Championship Game Autopsy

I watched the "Debacle in the Dome" with half of my brain in disbelief and the other half saying over and over again like Dorothy on her way home from Oz or like a song phrase you can't get out of your head, "same old, same old, sam.......".

I waited until this morning to make my comments thinking I will wake up from the very predictable disaster and, 'No, not that it didn't happen," it certainly did for 3 and a half hours, but that certain consequences would be delivered decisively and quickly, but when I went on-line expecting Defensive Coordinator Dom Capers to be fired I was disappointed for the 2nd time in less 24 hours.

The only thing I saw was one post from Luke Sims of NFLSpinZone, which stated in part, "Looking through his expansive career records, it’s unclear whether Capers is a quality defensive coordinator or if he is a mediocre coordinator with a moderately high ceiling."

He noted that when Capers took over from Bob Sanders in 2009, (I have to note it took Mike McCarthy 3 seasons to realize Sanders was not up to Packers standards) his first two defenses were ranked 2nd in the league and 5th the Super Bowl year.

However, since then Capers defenses have been ranked last (32nd) in 2011 when the Packers almost ran the table going 15-1 before being eliminated in the second round (its first game). With the only way to go was up Capers did just that as the defense was ranked 11th in 2012, 25th in 2013, 15th in 2014, 15th in 2015 and 22nd this season. I may be a country bumpkin, but I don't see a Top 10 defense in the bunch.

Last year the Packers had a tough last 10 games both offensively and defensively and would have missed the playoffs if Aaron Rodgers hadn't hit the first "Hail Mary" against the Lions, but somehow, like this season, the excellent and we're lucky to have him, Mr. Rodgers willed the Packers to the promised land of the playoffs that CEO Mark Murphy, General Manager Ted Thompson and the "Tedders" hang their hat on, but even the best quarterback of our times can't do it by himself.

Yesterday it was an NFL offense playing against a middle school defense. The game got off to a terrible and, I might I say predictable, start when Head Coach Mike McCarthy won the coin toss and for some inexplicable (unexplained for those of you in Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit) reason chose to defer to let the Falcons open the game with the best quarterback and offense in the NFL in their house start the game on offense, so he could have the second half kickoff.

The key to the game was to get out fast and set the tone with a TD on the first offensive series. Instead the Falcons did that and the game digressed from that point on.

I'm not stupid enough to think the game would have been turned around if the Rodgers had scored a TD on the opening possession, but evidently McCarthy is suffering from dementia if he thought Capers' defense could stop the Falcons. By the time the second half kickoff came the game was over.

Even on its best day this season Dom Capers' defense would give up scores on the 1st series, on the last series of the 1st half and almost every series in the second half. Yesterday he gave up 6 TDs, 1 field goal, 493 total yards, 392 yards passing, 30 first downs, 10-of-13 third downs and forced no turnovers. The definitive "Bad Day at the Office".

Obviously Dom Capers' game plan didn't work. In a normal game Capers likes to play coverage with a secondary and linebacking corps that is "coverage challenged". I don't understand why, but he does and that usually means receivers who are left uncovered, like yesterday, and big catches on 3rd-and-long, which again happened yesterday.

The key to the game was to get pressure on Matt Ryan, so that the secondary didn't have to play coverage, but that didn't happen. The pass rush was left to Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews and on a normal day that should have been good enough, but Matthews isn't the Claymaker any more and Peppers had one of invisible games. Capers tried to blitz some later in the game, but they seemed to find someone to block them and that didn't work either.

The secondary, who is coverage challenged on good days, was totally overmatched. Micah Hyde along with safeties Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Morgan Burnett has played the best, but when Hyde went down his replacement Kentrell Brice, who was hurt on the opening kickoff, didn't play well nor did his replacement Marwin Evans.

Cornerback LaDarius Gunter (or Gunner as Troy Aikman continued to call him) continued his slide. When he wasn't being beat he was holding. He started well, but has totally fallen apart, but evidently there is no one better on the roster to replace him.

The other corner Damarious Randall also continued his slide. He had a great rookie season, but has been beaten regularly and has added missing tackles to his resume. He may end up being another Thompson No. 1 pick bust.

No. 2 pick Quinten Rollins finally got the field and he had trouble with coverage as do all the Packers defensive backs.

A hallmark of Dom Capers is never to make adjustments and true to his tenor with the Packers he didn't again. Unlike former Mike Holmgren Defensive Coordinator Fritz Shurmur, who totally changed his scheme against the San Francisco 49ers during the 1997 season, Capers makes no adjustments, especially at halftime, when the opposing team makes their adjustments and lights up Capers defense in the second half.

The Packer defense was the same in the second half as it was in the first. The Falcons scored on 7 of its 10 offensive series with 6 being TDs and one being a field goal. The other two were punts and I will take credit for the 1st one because that  happened after the always successful "Pouring of the Beer". The second one was at the end of the game.

I would hope McCarthy can look at Capers with an objective eye, but I have my doubts. After, "The Great Collapse" at the end of the 2014 season McCarthy had this to say, "Dom Capers is an outstanding football coach," McCarthy said with his voice rising. "No one will be evaluated today. We'll go though this just like last year; you guys did this to me last year. I'm not going into this thing looking to make big changes, but I'll tell you one thing. When I go though this process, there's things you really like about your program. ... I think Dom Capers is an outstanding football coach and I'm glad he's on our staff."

After the season the only coaching change was to fire special teams coach Shawn Slocum, which was two years too late just like Sanders, and elevating his assistant Ron Zook. He made four other coaching moves, but that was to replace assistant coaches who had moved on to other teams or to college teams. After the coaching change and additions McCarthy had 21 assistant coaches, the most in the NFL.

Last year after the "Debacle in the Desert" McCarthy decided the reason the Packers had issues was not on defense, but on offense so he fired running back coach Sam Gash replacing him with Ben Sirmans, who was fired by the Rams, and tight end coach Jerry Fontenot replacing him with Brian Angelichio, who was fired along with the entire staff from the Browns.

He made a comment during the offseason that Dom Capers was the one person on his coaching staff he can relate and talk to. It looks like McCarthy would have to be forced to fire Capers. So with that reality I wonder which assistant coach is going to take the blame for the "Debacle in the Dome".