AILING PACK LIMPS INTO BYE WEEK

Pack Deals Reeling Cards 5th Consecutive Loss

 

 

It is what it is. As the Green Bay Packers limp into their bye week they tote along a 6-3 record, a

record that by most standards would a be a good showing. Granted, it is not the 7-2 it should be or

8 – 1 that it could have been. It is what it is.

The only games in which the Packers brought their ‘A ‘game  in all 3 facets – offense, defense and special teams – were against the surprising Chicago Bears and the AFC best Houston Texans. At 7-1 the Bears are somewhat of a surprise, and their lone loss was a humiliating beatdown the Packers threw on them. Same thing with Houston. Big teams/ big games, and the Packers showed up en masse as a team to face the big teams. With the exception being the season opener at the suddenly powerful 49ers Green Bay could easily be sitting at 8 – 1, and even the 49ers game was winnable.

Green Bay for their part has gone back to the maddeningly frustrating habit of playing down to the level of their opponents. Yes, Virginia, The Seattle game should have been a W. It wasn’t. It is what it is. And the Pack let the Colts off the hook when they laid a second half egg and blew a huge halftime lead in a game they should have won. But they didn’t win. It is what it is.

The common denominator in this season’s up-and-down first half has been the Packers lack of intensity in some games. In a lot of games actually. The Pack is a good football team, and they know it. They sometimes play like it too. But far from running teams over as they did last year they continue to let inferior teams hang around and make a game of it rather than put them away.

It is safe to say that the Packers have not played with a sense of purpose or focus this year. Yet. It is what it is. It seems they are playing more of a sense of entitlement than focus. They know they are good, and in most cases better than their opponents. Being that good the opponents come in eager to wipe the smug grin off the Pack’s collective faces.

To put it another way back in the day Muhammad Ali was the undisputed and unchallenged king of the heavyweight division in boxing. History will remember Ali as one of, if not the single greatest of them all. Beyond Joe Frazier there was no equal, no comparison to Ali. He was simply that good. But he still had to fight. Every palooka and tomato can that stepped up Ali dispatched, until it became rote and too easy. Ali knew he was better, and his opponents did as well. Ali gave a show, got bored, and finished the fight at his leisure, much like the Packers did last year.

But in the course of doing that Ali began to not take each bout so seriously.  He began to get comfy and not train as hard, work as hard, and demand more of himself. The good life that came with the spoils of success was easy to take. So good was Ali that even in his poorest efforts he was usually good enough to win.

Good enough.

If ever there was an albatross to hang around the neck of a champion it is just that. Ali’s showmanship began to show up. No longer did he take the palookas and tomato cans as serious contenders. He did not train as hard, work as hard, and began the rounds of becoming a celebrity and not a fighter. In essence he became a celebrity fighter.

Then the Chuck Wepner’s of the world stepped up. Wepner, better known as the Bayonne Bleeder, almost lasted the full 15 against Ali knocking the champ onto his can in the 9th round and in the process became the inspiration for what would become the “Rocky” movie franchise. While the books showed it was a win for Ali the critics were not impressed. There are no moral victories in sports. The rest of the fight game took notice.

So when Leon Spinks and Ken Norton both knocked the champ’s block off it was big news. By every measurable device on paper Ali was a superior fighter to Norton and Spinks. But he did not take them seriously. He fought down to their level and not up to his. They would have never been able to beat Ali otherwise – the talent and skill just wasn’t there. It is what it is.

Much like Ali the Pack shows up expecting to win. So when the Jacksonville Jaguars and the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals of the NFL make it a game the question begging to be asked is WHY?

After another sluggish first quarter Aaron Rodgers found some rhythm and put up another TD pass that was less about the throw than the twisting, churning drive to the end zone of Randall Cobb that was made possible by the key blocks of Donald Driver and Jermichael Finley. Once again, the Packers kept the Cards in the game when John Skelton led a 3 play 43 yard drive that ended with a LaRod Stephens-Howling TD.

Seeing another close game developing Rodgers fired two more strike to the end zone that found Cobb again and the Packers touchdown machine James Jones who made a terrific catch to put the Pack up 21 – 7 at the half. But in the process the Packers lost Jordy Nelson when Rodgers badly underthrew him and Nelson turned his own ankle as he dove awkwardly to try and pull the ball off his shoe tops. Nelson, who was already nursing a sore hamstring exited and rookie Jarrett Boykin drew the assignment of next man up.

When K Mason Crosby put Green Bay up 24 – 7 it looked for all the world that the rout was on and happy days were back in Titletown. Not so fast. Skelton marched the Cards right back on the next series and Larry Fitzgerald’s one man wrecking crew catch and run of 31 yards through a host of unsuccessful tacklers for a diving TD put new life into the Cardinals. Following that a Jay Feeley field goal closed the gap to 24 – 17 and the nervous Nellies began the  ritual of ‘uh oh… here we go again…” among the Packer faithful.

But this time the Pack answered the bell. After taking the ensuing kickoff, on the second play from scrimmage, Rodgers hit the feel-good story of the year mostly blocking but big game TE Tom Crabtree over the middle for a 72 yard catch and run that had Crabtree looking over his shoulder on almost every step to the end zone. Crabtree has been involved in some memorable plays and TD’s this year including a fake FG attempt that wound up in the house. At 31 – 17 it almost became a blowout when Card CB Patrick Peterson muffed a Tim Masthay punt that Jarrett Bush grabbed and took 2 yards into the end zone. After the refs ruled the play a muff Green Bay took possession on the 2 and took 3 knees to end the game that had an ending thankfully devoid of Tampa Bay’s rah-rah coach Greg Schiano’s rugby tactics.

There were a lot of positives to be taken from this game, a game that was admittedly far from Aaron Rodgers’ best efforts. While Rodgers went 14/ 30 for 218 yards and 4 TD’s he was under a 50% completion rate and was also given an INT when Randall Cobb was stripped of the ball on another off target throw. When Rodgers is throwing off his back foot he loses velocity but more importantly accuracy. When he is stepping into and delivering the ball there is a clear difference. The Packers also won not only in the time of possession battle but their ground game finally found some legs against a pretty good Arizona defense.

James Starks was reinserted into the first two downs back slot and Alex Green went back to his 3^rd down difference maker role and the results were immediate. The Packers put together their first 100 yard+ rushing games since what seem like the days of John Brockington. Both Starks and Green ran effectively, and Starks looked like the back that led the Pack ground attack into the Super Bowl of two years ago. His big, bruising style was far more effective than Green’s game efforts have been to date, and the Packers paltry yards/ carry average was up from a season record of 2.5 yards/ carry as the Pack’s backs had a 4.6 yards/ carry game.

It wasn’t until Starks put the ball on the ground with a fumble that Mike McCarthy deviated from the formula. Dropping the rock earned Starks a spot in McCarthy’s dog house and a spot on the bench for the next three series. Green had a very good day and broke a 21 yard run off, and by mixing Cobb into the backfield along with Rodgers’ well timed scampers the Packers running game looks to be finally coming around and paying dividends for McCarthy’s patience.

The news after the game wasn’t all sunshine and roses. LB Clay Matthews left limping and did not return. His troublesome hamstring tightened again and he may miss some regular season time. RT Bryan Bulaga also departed with a hip pointer and once again the Pack finds itself with more bodies in the trainer’s room than on the field. This bye could not come at a better time. FB John Kuhn has missed 2 straight games with a hamstring problem and when a workhouse like Kuhn goes out it does not go unnoticed. Nelson has both an ankle and a hammy to heal while the steadily improving rookie OLB Nick Perry was sent to the IR with a wrist injury. Thankfully the surprisingly solid play of Erik Walden (photo left) will do much to offset Perry’s loss, and rookie DE Mike Daniels has played well above expectation with B.J. Raji coming along with his bad ankle. TE Andrew Quarless was reactivated from the PUP list as well. One more concern is in K Mason Crosby’s recent yips. He has been hitting knuckleballs in the past 4 games and has missed very makeable kicks. Like a golfer who inexplicably develops the dreaded shanks Crosby needs to resolve this before a game is lost on another bad kick.

In facing their NFC North Divisional rivals 4 times in the next 5 games along with the New York Giants it is the critical point in the season for the Packers to point their ship to the playoffs. Green Bay has managed a 6-3 record with Greg Jennings, Cedric Benson, and Charles Woodson for a significant period of time in addition to the aforementioned recent injuries. They have a collection of banged up talent that if they ever could get healthy collectively could meet the challenge in front of them.

The Packers stand at a respectable 6- 3. They must gear up for the meat of the schedule and must get some ailing bodies healthy. In trailing Chicago by 2 games the Pack has lost any margin for error and simply cannot give any more games away. It is what it is.