What began as a promising season has completely unraveled for the Green Bay Packers. They handed the Detroit Lions just their second win in Wisconsin since the early 1990s on Monday Night Football.
That wasn’t really all that surprising, however. What was surprising was how unprepared the Packers looked despite having an entire two weeks to make themselves prepared.
The game wasn’t as close as the score indicates and the score doesn’t even indicate it was that close to begin with. I’d call it a blowout. An embarrassment.
This is where we start talking about jobs.
Clearly, Aaron Rodgers has been carrying this football team. There is not only a general lack of talent around Rodgers, but the coaching staff can’t seem to maximize what talent there is.
That’s going to be a talk for later on, though. Let’s get on with it.
Time To Take Some Shots
I said it last night. Take the frickin’ training wheels off Brett Hunley, already. Honestly, I don’t think Hundley played that bad. He was hamstrung by one of the crappiest game plans Fat Mike has ever dreamt up. Hundley averaged just 6.4 per attempt (compared to Matthew Stafford’s 10.9). Here’s what I found more telling. The team’s top two receivers — Jordy Nelson (8.8) and Davante Adams (7.6) — both averaged under 10 yards per reception. Randall Cobb averaged 11.6 per, but that was only because of a 46 yard reception. He may not have the Aaron Rodgers’ accuracy, but Brett Hundley has the arm to throw more than 2-yard receiver screens. Let him throw the damn ball.
The Magical Disappearing Running Game
The Packers handed the ball to about every guy who’s ever carried a football on Monday night. The list includes Ty Montgomery, Aaron Jones, Jamaal Williams, Trevor Davis and Randall Cobb. Hundley ran for 22 himself. The grand total — 17 carries for 78 yards. Want to talk about helping a young quarterback? Run the damn football! Jones was contained for the first time this year, but Montgomery averaged 6.6 per run. Stack two of those together and viola! You’ve got a first down.
Third Downs Were Huge
Rob talked about this very thing on Monday and then we watched it play out. The Lions had been terrible at converting third downs this season. The Lions converted eight of 13 on Monday night. The Packers were an abysmal two of nine. Throw in two failed fourth down tries and you’re at two of 11. Eighteen percent is what you’re looking at right there. Meanwhile, the Lions are at 61 percent. A complete failure by the Packers’ offense and defense.
Mike Daniels Talks the Talk, Walks the Walk
I don’t mean this in a good way. Daniels was pretty much invisible like he’s been since week 1, with two tackles. That is, except for his headbutt of Lions’ center Travis Swanson on Detroit’s first series. Daniels talked about retaliating against divisional foes for taking down Packers’ players, last week. Well, the Lions haven’t taken anyone down because the Packers hadn’t played the Lions before Monday night, this year. Apparently, Daniels thought he was playing against the Vikings. Saying he felt he was held, Daniels drew a personal foul on the Lions’ first series. What’s more, it would have been a three and out, minus the penalty. And that pretty much set the tone for the evening. Marvin Jones scored shortly thereafter.
And Here’s One Good Thing About the Defense
Let’s not pretend the Packers’ defense is any good. They can’t rush the passer. They can’t cover anyone. The one thing they can do is get in the backfield. It’s the one thing that really stuck out as a positive. The Packers wrapped up 10.5 tackles for loss. All of these guys had at least a half — Blake Martinez, Josh Jones, Davon House, Morgan Burnett, Nick Perry, Damarious Randall, Chris Odom, Kevin King and Dean Lowry. Burnett is playing really well, when he’s actually healthy, and Blake Martinez is easily your defensive MVP at this point.
Oh really? Take some shots? So you must be assuming that only a running back is running routes and McCarthy is in Hundley’s ear telling him to throw it to that person. What about Jordy running alone on a deep route, and Hundley seeing him/or not, and taking a sack. They threw the ball 75% of the time last night. Hundley was garbage, not the game plan.
Welcome all to the pre bert farvce days. Remember when we were happy to get someone in the pro bowl. And trotted out Anthony dilweg and Blair keil. At what point does Callahan get a shot? Seriously Kurt Warner got cut from a bunch of teams he could be the next one.
Although I don’t understand parts of this post, I think you make a good point.
Wolf traded for Favre. Thompson drafted Rodgers.
If you are under 35 – 40 years old, you don’t remember just how bad the Packers were without a QB. Yeah, Majkowski had a good season or two and Dickey had a good arm, but there were some truly horrible quarterbacks between Starr and Favre.
The play you see now, with the quarterback failing to do anything and the defense playing uninspired and giving up big plays, this is exactly what we saw in 1991, 1986, or 1975.
We forget how big Favre and Rodgers have been for the Packers success and we think a changes in the front office will fix it.
McSlob can say this, say that??? rearrange deck chairs on Titanic blah,blah,blah. as fans were better off having them lose out. Maybe gets Ted, Mike, Dom out and better draft pick. Rodgers isn’t coming back and I don’t blame him. I agree with all the national sports guys saying Aaron should DEMAND some free agents, defensive help etc..