PACKERS LOOK TO REBOUND AGAINST SAINTS

Before the season began this week’s game between the Packers and the Saints was one every football fan could easily look forward to. Two high powered offenses led by dynamic quarterbacks with two young defenses looking to reestablish some semblance of the defenses that carried each franchise to Super Bowl wins in the not too distant past. If anyone would have guessed that after 3 weeks and 6 collective games there would be but one scant win collectively between Green Bay and New Orleans that individual should get a reality show, or at least a seat in the nearest bookies’ parlor.

The Packers are stinging after the Monday Night debacle. Anyone who does not know what happened has to have been on the moon. The furor and rancor created after the replacements literally took the win earned by the Packers away has finally forced the NFL’s hand. The regular refs are welcomed back warts and all. How unusual will it be to see across the entire football landscape the crowds gathered  giving the guys in stripes a standing ovations for simply showing up to work? The honeymoon should last until the first flag is thrown against the home team.

Mike McCarthy becomes a better and better coach with every passing week. He has become a model of efficiency and control, and this week has put him and his team to the absolute limits of self-restraint Rather than sit on his players obvious rage over feeling cheated McCarthy allowed the boys to vent, get it out of their systems, and has rightfully brought them back together and focused on the next game. His post-game press conference barely concealed the anger he felt, his voice at times quivering as a man struggling to refrain from a tirade, but somehow McCarthy managed to compose himself enough to move on.

And that is the exact message he has sent to the team. Time to quit whining and move on. There’s nothing that can be done about it, and frankly, if the Packers had played better, especially in the first half when the beleaguered offensive line gave up 8 – EIGHT! – sacks the outcome would not have come down to one final play. Even the players themselves know it. The Packer offense has looked nothing looked the juggernaut that rang points up like a pinball machine last season and has yet to find its footing. Aaron Rodgers has been off his game and the receivers that many believe to be the best in the game have not established themselves. Much like a drunk waking from the hangover the cold realization of what the Packers have done – and more to the point not done – this season is a sobering thought.

The Saints are on an equally slippery slope. At 0-3 one more L and the Saints are an oblivious asterisk in the wake of the Bountygate scandal that tore the team into pieces. While the players won a court order against their suspensions their Head Coach has no such union affiliation to plead his case. Sean Payton’s season long ban along with GM Mickey Loomis has left the Saints rudderless, directionless, and floundering. As the 49ers and surprisingly strong Cardinals pull away at the quarter pole of the season New Orleans is in desperate straits. The importance of this game cannot be underscored.

The Packers are finding themselves in a similar spot. They currently occupy the cellar in the NFC North and must shake off the stink of the last game and get back at it. McCarthy’s influence on his team should do just that. All week long McCarthy has been beating a steady drum of move on, prepare for New Orleans. In the 2010 season he placed an empty frame of a team photo  on the wall of the Packers’ meeting room that is lined with every Packer Championship team in their illustrious history and told his team ‘THAT’S where YOUR picture will go'. Before a snap was made, he was planning ahead. When he had his players sized up for rings the night before the Super Bowl he was planning ahead.

So when he tells the media he is planning ahead for New Orleans you can damn well be sure his players are too.

The offensive line, a fairly competent part of the team last year has suddenly looked vulnerable, and at times awful. RT Bryan Bulaga may have played his worst game as a pro last week as he was thrown, out muscled, outrun and outplayed by the ‘Hawks stellar rookie Bruce Irvin. McCarthy admits to not making adjustments soon enough; after the half the Packers came out in 2 and 3 tight end sets and began to run the ball with authority and swagger. The most telling stats were the time of possession, plays run, and that the Pack gave up zero sacks after the adjustments. Up until the Seahawks final drive they were held to two measly 3-and-out series.

The defense is growing every week. Rookie Nick Perry collected his first sack as a pro and the D realistically gave up but 7 points. Following McCarthy’s lead there is no sense in pointing out that had LB Erik Walden not been flagged for a phantom roughing the passer call that led to a Jerron MacMillian interception the Packers would not have been in   the predicament they found themselves in. While it is difficult to say the Packers gave up 14 points the fact is with an offense as potentially potent as Green Bay’s the defense played a game that gave them the chance to win.

The Packers defense and gambles of playing up to 4 rookies at once is already paying off. On the other hand the Saints find themselves in a position the Packers did a year ago. Potent offense, stinko defense. Drew Brees is still capable of leading a furious charge. The Saints have been very sloppy on offense. Dropped passes, penalties, turnovers and some suspect play calling has made them at best inconsistent.

The Saints defense has been in a word awful. They cannot stop anyone and have not stopped anyone all year. The Saints D has politely moved the Packers D out of the cellar as they now occupy the bottom in almost every statistical category defensively. They cannot stop the rush, the pass rush is non-existent, the linebackers are slow to react, and everyone can now throw on the Saints defensive backs. This is a far cry from their glory days where the D steamrolled anyone in their path. Almost everyone knows what the problem is, and the Saints simply no longer have the personnel to fix it and are without a GM to go get it or a coach to teach it.

Offensively Brees’ arm and smarts are still something to fear. Brees is an excellent leader and is now looking to kick the Pack while they’re down. Mark Ingram is going through a sophomore slump and has yet to break out of it and has dropped to 3^rd on the depth chart behind Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles. The Saints may just rely on Sproles to confound and confuse the Packers young guns. Sproles is elusive and is the Randall Cobb X-Factor on the Saints. Brees still has All World TE Jimmy Graham as a target as well as Marcus Colston, Devery Henderson and Lance Moore, but, like the Packers, Brees has been constantly harassed as his offensive line has sprung too many leaks for a big arm to plug.

The Pack needs this game. So do the Saints. But these are two teams headed in opposite directions. As Green Bay’s defense continues to improve the offense has far too much talent to stay dormant forever. A healthy Greg Jennings will help. Playing against a porous defense may get Rodgers back into the MVP form of last year. Cedric Benson should be able to pound the ball and finally open up the options that should make Rodgers even more dangerous. Unlike the Saints the Packers do have the personnel in place to right the ship. That personnel should finally get untracked against a shaky secondary.

The defense is eager and anxious to get back on the field and tear into someone. That someone is New Orleans and the Packers will look to avenge their robbery against the first team to cross their paths. Look for the Packers to play with a white hot fury that McCarthy has channeled into this game.

Adversity has a funny way of motivating a team. Even good teams need a kick in the pants occasionally to see how they respond. McCarthy should be pleased after this one.

After all, he’s already planned for it.

       GREEN BAY  34  

  New Orleans  17