This has been a recurring theme for Green Bay Packers’ defensive end Mike Daniels since last season ended. He talks about how the Packers need to play nasty, angry or even borderline dirty.
In fact, at one time, we thought this refrain was the only quote Daniels had about anything.
So it isn’t surprising after his locker room blowup following the Packers’ loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, that Daniels is again talking about playing angry.
“It has to be noticeable, like this team is pissed off, they’re angry, somebody pissed in their Cheerios this morning — you know what I mean?” Daniels said. “That’s what it’s got to be when you step onto that field. It has to be noticeable, and if it’s not then we’re not getting it done.”
It certainly would have been nice to see some energy on Sunday. That seems to be the one thing everyone can agree on, from Aaron Rodgers to Mike McCarthy to Daniels — the Packers were flat in that game.
Daniels specifically singled out the pass rush — something we also singled out — for not getting the job done.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie to you we should have played much better and done a lot of things better and we didn’t,” Daniels said. “We didn’t. We’re all held accountable. I hold myself accountable. I didn’t get home, and that goes for everybody. The matchups were there. You could see it on paper. We didn’t take advantage of it. Quite frankly, it’s embarrassing. We’ve got to be better. If it doesn’t piss you off, then that’s an issue. I think we have a lot of people who are pretty angry.”
It’s clear the Packers don’t have a lot of leadership. Or at least the kind of leadership that gets guys to play better — they have enough lead by example guys. Those type of guys don’t really inspire other players when they need inspiring though.
Daniels really is the only guy on the team who can fill that role. That’s a failure of the personnel department, which has long undervalued such leadership.
And if you look at it critically, Daniels hasn’t been as vocal this season as he’s been in the past. Perhaps his stepping up now to provide this type of leadership will light a fire under the team.
We can only hope.