There will be no “Victory Monday” for the Green Bay Packers this morning. Instead, players will most likely be cruising the snow-covered streets of Green Bay, making their way to the warm confines of their practice facilities. While it will be warm in there, I wouldn’t say the feeling will be very cozy.
They will be met by a very unhappy coaching staff, upset as much at themselves as they are at the players. Together, they will watch a B-Movie horror flick, the best description I can think of for the Packers abomination of a game in Detroit yesterday afternoon.
This brings back some memories from HS Football. I remember watching game films (on a projector – remember those?) after a bad loss. I remember my coach stopping after almost every play to ream somebody out for a bad performance.
I remember one particular film session, where I easily had the worst game of my High School career. I was a left tackle that year, and that game there was a defensive end I just could not block. No matter what I tried, the kid beat me on every play.
As the team was watching the film, the coach ran one particular play over and over, where I had failed to execute a rather simple block, making sure to point me out to everyone, focusing their full attention on my horrible effort. I was humiliated, and it has stayed with me after all these years, still haunting me. But one thing you can be sure of, I never again gave such a poor effort on the football field.
The players and the coaches will be watching the film together. There will be much humiliation amongst the offensive line, but I’m sure Mike McCarthy won’t be quite as evil as my head coach was that day. After all, that was more than 30 years ago, and we’re much more “civilized” now.
The players should feel the humiliation, nonetheless. Especially on the offensive side of the ball. A team with playoff aspirations, lost a late-season division game to a 2-10 team down to their 3rd string QB and more players on IR than the Packers. “Super Bowl or Die” feels like so long ago, doesn’t it?
Any good feelings conjured up during the recent string of five wins in six games are pretty much obliterated this morning. With the next-up New England Patriots executing teams like cold-blooded killers, the immediate future is not looking so bright.
But despite the negative feelings and the calls for Mike McCarthy’s head, the Packers season is not yet over. There are still plenty of possibilities for them ahead. Even with a loss to the Patriots, their season won’t be over if Chicago loses to the Vikings next week.
More than anything, I think the Packers need to feel embarrassed about their performance yesterday and vow to themselves that it will never happen again. Whether it’s the rollercoaster of this 2010 season or the doubts in their minds, the Green Bay Packers need to go crawling through the wreckage this Monday morning. They need to emerge from that physical and mental wreckage with a new resolve, focus 100% on the Patriots and prove to the world that what we saw yesterday was NOT who the Green Bay Packers are.
Good Luck!
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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.
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The worst offensive performance I have seen since the Pre-Favre era.
Bulaga is a RT and will never play LT. He is a rookie, but he does not have the feet to play LT.
MM should have challenged the Jennings TD catch. You could tell points would be hard to come by. Maybe call stands, but it was worth a shot.
Offensive line is weak and got destroyed. How about a power run play with a pulling guard and kick out their ends that are lined up 10 yards from the center.
Game was basically unwatchable. It looked like two awful teams playing. (and that was before Rodgers went out) Give some credit to the defenses, but that was just awful offense. MM and offense should be embarassed.
1) you need to modify your screen name…
2) We don’t do pulling guards…
3) I don’t know what else to say. Awful…
There I modified the screen name for you. I know we do not pull guards. We are the only team in the league that uses exclusively zone blocking. Most teams are moving away from the zone scheme because they realize the way to beat it is shoot gaps and get penetration. How about a little mix like most teams.
Much better on the name.
IF I could single out one thing that I hate from this Ol, is that there is absolutely no counter play.
The Falcons absolutely KILLED us with it. It is a really simple play to execute, and suits us very nicely.
Wells needs to dive, which he’s better at than simply blocking, we can use Sitton, our best guard, to gain leverage inside (yes, he couldn’t last game), and Colledge is fast enough to make it work.
I love seeing the Patriots use it. I love seeing the Falcons use it.
Too bad we’re stuck with Campen…
After 5 years it is becoming clear that MM is NOT the guy that is going to get us there. Losses to Washington, Miami, Detroit, Chicago…….I hope the TT has the stuff to do what must be done. When are we going to get a real coach.
I was convinced of it last year, but he shut we up with the season turnaround. Not sure he can shut me up now.
MM will have stretches where everything looks great, and then in a game like this where the season is on the line, he looks completely overwhelmed. Cowher has said he is going to look at his opportunities. Here is a good one. Young pro bowl QB (if we can keep his brains from turning to pudding), the correct defense with most likely his preferred def. coord. and K. Greene as his OLB coach, solid talent at skill positions. Perfect spot for him to land.
Be careful what you wish for . What was the knock on Cowher for a long time?
Cowher won games with neil o’donnell, kordell stewart and tommy maddox. Once he got a decent QB he won a superbowl. He went to six AFC championship games. We could give MM 30 years and he would not go to six championship games. Cowher with or without his Superbowl win is twice the coach MM is. Also, cowher laid a great foundation for the steelers.
I hope the press calls it what it was in the press conference today and actually challenges MM. This game was pathetic and we looked unprepared, unmotivated, and weak. I also don’t think our defense was that stellar either. While the stats might look OK, we let the Lions drive the field when we needed a stop. They had a rush avg. of I’m so sick of hearing “We need to learn from this”. “We need to review the film”, “Have to get better pad level” Blah Blah Blah. Then again – I don’t think he is capable so I shouldn’t expect him to act like a Championship quality coach.
The defense did well enough to earn a win. You can’t expect your defense to shut teams out. This lies solely at the feet of McCarthy and the offense.
Al, Ok I can’t put too much on the defense. However, we gave up too many big runs. 41 rushes for 190 yards. Even if you take Stantons runs out it was still 37 for 146 (4 yds avg.). If their 3rd string QB doesn’t make two dumb throws, this game would have been much uglier. Clearly we missed Jenkins, but our D-Line was OK at best.
Detroit has focused on re-building the line, on both sides of the ball… They’re tough in the trenches.
We’re constantly rebuilding our O-line, with whatever low round draft choices (excluding Bulaga) we can find. A big, strong O-line is hard to build quickly. It seems like snake oil to rely on smaller, faster low round guys who can play the ZBS. It’s even worse since we apparently don’t have the coaches to effectively teach it.
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That is something that we will take a look at this week…ugh…if i hear that one more time I am going to lose my mind.
Statistically, schematic-wise, I think our pad level needs to be looked at during our self-scouting this week. Our pads just need to win the one-on-one match-ups against the Patriots. 😉
It’s painful to listen to him. I wish the press would ask the tough questions in the press conferences.
This is one of the most difficult losses I’ve ever dealt with. It could literally mean the end of the season. If they miss the playoffs you can certainly point to this game.
I can only pray the ship can be righted and the packers can get some help from the bears and giants.
I don’t know what MM’s record is against “inferior” teams, but it seems to me that the Packers often struggle to win those games if they win at all. It appears the team has taken on the personality of the head coach (lackadaisical), no fire, and no killer instinct. Look at the effort that the Cowgirls are putting fort under Garrett, same players but different mentality on the field now. It’s time for a change in Green Bay.
No matter what the outcome for the Packers at seasons end,this team needs to be seriously scrutinized from all aspects.HC,coaching staff,game planning,players,free agency and to become unafraid to let players go,although fan favorites,who seem to consistently find the IR or miss too many games yearly.
Many will say how tough the Packers are by winning 8 games with back-ups,while in reality those wins only showed how more poorly those teams are coached.Yes,even the Jet game victory is tarnished by their recent play.
So while Crawling the Wreckage,I hope sentiment is keep out of the factor,when the discarding of unusable,unreliable parts begins,they are not sent to be ‘refitted and reused” just to watch them breakdown again,on the same long,agonizing,curved,steep climbing road and then the cliff they just seem to be unable to not drive off of.
Aside from his lousy in-game coaching…
At no point in McCarthy’s tenure have I gotten the feeling that he was “doing more with less,” or somehow getting more out of the players than their talent really allowed. I could be wrong, but I do not recall a game where McCarthy clearly outcoached the competition. This year, how many times has the offense basically not show up? Miami, Washington, and Detroit.
Compare that to Dom Capers’ defense. We still lead the league in scoring D, even though we start a Frank Zombo. We have a nickel back called Sammy Shields who has a whole one year of experience as a CB. We give large numbers of snaps along the D line to a Howard Green and a CJ Wilson. Our backup linebackers are R. Francois, Diryal Briggs, Erik Walden and Matt Wilhelm. Yet somehow Dom keeps holding it together (at least until next week).
How many games has that defense lost us? Now how many has the offense lost us?
Ruppert nailed it. All season the offense has been up and down. Last season I was calling for Campen’s and Slocum’s heads. I still feel the same about this. I also feel the ZBS needs to be tossed into the crapper. TT needs to invest in a large, strong O-line so the RB’s and QB have a prayer.