SURGING PACK FACES FALLING CARDS

Green Bay Looks to get Healthy at Faltering Cards Expense

 

Beware the dreaded pre-Bye week ‘softie’ game. As the ailing Packers limp towards their much needed Bye week they face the Arizona Cardinals before getting two weeks off to just plain heal. The Packers roster is littered with injuries, and fact not lost on Mike McCarthy or Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers has come out publicly and all but screamed at the top of his lungs that he (and the Pack) needs some help at the running back position.

McCarthy has committed to the run. He hasn’t wavered. He is going to use the run to open up passing lanes for Rodgers no matter how puny the return. McCarthy is of the mindset that ball control and ‘quantity’ vs. ‘quality’ runs will dictate the offensive flow. The Packers were seemingly headed in the right direction with their running game. That is until Cedric Benson went down with a Lisfranc injury or a sprained foot to the n on-medically inclined among us. Benson was on a pace to gain 1,000 yards and had been a breath of fresh air before he went down. Next man up is Alex Green who is scaring absolutely no one. Yes, he has had a 41 yard run. But only one. The rest of his stat line looks very vanilla and his yards/ carry average can be found very close to the bottom of the NFL and can be viewed best thru a magnifying glass.

There was a hotly rumored potential trade for the Panthers DeAngelo Williams or the Rams Steven Jackson. While many fans drooled at the possibilities the man that controls the purse strings decided to take a pass. GM Ted Thompson has passed on both and it comes as no real surprise to anyone familiar with the modus operandi of Thompson. Thompson hoards his draft picks but will use them as collateral when he sees a player he wants and is targeting. He proved that in trading up for Clay Matthews and in the last draft turning himself into a Monte Hall type of wheeler dealer in trading up, back, and around to snag both Jerel Worthy and Casey Hayward in the second round. Thompson trading picks for players is as common a sight as a heat wave in Green Bay in January.

The running game is coming under scrutiny. Green has yet to show he can hit the second level and is also struggling to find the holes. The offensive line has not opened as many holes for him either compounding the felony. James Starks simply cannot stay healthy enough to stay on the field long enough to be a feature back. Green has said he needs to improve and the lingering, burning question that is the white elephant in the room is how much longer does McCarthy give his young back to find his way? McCarthy has been steadfast in his defense of Green by publicly citing his major knee reconstructive surgery a year ago. But even McCarthy has a breaking point. Sooner or later running the ball in quantity will not suffice.

Aaron Rodgers has already been hit and sacked far too much this year. When a team employs the reigning MVP getting him knocked around is not a way to get back into the Super Bowl. In the past few weeks Rodgers has suddenly jumped out from the pack of QB’s in the NFL to put himself back atop the heap. The Packers success is tied directly to Rodgers’ right arm, and 29 sacks at the hallway mark is not an impressive stat.

It would be easy to overlook the Cardinals and look ahead to the Bye week and start planning for the interdivisional games against Detroit, Minnesota and Chicago. If there is a silver lining to Green Bay’s herky jerky start it is that in the division the Packers are 1 -0 after whomping the Bears handily. To a man the Pack knows what their record should be. They also know it is 5 – 3, not a bad count but far from the standards they have set for themselves. The Cardinals come winging into Lambeau Field sporting a 4 -4 record but that is somewhat misleading.

The Cards opened the season like a blur sprinting out of the gate at 4 -0 and all looked bright and sunny in the southwest as Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt had his team pointes at a return to the big dance. Then reality set in and it set in hard. It began with musical chairs at the QB position – first John Skelton who was injured and replaced by Kevin Kolb who was injured and replaced by John Skelton. Wisenhunt could be excused if he dropped a dime to Kurt Warner’s house and begged Kurt’s wife Brenda for just one more season.

The Cards woes are not at the QB position as much as it is protecting the QB in the first place. The Arizona offensive line is just that – offensive. If there is a worse line in the NFL please step forward because the Cardinals are walking away with this title. Both Kolb and Skelton have been running for their lives all season. Whoever is healthy enough to start will be staring across and trying to figure where to go to get away from Clay Matthews. The Packer defense in the pass rush department has been much improved over last season’s and with rookie CB Casey Hayward among the league leaders in interceptions the Cardinals get no break on either side of the ball.

The Cardinal’s season can be divided equally into to diametrically opposite halves. After beating Seattle in week 1 the Cards stunned the Patriots in week 2 as the Pats played the Cards more like patsies than the AFC powerhouse they are used to being. An overtime win against a surprisingly improved Miami team in its’ first year under former Packer OC Joe Philbin preceded a royal butt kicking of a Philly team that has everyone scratching their heads. After 4 games are the Cardinals THAT good? Are the Eagles that bad?

The answer is no on both counts. Regardless of the score Philly is in much better shape that Arizona. If Mike Vick ever learns how to handle the ball, stop fumbling or hitting opponents like they were his receivers Andy Reid might be able to keep his job. The Eagles have talent but it is wasted behind the inconsistent play of Vick. The Cards on the other hand have gone into free fall after their stellar start.

The Rams came in and shut them down and in the process exposed the serious deficiencies of their line. An OT loss to the Bills and they let the Vikings off the hook the following week. Last week was as bad as it gets as San Francisco mopped the floor with the Cards who looked lifeless, helpless and clueless in the face of the beat down. The 49ers were supposed to be the Cards biggest obstacle in the division but the Rams also have cleaned their clocks. The Cardinal running game with Ryan Williams and LaRod Stephens-Howling has been howling at the moon in futility as their backs are in the Alex Green neighborhood of 2.5 yards/ carry. Against the 49ers they managed to muster 7 yards for the entire game running the ball.

All Pro WR Larry Fitzgerald is still among the league’s best wide outs. But with the ails of the line and the constant QB shuffle going on he can’t get the ball into his hands limiting his ability to make plays and the Cards ability to win games. As the season has worn on and the façade slips away from the Cards the ugly undercoating is revealed and even a talent on the caliber of Fitzgerald is not enough to fix it. Arizona has no running game of which to speak. That is also the double sided sabre that cuts both ways. How many times in the NFL has a team come into a game with an obvious deficiency only to have some unknown out up a career day? Neither Kolb nor Skelton has shown enough to make anyone forget Kurt Warner, which, coincidentally, is the last time Fitz could make an impact and change a game. The best he can do know is to delay or forestall the inevitable.

On defense Patrick Peterson is rapidly becoming a star and a true shutdown CB. Blessed with great instincts, good hands and blazing speed Peterson also handles the punt and kickoff returns and as everyone in the desert knows he is but one vulnerable open field hit from becoming the best CB on the IR, so everyone in red holds his collective breath until Peterson gets back to the sidelines. Peterson is so good he is capable of carrying the Cards on his ability to find the end zone on his returns. Without him there is a cold shudder that goes through the Arizona faithful. It is too daunting to think about but it is constantly there. Without the efforts of Peterson and Fitzgerald the Cardinals likely would be in Jacksonville, Kansas City and Carolina territory fighting for the first pick in the draft. As it is their soufflé has fallen and there glaring weaknesses have been exposed.

Now the Cards have to face the resurgent Packers. Injuries notwithstanding, it is a tall task to right the ship in Green Bay. The Packers have more than their fair share of injuries. Greg Jennings is out after abdominal surgery this week that was delayed due to the east coast storm. Jordy Nelson won’t even test his hamstring until Friday or Saturday. B.J. Raji still looks tentative on his ankle and the DB’s are going to be missing Charles Woodson at least until December. Among the healthy James Starks may get a long look if the opportunity arises in this game to see if he can fare any better than Green.

Aaron Rodgers is doing everything he can, including trying to hit TE Jermichael Finley early to get him involved in the game. Rodgers had an ‘off’ week last week against the Jaguars in throwing for ‘only’ 186 yards. But he did have a couple nifty TD tosses in there as well. Once again it will be up to Rodgers to carry the Packers forward. Rodgers seems to have found his stride again and is firing the ball out and getting his entire body into the throw. Since he has done that his numbers have not just climbed they have soared. And as Rodgers’ numbers have gone up so do have the Packers fortunes.

When the schedule came out the Packers looked at the stretch of games leading up to the bye week as the soft part of the schedule. They may not have planned on being 5 – 3 and trailing the Bears at this juncture so they have to come out and not play the game on paper. Jacksonville was an ugly win in that Green Bay did not blow them away. But it was a win nonetheless and Green Bay may be grasping that style points mean zilch. It is only the W that matters.

Call this a continuation game. Green Bay continues to roll and improve while the Cardinals are free falling backwards into oblivion like a man without a parachute.

 

 

 

    GREEN BAY  27 

 

 

 

 

 

    Arizona  10