The season is at the proverbial crossroads. The Packers are third in the North Division a game behind the Minnesota Vikings (5-3), who have lost three in a row, and a half a game behind the Detroit Lions (5-4), with a 4-4 record. Where the future of the Packers lies literally lies over the next eight games.
Do they rebound and win their next 8 games, do they limp alone being Just Good Enough to make the playoffs for the 8th year in a row thusly saving the jobs of Mark Murphy, Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy and Dom Capers. Or do they collapse and miss the playoffs triggering a needed housecleaning.
I am on the fence on where I want this season to go. More than half of me wants the collapse so Thompson and McCarthy are gone. The lesser half of me would hate to see a collapse week in and week out, but unless something drastic happens the Packers Board of Directors will not make any needed changes.
The Packers never should have lost to the Indianapolis Colts at Lambeau Field and yet they did. The defense will never be any better as long as Dom Capers is in charge. The apologists, known as the Tedders (In Ted We Trust), blame the defensive problems on injuries (Damarious Randall, Sam Shields, Quinten Rollins and Clay Matthews) and if we take that as the gospel truth then the backups are not adequate and who is in charge of the reserves, but Mr. Ted Thompson himself. Take that Tedders and Ask Vic.
The offense that played last week as the offense of 3 weeks ago and not the offense of the past 2 weeks that reinvigorated Aaron Rodgers. It was back to 5 step pass plays of waiting and waiting and waiting for a wide receiver to get open before throwing it away or in the case of last week have Rodgers run the ball.
You really don't want Rodgers to be your leading rusher. He is better moving outside the pocket to throw the ball, but as a designed play he is too valuable to part of the running game.
Two things on 5-step passes. The first, the Packers wide receivers don't get open the last 12 games last season and the first 8 this season. After they run their initial route they just stand around after they found a defensive back to shadow them. The second, once the pocket starts to break down and that is not a jab at the offensive line, who has a done a great job this season, Rodgers is vulnerable to interceptions, fumbles and injury.
The last two weeks the offense went up-tempo with 1-2-3 passes to the receivers still on their initial route when they are open. It worked well and was the blueprint for the rest of the season. However, for some g*****n reason Mike McCarthy scraped what was working to go back to what wasn't. At the half last week he stammered trying to answer the sideline reporter's question on what was wrong with the offense and what he was going to do about it. You want to why? He didn't know. Plain and simple.
The Packers don't have any more wide receivers than they have now (Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Davante Adams, Jeff Janis, Trevor Davis, Geronimo Allison) and they don't get open down field and create separation, except for two plays last week when Rodgers missed a slowed down Jordy and Janis dropped a perfect pass.
The Packers running game will be different this week with the return from knee surgery of James Starks. I guess he is will start instead of Ty Montgomery. However, I would say Montgomery with 119 yards on 21 carries (5.7 average) has earned the job because when Starks was healthy he was terrible (42 yards on 24 carries for a 1.8 average). Just to let you know Rodgers has gained 199 yards on 34 carries and has scored the only two rushing touchdowns of the season.
The only positive part of the passing game is that Rodgers is third in the league with 20 TD passes behind Matt Ryan (23) and Drew Brees (21). However, he is 11th in passer rating (96.1), 15th in yards (2,039) and 18th in completion percentage (63.5). He's having another down year, but he's being productive and is all the offense has.
Once again Clay Matthews will be out with a hamstring injury as will be Randall. That means the corners once again will be LaDarius Gunter (playing for the Sam Shields, who will not be back), Rollins playing for Randall and Julius Peppers playing for Matthews. That also means 8 of the starters are also playing with one reserve being a Pro Bowl from last year (Peppers), so that means just two reserves are actually starting. There should be no excuses.
Offensively, center J.C. Tretter is out, but his replacement was former starter Corey Linsley, so that should be like a wash. Tight end Jared Cook is still out, but he has hardly played at all, so with Richie Rodgers being an integral part of the offense last week that also should be a wash.
RB Don Jackson (with the activation of Starks) is inactive today leaving Rodgers, Starks, Montgomery and two fullbacks Aaron Ripkowski and Joe Kerridge (recently activated from the practice squad when S Jermaine Whitehead was cut and then re-signed to the practice squad) as the running game.
The other inactives are OT Kyle Murphy and DT Christian Ringo as per usual.
The Titans are 4-5 in third place in the AFC South. They are 2-3 at home and have won 3 of their last 5 games. The Packers are 1-2 on the road and have won 2 of their last 5 games.
QB Marcus Mariota is 15th in passer rating (94.1) with 17 TD passes and 8 interceptions. The Titans are ranked 22nd in the league in offense (235.2 yards a game) and the Packers are 20th (243.5). Defensively, the Titans are 16th (356.9) and the Packers are 7th (325.8). Passing the Titans are 19th (260.4), so that might be to the Packers advantage.
I will forgo looking at what everyone else is predicting. This game will depend on two things. What offense the suddenly clueless Mike McCarthy decides to run this week and if the Packers get any pressure on Mariota.
My local Packer Backers are at the game today, so I will guess and this is only a guess because I am totally clueless on which Packer team will show up that the Packers win 24-21. That also means I will be watching the game at The Cellar, hopefully with the my other Packer Backers, and not since the Bears suck and hopefully they will again today we won't be harassed by the Bears fans.
No comments:
Post a Comment