Are you still pissed off about the Packers losing to the Bengals?
I am. What a God-awful game.
I’m going to use this space to rant and rave like a lunatic. Please feel free to do the same in the comments.
Jeremy Ross
Why is he still on the team? Forget fumbling, he simply can’t catch a kick. And on the rare occasions when the ball doesn’t clank off his hands like a Mason Crosby field goal hitting the upright, he looks slower than me on returns.
Injuries
Mike McCarthy coddles these guys during training camp then wonders why half the team sits out with a sore hamstring once the real games actually start. Half the guys that miraculously don’t pull their hamstrings end up going down with some other type of injury. When is this organization going to admit that all of these injuries every single season aren’t just bad luck and change its philosophy about tackling in training came and at practice?
Mike McCarthy
So the Packers have the best quarterback in the NFL and on fourth-and-1 on the game’s biggest play you choose to run a midget rookie running back straight into the teeth of a ferocious defensive line. Even Aaron Rodgers thought you were out of your mind today and let you know about it right in front of the TV cameras, Mike.
Aaron Rodgers
Can we get a fourth quarter comeback at some point in your career, Aaron? Please?
David Bakhtiari
If one of your coaches ever asks you to cut block again, David, punch him in the face. In addition to giving up the batted pass on the last play, the guy you were supposed to be blocking, DE Michael Johnson, finished with seven tackles, one sack and four QB hurries.
Officials
Another Packers player leaves with a concussion after getting drilled in the head on a play where no flag is thrown. Ryan Taylor gets punched in the junk and is flagged for retaliating. The Packers need to sign Steve Austin so he can deliver a Stone Cold Stunner to the next ref that hoses the Packers by missing one of these calls.
Myself
Listen to yourself, Adam. You’re insane. The Packers played the Bengals — a legit good team and a trendy Super Bowl pick — without their starting LT, top two RBs, starting S, starting slot CB, starting FB and special teams ace. During the game, they lost Clay Matthews, Jermichael Finley and James Starks. They even had Jeremy Ross in the backfield for a couple plays on their final drive. Jeremy Freaking Ross. Despite all of that, THE PACKERS ALMOST WON! The Packers will be fine. Get a hold of yourself.
I’ll be back later this week with more level-headed thoughts and analysis. Chances are good that I’ll take back a lot of what I said in this post (or just claim my computer was hacked and someone else wrote all of this). But for now, I’m still mad. This is a terrible way to enter the bye week. Grrrrr.
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Adam Czech is a a freelance sports reporter living in the Twin Cities and a proud supporter of American corn farmers. When not working, Adam is usually writing about, thinking about or worrying about the Packers. Follow Adam on Twitter. Twitter .
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Too many teams have great games against GB, only to crumble against other quality teams: see colts win of SF. Cincy is good, but not great. How does New Orleans go from bottom to top defense with same personnel? The key is a new Defensive coordinator. Why can’t GB defense get a dominant win like N.O? Defensive Coordinator. I lost confidence in Capers. McCarthy as well. Can’t mount comebacks. Can’t defense against comebacks. The top NFC team is Detroit….not the Bears. Don’t be fooled by Bears 3 wins. Detroit takes the division. Say all you want about Lions being undisciplined. Its a meaningless stereotype, so get used to their ascendency. Good news is that GB can still make wild card and have a chance.
Whatever happened to using Raji to bulldoze the way for a short gain? MM is getting dull. That was one play where an AR scramble would have worked. Our Oline is too weak and too light. The pocket keeps collapsing so balls get batted down or AR gets bulled over by our own Olineman get shoved back. This is a rebuilding year. Scrub Oline and DB’s. If we bomb this year like we’re on pace to do, getting big, fast safeties and huge tackles in the draft is what’s needed.
fake that handoff, roll out, run for 4 inches and slide…..first down.
Packers need to start taking some head shots of their own and knocking some opposing players out of the game. its a real joke that the league says they are concerned about player safety, when the last 2 weeks we’ve seen 2 guys concussed with the refs standing around with their fingers up their asses. fuck Goodell and the league….start playing to hurt people like the Bungels did all day and getting away with it.
OK…here’s my set of rants…
1. Why is the other team’s game plan always such a surprise?
Last week Rodgers torched the Redskins on those super-quick sideline passes. Did it not occur to anyone that maybe the Bengals might watch a tape or two? No….just go ahead and try the same thing.
2. Why are these injuries such a shock to the coaches/management?
It’s the freakin’ NFL. People are almost sure to get hurt, yet we carry a TOTAL of two running backs into a regular season pro football game.
3. Why is Ted Thompson so damn cheap?
Can we just please, for the love of all that is good and holy, spend the equivalent of a week’s jersey sales a get a KO returnee that isn’t Randall Cobb (who is too busy fielding punts, being an all-pro receiver, and playing running back)?
And more ranting….
4. Why are we so brittle?
I get that injuries are a part of the NFL, but we seem to have a corner on the market. Is it the lack-of-contact philosophy? Weight-training? Training staff? Or is it is that when our top guys go down, we simply don’t have the personnel to take up enough of the slack?
5. Is Mike McCarthy an “on-paper” coach?
By this, I mean that he seems to manage/call the game with the team he has on the clipboard (or WANTS to have on the clipboard) rather than the team he actually has on the field. Johnathan Franklin is going to be good, but he is not an up-the-middle kind of guy, yet MM calls that 4th down play like he’s got Earl Campbell back there. And I promise that if someone had said, “Mike, you CAN’T call a run there” he would have called one of those one-step quick outs that he thinks always work (and sometimes do), but the Bengals had scouted and covered all game. McCarthy is really creative designing a game plan and completely flummoxed by the adjustments needed when the plan doesn’t work. Maybe this is why Rodgers was so pissed (which is how we want him, BTW).
6. Have you noticed how most of these rants are directed towards the coaches and management?
I think the guys we have are playing to their ability most of the time. The problem with that is that when they are just not as good as the other team or – probably more true in our case – the talent that has been drafted and developed is only one layer deep. Your 3rd string whatever (or 1st string KO returner) just can’t always just be some random guy taking up a roster spot, because he IS going to play in the NFL. Even when we are having a kicker competition, we seem to be hosting some garden party for guys no one else would even consider for their roster. (Thank God Crosby seems to have it together.) Not everyone is Sam Shields or Donald Driver. I would say our management hits on more than their share of these kinds of guys, but our problem is not that we rely too much on finding them…it’s that we can’t admit when that great find isn’t that great.
Finally….it is too easy to figure us out. Too easy to out-scheme us. Too easy to out-match us, because when it happens, as it always does to every team in the NFL, our coaches (in-game) and our management (long-term) simply can’t or won’t adjust.
Two running backs in an NFL game? Doesn’t that kind of say it?
Let’s just say it like it is. People who continually want to second-guess play calling need to get over themselves. You’re not as smart as you think you are. Personally, I’m convinced that 95% of the time, it’s a sign of low to non-existent football intelligence.
Are we really complaining about calling a dive play on fourth and inches? Is that the level of our football genius?
Sometimes, good play calls don’t work. Get it into your heads. SOMETIMES GOOD PLAY CALLS DON’T WORK.
12-4 for this team is very realistic, assuming the return of some key players.
MM has made bonehead after bonehead calls throughout his Packer tenure (regardless if the play worked). This was the first time in 14 years that a team won after allowing its opponent to score 30 straight point. This is the second time this season that GB blew a late 4th quarter lead. I don’t want to hear how good an opponent is, IF GB has the best QB in the game with the ball being snapped to him late in the game with a lead, GB should not lose. I don’t care how great SF and Cincy’s defense is. I don’t care how many players GB lost to injuries. You cannot lose a game leading with the ball in Rodgers hands late in the game. I’m tired of hearing about Rodgers and the f*&ing chip on his shoulder. He will carry that chip forever because he can’t win those games he’s “chipped about”. And with bonehead MM deciding to run Pinnochio into 1,500 pounds of angry muscle for a yard, rather than have Rodgers bootleg for the yard, GB will not be a contender. There’s my rant.
Marpag: The play to run there was the QB sneak, period. Christ bring Wallace in to pick it up. Not your tiny, last remaing tail back in his first NFL game. Football Intelligence?! Really? Bring Mike Neal in to play fullback and put a TE to slam the ball out of an I formation if you insist on not running the QB sneak. You certainly don’t give it to Franklin in that situation! Your percentages are with tha QB sneak in that scenario, it’s not rocket science but apparently it is for MM.
Art: Pinocchio reference still has me laughing hysterically and is a perfect description. I was astounded when I realized they were going to run that play. I’m sorry but MM does not appear to be very bright or able to adjust during the game based upon personnel available at the time of critical plays. You can’t claim you are a playoff team and be unable to pick up 4th and inches! I don’t care who it is!! Whoever said this team can still go 12-4 is smoking. Thes guys will be lucky to go 8-8! The O-line will continue to be the Achilles heel of this team and will be so for the foreseeable future. TT unwillingness to use an occassional FA continues to boggle the mind:(
Guys, settle down. My favorite coach used to say, “We can win when we’re on, but the great teams can win a few when they’re off.”
Aaron was not just off a little. He was BJ Coleman off. And we gave ourselves a chance to win? Crazy. The odds say Aaron will not have another game like that this year. Settle down.
Oppy, see my post elsewhere, you’re wrong on that one. I wish you were right.
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