' staff saw this?
Blame Sanders, too, for not changing his strategy and finding a way to plug the absolutely porous line. Clearly, the front four aren’t getting the job done.
Not sure whom to blame, but blame someone for the fact that this team is reliant on Derrick Frost, whose 35-yard net average gave the Vikings half the field without them even having to try.
This week, Packers' right tackle Mark Tauscher told reporters that he and his teammates knew what the Vikings were going to do and yet failed to do their jobs anyway. “We just got beat,” he said.
How can this possibly acceptable?
Instead of leading by example in his press conferences after the game, McCarthy failed to take responsibility for the poor play calls, inexplicable challenge, and wasted timeouts.
"I don't second-guess myself on the 2-minute part of it," McCarthy said. "As far as the plays that were called, the first-down call was a very similar play that we ran here at home in the opening game (against Minnesota) when Ryan Grant went (57) yards. (On the) third-down call, I was expecting pressure. I wasn't expecting empty pressure. They brought empty pressure; we threw hot. And I'd kick that field goal with Mason Crosby 10 out of 10 times, and I'm confident that he'd make it 10 out of 10 times. I wasn't worried about the distance.”
McCarthy just plain got outcoached.
After not throwing a challenge flag all season, he chose to challenge the Vikings' touchdown, which, even had he won, would have wasted time off the clock and really left the Packers further behind than they were with the score on the board. He lost the challenge, lost the timeout, and forced his offense into making plays that aren’t their bread-and-butter.
Although Ryan Grant’s only hugely successful game of the season came against the Vikings in week one, the successive nine weeks’ mediocre performances should have shown McCarthy that running the ball up the middle under two minutes with no timeouts wasn’t the play call to make.
But the strange and inexplicable play calling wasn’t limited to the final two minutes. In the waning moments of the first half, with the ball on their own eight yard line, McCarthy chose not to run out the clock. Additionally, the Packers left an empty backfield. Jared Allen manhandled his DB and had a straight shot at Rodgers, giving the Vikings a safety – two points that eventually decided the game.
While fans are understandably upset with the team’s situation thus far, they don’t seem to be the only ones. Rodgers and Greg Jennings were shown during the broadcast having words, and there also seemed to be jawing among the linemen. Clearly, this team isn’t on the same page.
Having watched the game, one might say that since they managed just three points on offense the Packers didn’t deserve to win the game.
Of course, Gus Frerotte was intercepted three times – once for a touchdown; Bernard Berrian was held catch-less; and their special teams gave up a punt return for a touchdown. Minnesota didn’t really deserve to win either.
In the end, though, Minnesota is 5-4 and tied with Chicago for the lead in the division, and the Packers are back on their heels and desperately need a win next week at Soldier Field.
McCarthy and Thompson need to remember what it is that makes Packer football and how this team became a perennial contender in the first place. The zone-blocking and flushes aren’t Packer football, and they aren’t working.
It’s the black and blue division and at the end of the day next Sunday; the Packers could be in a three-way tie for first in the division with a game left against Detroit and the Bears coming to Lambeau in December.
So, McCarthy and Thompson, take some advice: Stop making excuses or refusing to take responsibility. Use the tight-ends. Bring back the sweep and the screen. Use the slant pass that’s gained yards for us all season long. Get Grant some blocks and hit the ground running. Get Rodgers off the fast track to becoming David Carr. |
