The incredible finish to Sunday’s game against the
Cincinnati Bengals had me up on my feet yelling, “he’s got it, he’s got it,
he’s got it" when Geronimo Allison caught that ball against the left sideline. It reminded me of Brett Favre’s 82-yard TD to Greg Jennings to
beat the Broncos on Monday Night Football in 2007. I was at “The Cellar” that
night also like I was yesterday because it seems where I live was the only place in
the USA
that didn’t have the game as the doubleheader game.
G-Mo, as Aaron Rodgers calls him, was the hero. He was
suspended for the first game for performance enhancing drugs. He dropped a pass
in the fourth quarter, but when Jordy Nelson and Davante Adams and Martellus
Bennett were being covered Geronimo Allison stepped up big time catching 6 of 8
balls thrown his way for 122 yards.
I didn’t realize, but Aaron Rodgers had never beaten the
Bengals and he had never won an overtime game. As far as the Bengals were
concerned Rodgers had only played them twice losing 31-24 in 2009 and losing 34-30
in 2013.
As you can see Rodgers did his job, but Dom Capers didn’t do
his just like he almost didn’t last Sunday. One commentator even mentioned that
fact when he said Dom Capers finally did his job.
Also Rodgers was 0-7 in overtime games (4 in the season and
3 in the playoffs). I was asked as they were flipping the coin if the Packers should have gone for the
2-point conversion with 17 seconds left. I thought about for the same reason
Rodgers had lost the 2 previous Bengals meetings. Dom Capers defense. I literally and otherwise have no confidence in the Dom Capers. In four
of the previous losses Rodgers never touched the ball with the defense giving
up the winning score and, of course, the Packers lost the flip giving the
Bengals the ball first.
Here’s
what Rodgers said after the game, “I was
glad that after we lost the toss … we had a nice three-and-out there to get us
the ball back right away. And we hit a big third-down play.”
We’ll have to wait and see if the Packers defense in the second
half was actually good or the Bengals offense over thought things and shut
itself down like Mike McCarthy does on a consistent basis.
The terrible offensive line situation got worse during and
after the Bengals game.
The game began with Kyle Murphy making his second straight
start at left tackle with David Bakhtiari still out because of a stupid
hamstring injury he suffered celebrating the win over the Seahawks. Murphy had played
extremely well in the loss to the Falcons, but he was the second coming of
Jason Spriggs giving up the majority of the 6 sacks Rodgers had to endure.
Bakhtitari may still be out against the Bears.
Bryan Bulaga returned to right tackle for the 1st time and
played a half before reinjuring his ankle. Career guard Justin McCray once
again took over and from all I could see played well once again. He played well
against the Falcons and Murphy played well in the opener against the Seahawks
when he started at right tackle instead of Bulaga. Bulaga might not be able to
play Thursday against the Bears.
In his infinite wisdom “The Great and Powerful Ted” Thompson
has left the most critical position on the offense besides quarterback
shorthanded all season. When the season began the tackles were Bakhtiari,
Bulaga, Spriggs and Murphy on the 53 and Adam Pankey on the practice squad. Don
Barclay had already been lost for the season, but he had already been a
disappointment at tackle and is considered more of a center/guard at this
point.
Spriggs has been a major disappointment since being drafted
No. 2 last year and was absolutely terrible during the preseason at left
tackle. He was hurt before the Falcons game and was also lost for the season
prior to the Bengals game. No big loss. He might eventually be cut next year or
earlier.
With the loss of Spriggs Thompson brought up Pankey, an
undrafted rookie free agent, who also didn’t have a great preseason, to maybe
start at left tackle against the Falcons because there was no one else.
However, Murphy, who had not played a snap at left tackle, moved from right tackle and
played very well as did McCray moving from right guard to right tackle. Jury
rigged to say the least.
Now with Murphy gone for the season or at least the majority
of it, and Bakhtiari and Bulaga questionable, that leaves jury rigged McCray
and Pankey as the only 2 healthy tackles on the 53.
With the tackle situation being so terrible all season you
would think Thompson would have replaced Pankey on the practice squad with
another tackle, but, of couse, Thompson has his own way of doing things, so he
signed a journeyman guard Darrell Greene to go with rookie draft pick flop Kofi Amichia as the only offensive linemen on the practice squad.
So when Murphy
was placed on injured reserve Thompson signed journeyman tackle Ulrick John off the Arizona Cardinals practice squad. He
was spent most of his 3 years on the Colts, Dolphins and Cardinals practice
squads. He spent 9 weeks on the Dolphins active roster in 2015 being active for
only 2. He then was signed by the Cardinals off the Dolphins practice squad in
2016 and spent 9 games on the active roster again 6 inactive, but ended up
starting the final 3 games at left tackle before injuring his shoulder and
being put on injured reserve.
Another
injury waiting to happen is not a good pickup, but we’ll have to see because we
only have 1 General Manager no matter what the majority of us think. I still
contend that Brandon Albert, a former no. 1 pick and Pro Bowl left tackle, is
still on the market and he might be a more viable option to start at left
tackle than either Pankey or John.
No
matter what happens the offensive line is a mess and Thompson has allowed it to
be so.
Something
else I noticed. I watched the Sunday night game between the Redskins and the
Raiders and saw something I had also noticed earlier against the Bengals. The
Redskins were running an offense that the Packers used to run with flairs and sweeps
and quick dumps and it worked like it used to do with the Packers while the Packers are running something else.
The
other thing I notice in the Bengals game was how slow Ty Montgomery was
when he ran the ball. He was tiptoeing around before leaning into the line
while Samaje Perine and, especially, Chris Johnson of the Redskins showed speed and quickness
that the Packers only hope they had.
Here’s
a stat you might want to consider. Montgomery
This
Packers lineup has no speed and with a very suspect offensive line speed would
solve some of those problems and running a quick hit offense would also prevent
Rodgers from being a sack waiting to happen or heaven forbid being injured,
which Mike Floria of Pro Football Talk said a week ago that without Rodgers the
Packers don’t win a game.
The
state of the Packers is tenuous at best and dire at the worst. Now on a short
week with the Bears invading Lambeau Field with upset on their minds the
Packers have a laundry list of injuries and the Bears are flying high with the upset
of the Steelers.
Not
practicing is starting cornerback Davon House (another great pick up, NOT) with
Bulaga, Bakhtiari and Mike Daniels on a limited basis (I’m thinking none of the
3 play). Nick Perry (with a club), Kentrell Brice, Quinton Dial, Jake Ryan on
the defense (Perry, Brice and Ryan sat out the Bengals game while Dial, who was
forced to play a lot of snaps for the first time, of course, got hurt, were
listed as full participants while on offense Montgomery got hurt last week and
Cobb, who sat out, are also listed as full participants).
Like
I said the state of the Packers is dire. The offense, defense and special teams
has to be hitting all cylinders in order to win. If one is not or not on peak
efficiency the Packers lose. This game scares me.
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