BAD NEWS BEARS

Rodgers Injured, Defense Falters, Offense Sputters and in Comes Philly

It couldn’t have been any worse.

When Aaron Rodgers went out after the Bears DE Shea McClellin drove his left shoulder into the turf at Lambeau the absolute worst case scenario for the Green Bay Packers was realized. In a season that has seen their roster decimated by a stunning number of injuries losing Rodgers in the penultimate loss. Rodgers left after one series and may not be back until Thanksgiving at the earliest.

Rodgers’ injury has been the lead story on every sports broadcast but the bigger question is how much will the Pack suffer in his absence. Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson were less than impressed with their crop of backups in camp. Neither Graham Harrell nor B.J. Coleman had developed enough to be counted upon in a pinch a la Matt Flynn before Flynn found free agency, a ton of cash but no team and no starting slot after bouncing around.

Vince Young was in for a cup of coffee and was gone before the last drop. Well-travelled journeyman QB Seneca Wallace was signed as insurance. Now the Packers have to cash in on the insurance policy.

Gulp.

Make that gulp hard while blinking rapidly. With wildly conflicting versions of what Rodgers exact

injury is and how long he’ll be out fly about like leaves in an autumn wind playing the guessing game is best left to those who have nothing better to do with their time. Mike McCarthy will not be counted amongst those speculating. And he is not talking. In the time honored tradition of coach speak MM has dodged and ducked and kept mum on every question fired at him about his star QB.

Make no mistake about one thing – Rodgers is the heart, soul and brains of this outfit. Without Rodgers over the long haul the Packers have little chance to make the playoffs without yeoman’s work being done by those still healthy enough to suit up. Wallace came in and was justifiably rusty but more to the point looked very shaky in relief of Arod. His passes lacked the zip needed, his accuracy was suspect and he had very little timing with his receivers. He’ll get a full week’s worth of preparation for the coming matchup against Philadelphia, a team that has finally found an offense behind Nick Foles.

Even with a week’s worth of prep a bigger question looms even as the Rodgers injury question hangs in the air. At a time when the defense needed to step up and hold the fort the D turned in a truly forgettable performance. The Bears were without Jay Cutler and in the battle of the backups Josh McCown won the battle handily over Wallace. As a team Chicago put up almost 450 yards in a well balanced attack. With Matt Forte pounding the ball inside McCown was brilliant in hitting his tall wideouts with jump ball passes and was deadly accurate.

Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery have the height at 6’ 3” and 6’ 4” to leap up and over almost any QB not name Richard Sherman. Marshall’s TD catch came from a perfect McCown pass well above the outsized and outmatched Tramon Williams. More importantly with the game’s outcome hanging in the balance McCown put on a clock killing drive late the culminated with a Robbie Gould field goal that put the lead to 27 – 20 and the Bears into a 3 way tie for first in the NFC North with the Pack and the Detroit Lions.

The Packers defense simply had no answers for McCown and could not keep the Bears from rolling. After Rodgers exited he was followed by RG T.J. Lang who left before the half with a concussion and did not return. RT Don Barclay slid over into Lang’s spot and last season’s starting left tackle Marshall Newhouse filled the right tackle slot. It’s fair to say Newhouse was on the field. It is equally fair to say Newhouse was invisible on the field. Newhouse lost his job to rookie LT David Bahktiari, whose stock is soaring in the NFL, and was wretched in seeing his first significant playing time. Too often Newhouse had the lateral movement of the Statue of Liberty as he was flat footed and run over by the swarm of Bears defenders. Former first round pick Derrick Sherrod has been activated after almost 2 years of multiple surgeries and rehabbing after a horrible compound fracture of both large bones in his leg. Sherrod is not likely to see the field anytime soon but his return could be a very welcome sight in the next few weeks.

Wallace didn’t help his cause at all by firing a ball into the hands of the leaping Julius Peppers who caught his own deflection in a momentum turning pick that shifted the advantage to Chicago and McCown refused to let it, and the opportunity go. Rookie LT David Bahktiari had a rough day as Peppers and the entire Bears pass rushers played with an intensity they had not displayed all season. It bears mentioning that while Green Bay lost they were in the hunt if not necessarily challenging to take the lead back. If there was any bright spot to be seen it was in the form of the Packers newly found and suddenly powerful running game. Eddie Lacy had his best gamer as a pro rushing for 150 yards and a TD that included an explosive 52 yard carry that put the Packers in position to pound the rock at the 1 yard line. Most telling about the subsequent score is the fact that Lacy carried it in himself after the long hike refusing to go off the field and hardly looking winded in the process.

The Packers have gone all-in in committing to the running attack this year. That has begun to pay

dividends. James Starks, the much aligned and much injured RB who led the Pack to the Super Bowl in ’10 had an explosive gallop thru the middle of the Bears line for another runaway score adding to his steadily improving and impressive body of work. In Rodgers’ absence Lacy and Starks will be counted on heavily to shoulder the load.

As a unit the Packers defense needs to shake the stink off the Bears loss. The pass rush was sporadic and the tackling, if what the Pack showed could be called tackling, was one of the ugly spots culled from an ugly game. McCarthy as well as the players on the defense acknowledged their poor showing. Knowing they now need to help to carry the team is going to determine whether or not the Packers have a fighting chance to make it to the playoffs.

Thompson and the Packers may well qualify for federal disaster relief. The Packers have been strafed by injury this season. A veritable all pro team could be found in the trainer’s room and on the IR list – in addition to Rodgers WR Randall Cobb is out until December (broken leg), James Jones (knee) is slowly working his way back into the lineup but his sore knee is limiting his already limited speed, TE Jermichael Finley has gone to the IR with a frightening bruised spine injury that threatens his career, Lang is very questionable to play until he clears the NFL protocol on concussion injury tests, LB’s Nick Perry, Clay Matthews and Brad Jones are still out while rookie LB Sam Barrington went onto the IR with Finley (knee), LB Andy Mulamba is doubtful after rolling an ankle and Ryan Pickett was hurt as well.

McCarthy has little time to face the media to answer questions about Rodgers. His time will be spent on developing enough plays to take advantage of Wallace’s short throw accuracy. “I’m not Aaron Rodgers” said Wallace. “He’s an elite quarterback. I’ve just got to play better to give my team a chance to win.”

That statement applies up and down both sides of the ball. Matthews may give it a shot with a club on his surgically repaired thumb. His broken thumb was labeled a Bennett’s fracture meaning his thumb was broken and displaced at the bottom of the thumb’s metacarpal bone where the bone meets the wrist area. For a player like Matthews who so heavily relies on his powerful hands to haul down opponents this is an injury that can limit his effectiveness and also required surgical pins to help Matthews thumb heal properly.

Nick Perry is questionable after a suffering a broken foot against Baltimore. Perry had been enjoying a very successful season and has been rapidly ascending in his play. James Jones may see more of the field also. The critical time each team must face and the adversity has now become not a speed bump in the path of the Packers but a mountain that must be scaled. In the next 3 games Green Bay faces the Eagles, Vikings and Giants, all teams Green Bay is more than capable of defeating.

All that was before Rodgers went down. To a man the Packers already have the answer to a

question being fired relatedly these days. Which game is the most important one in that stretch? The next one.

Philadelphia has been uneven and herky jerky in its first season under Chip Kelly. The expected matchup between Rodgers and Michael Vick will not materialize and after throwing for 7 TD’s and garnering a perfect 158.3 passer rating against Oakland last week Foles now has a firm grip on the starters job. LeSean McCoy is still a force at RB while WR DeSean Jackson had been relatively quiet until last week. One Eagle wideout who has not been quiet is Riley Cooper, he of the profanity filled, redneck-laced racial tirade at a Kenny Chesney concert that brought too much media attention in camp. Life in the NFL can make for strange bedfellows. While many of his teammates may have expressed or rightfully felt indignation and fury over Cooper’s ill-timed tirade captured on a cell phone all can be forgiven when a perceived redneck racist bigot puts up a 2 TD performance. Whether or not Cooper is a racist or a redneck or a bigot becomes irrelevant in the moment of the game when he is crossing the goal line. Right or wrong, that is sports.

Now the Packers are faced with the challenge of shutting Foles down and keeping Cooper and McCoy in check. The Eagles defense has been very shaky particularly in the defensive backfield. ’Inconsistent’ is a term bandied about in the city of Brotherly Love when describing the Eagle’s defense. Will Wallace be able to take advantage of the WR to CB advantage? At first glance the casual fan hides his eyes from the notion.

Now throw Lacy and Starks into the mix. “I was very impressed with the running game” said McCarthy last week after the Bears loss. The odds of Green Bay relying heavily on a clock killing ball control ground and pound game is roughly the same of having some snow in Green bay in December. Count on it. “He (Lacy) was able to run the ball effectively and that was when Chicago was loading up 8 (men in the box) against him” said McCarthy. Lacy could become the bell cow to haul the Packers wagon during Rodgers absence.

Kelly’s Eagle’s are coming in looking to control the clock by running plays. Lots of plays. Lots and lots

and lots of plays. It may be form without function as Philly is only 4-5 in a putridly awful NFC (L)East this year. The best way for Green Bay to counter Philly’s uptempo game is to keep them planked right on the bench. While Green Bay is capable of winning a shootout against almost anyone that was always with Rodgers at the helm. Wallace is a solid, if highly unsuccessful pro, his winning percentage as a starter is among the NFL’s worst.

But Wallace does have some weapons. Can he, and the Packers, take advantage of the opportunity? Will Matthews play, and if so can he jump start the D and bring some swagger back into the fold? Will Rodgers’ injury give the Eagles a false sense of security?

In 2010 the Packers placed a ridiculously high 15 players onto the injured reserve list. This year is bearing an eerie form. That season was not only salvaged but found salvation in unexpected areas like rookie James Starks and PS signing Howard Green, both key elements in the Packers march to the Super Bowl. Maybe McCarthy truly is an understated genius. He spoke of, dreamed of, longed for and finally has found a true running attack. It is not merely functional or serviceable but a force to be feared in its own right.

If this game goes to a shootout its’ anybody’s game. Call it a coin flip or even last man with the ball wins. But if Green Bay can somehow impose its will and Wallace can answer his ‘Next Man Up’ bell and the Pack establishes a running game and keeps Foles on the bench Green Bay has a distinct advantage, even without their MVP QB in Rodgers. The Pack sits at 5-3 at the halfway pole, a good record by any standard. But it will be in the next marking period the grades the Pack earns that will shape their plans for the post season. Green Bay could go 4 – 0. Most likely if they go 3-1 in that span they will pet themselves in position to make the dance. With the NFC East teams playing at such a low clip the playoffs, even under these disastrous circumstances, is entirely possible.

Chicago got this win. Better circle that rematch in Soldier Field on December 29^th in red. And if Green Bay has their weapons (minus Finley) back… it could make for a very entertaining New Year.

But that is way down the road. First things first and that is Philly this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 GREEN BAY 23  

 

 

  Eagles 17