If You Have Any Doubts

Rodgers Gets Knocked Down, But Always Gets Up

Replacing a living legend who never missed a game despite a broken thumb, two separated shoulders, a sprained knee and an ankle the size of Chicago is a tall task and if you have any doubts about how tough Aaron Rodgers is then all you have to know he played the last half of the season with a knee that needed surgery.

Rodgers pulled out of the Sunday's Pro Bowl because of an undisclosed injury and I figured it was the shoulder he hurt against the Chargers in week six. However, it was revealed that he actually is recovering from minor knee surgery from a low hit by Ezekiel Ansah on his left knee against the classless Lions in week 10.

I Feel Sorry For Carson Palmer, But It Could Have Been Worse

Carson Palmer's Worst Nightmare Came True

Tick, Tock, the clock is running out for Carson Palmer and yesterday facing the biggest game of his professional career he laid an egg. Unlike the "man-child" that bested him Palmer is a class act and I felt sorry for him as the interceptions mounted and his chance for a Super Bowl may have gone by the boards forever.

Palmer threw 4 interceptions and lost two fumbles in the debacle, but if misery loves company then he has plenty of company with 15 other quarterbacks having worse days, including 6 Hall of Famers.

The Off-Season Has Begun With A Whimper And Not A Bang

I'm Mad as Hell And Nobody's Listening to Me

With CEO Mark Murphy and GM Ted Thompson firmly entrenched I will then say it's time for Mike McCarthy to go. After 10 seasons he's gotten complacent. He complained at the end of the season he didn't know why there was so much negativity about the Packers when they were 10-6 and in the playoffs for the seventh straight season.

Big Changes Needed

Eliot Wolf - The Future GM of a Super Bowl Team Not Named Packers

I want to state right up front I've been a big critic of General Manager Ted Thompson and finally a publication of significance (The Milwaukee Journal) has agreed with me and broached the subject of Thompson being fired.
 

I think all the problems the Packers had this season stem from Thompson's leadership and philosophy. So I think it's time to fire Thompson and elevate Eliot Wolf (son of Hall of Famer and former Packers GM Ron Wolf) from Director of Player Personnel before he is hired away like Seattle GM John Schneider in 2010, Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie in 2012 and Chiefs GM John Dorsey in 2013.
 

This becomes more urgent because Detroit and Tennessee made inquiries about talking to Wolf before the end of the season, but Thompson refused them permission. This only means that next year the 33-year old Wolf might be a hot commodity and will become the fourth Thompson protégée to leave and set up successful programs.

Clueless

 

2015 was most frustrating for the fans because General Manager Ted Thompson's philosophy left the Packers roster short in talent at certain positions and unable to adjust to injuries in others and Head Coach Mike McCarthy seemed detached from reality the entire season.
 

Thompson's penny-pinching ways (has anybody heard me say that before) came home to roost this season in spades. And who would have thought the Packer roster was dependent upon one player when Jordy Nelson went down in the preseason?
 

To his credit Thompson got James Jones when he fell into his lap during the final cuts. I thought at the time it was somewhat of a desperate move because he was cut twice despite leading the Raiders last year and the Giants in the preseason in receiving.
 

However, during the first 6 games he was as good as Nelson, but over the last 12 games he turned out to be what the Raiders and Giants thought he was - washed up. While he still could catch anything near him he couldn't get separation and for some odd reason that malady spread through the wide receiving corps like a rash, especially to Randall Cobb.
 

The injuries to right tackle Bryan Bulaga and left tackle David Bakhtiari highlighted a major flaw in Thompson's philosophy. He has always short-sheeted the offensive line when it came to backups. He has never signed or developed a true backup tackle, either right or left, except for Don Barclay.
 

Before his knee injury last season Barclay had taken over for Bulaga when he went down with a knee injury in 2013 and started the last 14 games. He did a good job. But this year he was a shadow of himself being unable to pass block on either side.
 

He was adequate at right tackle when Bulaga was out in weeks 3 and ,4, but absolutely horrible when he played left tackle in the first Cardinals game. He was so bad McCarthy moved Josh Sitton to left tackle the next week against the Vikings.
 

J.C. Tretter turned out to a good acquisition as a 4th round draft pick in 2013. He was supposed to be the replacement for Evan Dietrick-Smith, but suffered a knee injury opening the door for Corey Linsley last year.
 

This year Tretter proved to be a solid player at center when Linsley was hurt and did a decent job at left tackle when the Sitton experiment didn't pan out. A little aside to that was not that Sitton did a bad job it was more that Lane Taylor was not up to the task at left guard.
 

Most of the time Thompson's offensive line backups over the years and  especially this year with Barclay, Taylor and Josh Walker have been cheap undrafted free agents. In addition, the two offensive linemen on the practice squad are also undrafted free agents, guard Matt Rotheram and tackle Jeremy Vujonvich.
 

I have been a broken record about signing veteran offensive linemen as backups. Rodgers would have loved to have had an Ernie McMillian (1975), Tootie Robbins (1992-93) or Bruce Wilkerson (the starting left tackle after injuries on the 1996 Super Bowl team) this year when he was being beaten to pulp.
 

To be fair Thompson does hit the mark on some undrafted free agents on this roster like  cornerbacks Sam Shields and LaDarius Gunter, linebacker Jayrone Elliott and defensive tackle Mike Pennel, but putting the health of your All-Pro quarterback on the shoulders of people nobody wanted borders on criminal liability.
 

McCarthy's weekly proclamation that we know what's wrong and will fix it before the next game got tired. We found out he had no idea what was wrong and never fixed the offense after week 3. McCarthy acted as if he was overwhelmed by the situation. McCarthy was a liability not an asset this season.

Another Thought on the Final Game

Someone In Arizona Was Happy And It Wasn't Olivia Munn

The final two games of the 2015 season left hope that the future won't be so bleak, but also left a bad taste in my mouth as old problems and tendencies raised their ugly heads with another early exit from the playoffs when the Packers should have been playing at the Panthers this week for another chance to return to the Super Bowl, despite having a team that is NOT really Super Bowl quality.

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART أربعة عشرة

(NOTE: أربعة عشرة is 14 in Arabic)

 

Full Leia Olivia

SUBLIME

I can see why Aaron Rodgers likes Olivia Munn. She is completely wonderful both on the outside and on the inside. She is funny with a very wry sense of humor at times and slapstick at other times. She is beautiful in both face and body. She is talented both athletically and as an actor (yes, we now have to call actresses actors).

Considering how rough this season has been for Rodgers it was good he had someone he could take a break from all his worries, at least until the conservative haters went after Miss Munn in the middle of the season as a reason for his difficulties.

Two Thoughts

Peppers Blew It Again

Heading into the overtime the Packer defense was spent. It had played a good three quarters, but reverted to old habits in the fourth quarter leaving receivers wide open and not getting pressure on Carson Palmer. Andrew asked me if I thought we would win it in overtime and I didn't hesitate to say, "NO".

Our only chance was to get the ball and go down and score a touchdown. However, the Packers aren't that lucky, so the result of the "flip" was probably going to be in the Cardinals favor. If the defense was first on the field the game was over and, of course, it was.

How can anyone with a brain cell left firing could leave Larry Fitzgerald uncovered in overtime? On that play Julius Peppers was out of position by breaking coverage when he should have been in between Palmer and Fitzgerald.

Mike McCarthy said simply, 'blown coverage". If Peppers held his assignment he could have intercepted the long slow cross field pass or tipped it or forced Palmer to stop scrambling to square up and throw the ball over Peppers and if Palmer did do that then Mike Daniels would have hit him or sacked him or Palmer would have just kept running and I will assure you he would not have run 75 yards down field. If given a choice between covering an immobile Palmer or a wide receiver, who would you choose?

Hopefully There Will Be a Redemption in the Rematch in the Desert

Looking For 'The Redemption in the Rematch in the Desert'

Three weeks ago the Packers were riding high on a three-game winning streak having averaged 28 points a game heading to Glendale, Arizona to face one of the strongest teams in the league - the Arizona Cardinals. Three hours later Aaron Rodgers was pulled from the game mercifully after being sacked 8 times and the Packers were embarrassed with a 38-8 loss.

The game hurt the Packers psyche so much they let the hated Minnesota Vikings not only beat them at Lambeau Field, but take away the North title the Packers have held for four straight seasons.

Last week The Hangover of the Disaster in the Desert was still being felt for another quarter as the Packers fell behind 11-0 to another team that was coming on late in the season - the Washington Redskins.

Ringgate

Ride Along 2 Publicity Shot

Olivia Munn responded to the rumors that she and Aaron Rodgers were engaged recently first saying Rodgers did give her a ring, “It’s not that kind of ring, by the way. It’s not the special ring. I mean, it’s a very special ring, but it is not the special ring.”

Six Degrees of Separation Packers Style

Mike Holmgren's 1992 Coaching Staff
including Jon Gruden (top) and Andy Reid (4 down on the stairs)

Coaching Carousel  

The NFL coaching carousel began October 5 when the Dolphins fired their head coach and ended with a total of 7 head coaches losing their jobs and another 8 surviving to coach another season.

1. Miami Dolphins

Joe Philbin

The Dolphins fired former Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin after a 1-3 start.

Interim head coach Dan Carpenter (5-7) was not retained and the only man who has been able survive Jay Cutler with his reputation intact (I think if he had stayed another season the Cutler Curse would have got him too) Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase has been hired to take over the Dolphins.

It's Official, Well Sort Of

Aaron and Olivia at the 2014 Screening of Deliver Us From Evil

Aaron Rodgers popped the question at a romantic dinner and is now officially engaged to Olivia Munn according to an unofficial source in OK! Magazine. It has been reported that Olivia wasn't expecting the question.

Mojo is Back

The Smiles and Mojo Were Back

I didn't get a chance to see the Packers win over Washington until Monday because I was covering a women's college basketball game and didn't get over to the game until the score was 32-18 in the fourth quarter.

Aaron Rodgers addressed what had happened and who am I to say anything different, “This is huge for us, it really is. I talked a lot the last couple of weeks about being able to turn it on. A lot of you probably thought that this was lip service. But we just needed a game like this to get our mojo back. We got our confidence going. I said this week, it just takes one — one performance to get us going back in the right direction and believing we can make a run.”

Offensive mojo has been lacking since Week 3 of the season and team mojo has been lacking since coming back from the Bye Week. I finally watched the entire game and it seemed to me several things were going on.

There's No More Time to Wait

The Scene of a Crime or a Resurgence?

The playoffs are here and so are the Packers for the seventh season in a row, but this is not your father's Green Bay Packers playing today and not even your cousin's Packers of last season.

The Packers limp in with a myriad of problems, mainly on the offense, while the Washington Redskins, perennial sad sacks of the league, as the hot team, especially at home, and in most cases the favorite. The final word on predictions by NFL.com has the Redskins winning 27-17.

Another NFL.com predictor has the Packers winning if certain stars align and the world is not topsy-turvy. But the world is topsy-turvy with Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins, of all people, having a better season than the best quarterback in the NFL Aaron Rodgers. More this prediction at the end.

Two Areas of Concern Heading Into The Playoffs

'Mr. Rodgers'

Besides Aaron Rodgers looking more like Mr. Rogers and Eddie Lacy like Eddie "The Eagle" the most disappointing areas of the 2015 Packers offense are the offensive line and the wide receivers.

A Tale of Two Players

The Season of Our Discontent

This season of our discontent can best be reflected by the play of two key players on the offense, quarterback Aaron Rodgers and running back Eddie Lacy.

Aaron Rodgers Confident in the Pocket Against the Seahawks

Something is wrong with Rodgers and it's not Olivia Munn or a shoulder injury. Mentally he is screwed up. He was candid about being scared at the end of the Panther game explaining why he missed seeing a wide open Randall Cobb in the endzone (that may have been the last time Cobb was open this season).

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART 13

The Current Packer Backers Get Together
(L-R) Steve & Jane Crawley - Slimmed Down Me and Timmer

SUBLIME

I wracked my brain to find something sublime about the state of the Packers heading into the playoffs. However, the Packers have lost two straight games and had their streak of 4 straight North Division championships snapped. Nothing sublime about that.

So I went far and wide in search of sublimeness and while that search was unsuccessful I only had to make a phone call and some of the best Packers fans you would ever want to watch a game with came a running.

I started watching the game at the bar with Jane and Steve Crawley in 2008 and when they are in town we still get together. In fact, they came over to Timmer and Therese's house on Dec. 13 and if that's not a sublime picture I don't know what is.

Being with Steve and Jane got me thinking about Packer Backers past so here's a sublime picture of the Southern Illinois Packer Backers No. 3 for you to meet. Sadly Treasha passed on almost three years ago. In her obituary it was noted she was known for her love of the Green Bay Packers.

Tell Us Something We Don't Know

We Know

While surfing the web I came across a story about the 15 most disappointing NFL teams and listed No. 1 at the top of the list with no reservation was the Green Bay Packers. REALLY, tell me and the Packer Backers of Southern Illinois and the rest of civilized society something we don't know.

The danger signs of the worse season since Aaron Rodgers became the starting quarterback in 2008 started day one of the preseason. Evidently the Northwest Collapse shook Coach Mike McCarthy to his core because everything he had done his first nine seasons at the helm he abandoned in his 10th.

First, Rodgers didn't hardly play in the preseason sitting out the final two games totally. In fact, most of the offensive starters were pulled right after Jordy Nelson went down, including the offensive line never suiting up as a unit since the start of the second game until opening day. I think that was a mistake as far as chemistry is concerned, since the offense has had NO chemistry all season.

Thompson and Rodgers are the Problem

The loss to the Vikings at Lambeau Field following losses to the Bears and the Lions at the Shrine proved three things. First, the 2015 Packers are NOT Super Bowl material. Second, the Packer offensive line is a disaster at worst and not the best offensive line in recent memory at best. Third, Aaron Rodgers is NOT an elite quarterback any more.

The End of an Era

Sunday marks the end of an era, the Peyton Manning era. I know this has nothing to do with the Packers, but just as we were lucky to have witnessed the career of Brett Favre up close and personal we are also lucky to have been alive while Manning was in his prime. Love him or hate him or somewhere in between Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time hands down.

Peyton Manning on the Sidelines and Nearing the End

Sunday when the Broncos play the Chargers for the first time since Manning was a freshman at Tennessee in 1994 he will be active for a game and not be behind center on the first play snapping his starting streak at 334 games including post-season games.

Sad State of Affairs

As Always Aaron Rodgers is the Key to Victory

The Packer season has at least two games left with the Packers assured of the third seed or the fifth seed in next week's playoffs.

If the Packers win then they host the wild card playoff game against the sixth seed, which would be against the Vikings if the Seahawks beat the Cardinals or against the Seahawks if Seattle loses. If the Packers lose then they hit the road against the fourth seed Washington.

The best scenario might be to lose and go to Washington that hosting either Seattle or Minnesota. It's sad to think about how far the Packers have fallen under Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy when it would be better to play a road game than play at Lambeau Field.