It's been an interesting week after the Packers were embarrassed in Nashville and fell below .500 this late in the season for the first time since 2008. The defense was manhandled and the offense was spotty.
After the game Aaron Rodgers came out of the "Sanctuary" and set us stupid idiots straight who are worried about the Packers in general and Head Coach Mike McCarthy in particular by saying this, "I think it's ridiculous. I think people don't understand how difficult it is to win in this league and win consistently. The success that we've had here, it's tough to do. We've set the standard pretty high. But I wouldn't listen to some of those people out there. I mean they're not in this locker room, they're not in the meeting rooms, they're not in the practice environments. They don't know what's going on, they don't know the type of work ethic that we have here and that Mike has here."
Well Mr. Rodgers put us in our place telling us unwashed masses that we don't know enough to get in out of the rain. He tells us that we should be grateful the Packers were as good as they were and that we shouldn't expect to be good this year and to "quit your bellyaching."
We don't know what's going on do we? We know the Packers couldn't stop an ordinary team and that the offense, which he leads, can't score touchdowns and even make first downs on a consistent basis. All that work ethic doesn't seem to translate to wins on the field even at Lambeau Field.
He says that the Packer Backers shouldn't be listened to since we don't know anything because we aren't in the locker room, the meeting room and practice. Once again all those meetings and practice don't seem to translate into wins.
We don't see what's gong do we Mr. Rodgers? Well, I think the reality is the Packer Backers are only one's who DO know what's going on and not you "I can't see the forest for the trees" people inside the hallowed walls of Lambeau.
The 53+9+5 and the numerous employees of the Packers Front Office seem to have developed a bad case of "Siege Mentality" and have circled the wagons. Now I don't know what Mr. Thompson thinks since he's had lockjaw for a while, but Mr. McCarthy made an interesting observation this week also.
He started off by stating, “I love this group of guys. It’s an extremely healthy culture."Before we go any further this sounds like a man who is about to fired. Then he said, "Our performance level is not high enough right now, and that’s what we’re focused on.” Well, we've heard that before, like almost every week, since Week 8 of last year and the play hasn't gotten much better since even though McCarthy seems to know there is a problem.
Then things go even more bizarre, “Let’s just state the facts: I’m a highly successful NFL head coach." Well, what have you done for us lately, Mr. McCarthy. Since starting last season 6-0, his record is 8-11 (4-6 in 2015 and 4-5 this season) during the regular season and 1-1 in the playoffs. That record doesn't rank as highly successful or even successful in my book, but I guess it does in McCarthy's mind.
To be fair, McCarthy's record is 108-60 (.642) during the regular season with a Super Bowl Trophy, but despite the Super Bowl victory he is only 8-7 overall in the playoffs and if you take away the Super Bowl year he is 4-7 in the playoffs. Like I said I don't think that ranks as highly successful.
Mr. McCarthy continues his thoughts, "With that, I’ve never looked at the ride to this point as smooth or whatever the words you used. To me, it’s always bumpy, and to me that’s the joy of it. That’s this game. That’s how hard it is in the NFL. Really, what you did last year or 2010, as we know, doesn’t factor. It’s even more so with the parity and the youth of the team." He's gone philosophical on us as if his life is flashing before his eyes.
He continued, “To me, you have to stay in tune with the now. Obviously, people outside of our room don’t feel really good about the now. Personally, I enjoy these type of moments. I think this is kind of how my life has gone professionally. That’s just a personal thought. This is about our team, and I trust and believe in what we do every day: what they do on the practice field, the conversations in the room, the conversations during the game, the reaction to the tough moments."
“Our adversity football production is not high enough right now. We need to improve there. We know it, our players know it. That’s really where our focus is. That’s the difference in this league. There’s a fine line between winning and losing, and we are on the wrong side of the line right now. We clearly understand how and why we’re here. That’s what we’re focused on." At this point McCarthy hasn't gone of the deep end YET.
Now he veers into Nixon and Trump territory, “It’s even like messaging. People talk about messaging. You talk to other coaches on how you message your football team. Personally, it kind of drives our video department crazy, but I don’t have my message quite solved for the next game because it has to tie into the plus of the team. Every team’s different, every opportunity’s different, every season is a different ride. It’s a different journey, it really is." Here's he seems to talking about the image being the problem unlike when he and Rodgers blamed the press a few weeks ago. I may be one of those idiots Rodgers was talking about, but it seems to me the Packers got beat 47-25 last week and I don't remember me or a single press guy playing in that game.
McCarthy continues to wax poetic, “We knew that when the schedule came out it was going to be … we knew there was going to be a lot of twists and turn of this season. Did I still think we were going to win them all? Hell, yeah. I’ve never entered a contest ever that I didn’t feel we were going to beat the other guy. That won’t change, especially this week. That part of it is real, and that’s what we’re focused on." Nobody asks you to say the Packers are going to lose Mike. What we are asking is to have a chance to win. We haven't had that recently.
“It’s important to understand the twists and turns of a season because you’ve got to learn from it. Every week, there’s a different twist and turn that you’re not going to see coming, and how you handle that is important. We didn’t handle that very well yesterday. I think it’s very evident. I mean, there’s two or three of three touchdowns where it’s clearly, when a guy’s wide open or he runs 75 yards unabated for a touchdown, something went wrong there. I mean, something obviously went wrong there." You figure, MIKE.
“So that’s what we need to learn from and improve on. So twists and turns definitely weren’t handled properly by us, but that’s yesterday. If you need to learn big-picture stuff, that’s all there in front of you. I really don’t spend a lot of time on that. I’m into the now, and it makes our players stay into the now and improve.”
Ok, Mike here's NOW staring you in the face. Your 2-time MVP quarterback is way under 100 in the quarterback ratings for the second year in a row when he was the highest rated quarterback in NFL history after the 2014 season. The Packers are 4-5 and ranked 21st in the latest NFL.com Power Rankings. The Packers are third in the NFL North behind the Vikings and the Lions. The Packers are not picked to beat the Washington Redskins.
I think we are seeing the McCarthy version of Dead Man Walking playing at the Lambeau Multiplex. How it plays in the Peoria will determine if the Thompson Era ends sooner rather than later with a whimper instead of a Super Bowl Title.
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