Sorry if that headline is adding salt to the wounds after the Packers’ bitter loss to New England, but with the regular season winding down, it’s time to take a look back and wonder…..
“What if?”
What if Jermichael Finley and Ryan Grant hadn’t gone down? What about Mark Tauscher and Nick Barnett? Did those injuries have any significant impact on the ultimate outcome of some games?
In a word, yes. HELL yes. In fact I would argue that with Grant, Finley and Tauscher the Packers could (and almost should) be 14-0. I will pause here to let you pick your head up off the table.
Given the close nature of all six Packers losses, it stands to reason that the presence of any of those three could have changed the outcome of those losses.
Consider these:
–If Grant had not gotten injured, the Packers running game would likely be in much better shape (last Sunday notwithstanding). Grant has been a consistent 1,200 yard back since his arrival in 2007. He is obviously a better back than Brandon Jackson
A more noticeable presence of a running game could have changed the outcome of at least four losses (Washington, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta). It would have freed up Aaron Rodgers and receivers and could have allowed the Packers to win by a somewhat comfortable margin instead of barely losing.
–The same argument could be made with Finley. He is the kind of player that change the complexion of an entire game. Finley’s red zone presence was a nice security blanket for Rodgers and his size and ability would have come in handy against Detroit and New England.
–The injury to Tauscher had an impact as well. Bryan Bulaga, who had never played right tackle, has been forced to learn the position on the fly, leading to some costly sacks. While he shows promise, he’s not quite the Pro Bowler that Tauscher was, nor does he have that veteran savvyness when it comes to picking up blitzes.
Those sacks could have been big plays for the Packers. Sadly, we will never know.
–The most recent injury to Rodgers hurt obviously as well. Despite Matt Flynn’s fine play against the Patriots, he is not nearly as mobile a quarterback as Rodgers. No. 12’s ability to extend plays could have made all the difference against the Patriots.
Some will pin the losses on poor play calling and game management by Mike McCarthy. I’m not going to reopen that debate. It’s pretty obvious McCarthy had little faith in his running game for awhile given the lack of balance on offense up until Sunday night. Had Grant been present, we wouldn’t even be discussing this point.
Injuries are not an excuse. McCarthy has said so himself. The reserves stepped up big time to keep the Packers in contention. Still, as the team continues to fight for their playoff lives you can’t help but wonder…..
“What if?”
I can’t wait to see this team healthy in 2011 (assuming there is a season).
——————Kris Burke is a sports writer covering the Green Bay Packers for AllGreenBayPackers.com and WTMJ in Milwaukee. He is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA) and his work has been linked to by sites such as National Football Post and CBSSports.com. Follow @KrisLBurke
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What if…pigs could fly?
Hell. Yes.
The worst word in the English language is IF!
No surprise. That’s why many predicted the Packers as a SB favorite, if not NFC champ. We have an incredible amount of talent and offensive power, even enough to overcome poor game-time coaching and crappy special teams play. That is, unless some of those key players get injured, then you end up a 9-7 team.
The biggest “what ifs” are really these – What if we had a more balanced game plan? What if we had better time management? What if we had an effective OL coach? What if we had an effective ST coach? The more troubling “what ifs” are the things you can control.
I agree on the Bulaga comment. However I cannot give MM such a pass. In fact in a couple of cases I think that the backups did a better job than the guy we lost. Look at middle linebacker. In the early games everyone passed over the middle and Barnett just was not there. I think that we improved with Barnett going down.
Loosing Tauscher was big. Zombo was better than Jones.
A coaches job is to put the players in a position to win. MM’s game management just misses the mark. The Detroit game was a watershed mark in the history of the Packers. The team was not ready to play and MM did his magic again. Keep MM as long as you like but we will never smell a Super Bowl with MM as the coach. He just does not have the big picture ability to make it happen.
The media picked the Packers to go to the SB and then the future NFL media guy Barnett said “Super Bowl or Die” and then many fans bought the hype.
What if Finley didn’t get hurt,fact is he created a problem by Rodgers ignoring the others.
What if Grant didn’t get hurt,perhaps Finley isn’t used as much which may have been wrong in first place.
What if nobody got hurt and none of those starters played to caliber and we never found out how good some of our depth players are and cut them.
What if MM actually had a season plan based on the starters and then it changed with the personnel who just happen to a dive like flies toward a shit pile?
The posts in JerseyALs site are great from all the writers but,IMO when in any endeavor you start with the infamous “What Ifs” credibility diminishes as you no longer write in any substance of fact but fantasy.What ifs should be left to the more unknowledged fans who toss slurs based on what ifs.
Looking at the low number of responses,perhaps I’m on the right side of thinking here,so nothing personal but lets stay in fact land and leave fantasy to the dream world of sleep.
I’ll give you Grant and maybe even Tauscher (although he was looking bad this year), but I disagree on Finley. When he was in the line-up, MM and Rodgers tried to force feed him the ball. Once we went down, there was an increase in Jennigns output and even the other receievrs. Granted, we miss Finley in the Green Zone, but that may be a wash with how the performance over the rest of the field improved. You have to ge there before you can punch it in.
Great read to play ‘what IF’ – IF actually being the largest word in my universe. Totally a FINLEY #88 FAN – however his loss truly exposed how tied in so many play calls were to his presence vs. a collective amount of plays to include the entire team. That did create an imbalance and limited amount of things MM would call – so many things MM called this year was what he thot they might execute unto themselves vs. scheming against the opposing defense. Just my opinion.
Nice to play the wishing game. But as my old Gramps told me, “Wish in one hand and crap in the oher then tell me which one fills up first.”
A saying about what if that my dad use’s is ” Yeah but if my aunty had nut’s she’d be my uncle”
Wow, that picture of Grant hopping off the field is amazing. if only we knew then what would follow
I remember watching him hop off Jayme and thinking it cant be that bad if he is doing that and then all of a sudden he is on IR and i was like holy shit.
We did and the coaching staff did,but as usual,the doorway to denial was open and we all walked in.