The Packers Have More Problems Than Losing Aaron Rodgers

Head Coach Mike McCarthy has won a Super Bowl, but not lately, in fact it has been 7 years since the Packers Brain Trust has led the greatest team in football history to the Promised Land with the greatest quarterback in the league at the helm.

Since then the Packers have been to the playoffs every season, but have been bounced out in their first game (even after going 15-1 in 2011) twice (2011, 2013), in the second game twice (2012, 2015) and in the conference title game twice (2014, 2016). The playoff record for Thompson and McCarthy since 2010 is 5 wins and 6 losses. Not a good record with the greatest quarterback in the league.

McCarthy held his press conference Monday and said these things:

“It was a poor performance as a football team, one I’m frustrated by. When the mental mistakes are what they were yesterday, it’s something I take very personal from the chair of the head coach.”

“It’s important to shift gears. We’re looking forward to playing again after our performance yesterday. My challenge is to win game No. 5. This is what we do as coaches. This is what we’re committed to as a football team. It’s unfortunate for all these guys to be hurt right now, and it’s unfortunate for Aaron to get hurt like that, but this is where we are. All the energy needs to be poured into beating the Saints.”

“I’m focused on getting back to playing Green Bay Packer football. Yesterday was not anything we needed to be. We’re not going to play like that anymore.”

I think two of the problems lies with McCarthy and through him Dom Capers.

First let’s deal with McCarthy proclaimed as 1 of the best play callers in the game and self proclaimed quarterback guru.

Monday McCarthy also said this, “I have to do a better job. I have to get Brett into a flow. More importantly, we need to get our offense into a flow. We didn’t run the ball very well, pass protection was a negative, we didn’t handle basic blitzes they came with. We have to play cleaner football.”

I agree with him and who knew Aaron Rodgers would go down, so getting backup quarterback Brett Hundley ready to play in a game could be excused, but it seems it would be prudent to get the top backups at any position some snaps in the practice considering the Packers lose multiple starters every game. Hundley has been reported to have had no snaps except for the scout team.

“I have to get Brett in a flow”. Hundley played the majority of the game and finished with a quarterback rating of 39.6 after completing 18 of 33 passes for 157 yards with 1 touchdown pass and 3 interceptions while being sacked 4 times for 20 yards.

I was not impressed by his arm strength and his decision making. The touchdown and field goal he produced were on short fields – 18 yards after a fumble recovery and 38 yards after an interception return.

His other drives in order were 3 plays, 8 yards starting at the 17 and ending in an interception; 3 plays, -1 yards starting at the 17 and ending with a punt; TD (3 plays, 18 yards); 3 plays, -4 yards starting at the 25 and ending with a punt; FG (7 plays, 30 yards); 6 plays, 21 yards starting at the 25 and ending with a punt; 5 plays, 20 yards starting at the 25 and ending in an interception; 3 plays, 6 yards starting at the 27 and ending in a punt; 9 plays, 15 yards starting at the 34 and ending on downs; and 15 plays, 84 yards starting at the 4 and ending with an interception.

Not very stellar. Previously he had only thrown 11 passes during the regular season during his career completing 5 passes for 17 yards with 0 TDs and 1 interception (last year he completed 4-of-10 passes for 17 yards with 1 interception during his only lengthy appearance and this year he was 1-for-1 for no yards before Sunday).

Hundley showed immense promise his rookie year completing 45-of-65 for 630 yards with 7 TDs and 1 interceptions during the preseason. Last year he had an ankle injury limiting him to must 1 start in the preseason completing 5-of-7 passes for 67 yards and no TDs and interceptions.

This preseason he regressed completing 48-fo-76 passes (63.2) for 482 yards with 3 TDs and 1 interception for a rating of 88.8.

“We didn’t run the ball very well”. The week before rookie 5th round draft Aaron Jones started his first game and ran the ball very well with a season-high 125 yards rushing on 19 carries for a 6.6 average and a touchdown earning him NFL “Offensive Rookie of the Week”. I would consider Jones a plus ready to assume the mantel of starting running back with Ty Montgomery suffering from 5 broken ribs.

However, “We didn’t run the ball very well” was self-inflicted. All week there was speculation he was thinking of activating Montgomery and then he announced he was thinking of splitting the touches between Montgomery and Jones. Which is exactly what he did bringing Montgomery back 19 days after the injury wearing a flak jacket and starting him. What a slap in the face of Jones!

The 2 runners played every other series not allowing either of them to “get into a flow” and the results were “we didn’t run the ball very well” with Montgomery carrying the ball 10 times for 28 yards (2.8 average) and Jones 13 times for 42 yards (3.2) with no TDs after Jones had scored in each of his previous 2 games.

Having the Jones from the Cowboys game would have helped Hundley, but McCarthy, which he does on a regular basis, especially in the 2nd half of games, shut down his own offense for some unexplained reason.

“Pass protection was a negative, we didn’t handle basic blitzes they came with”. For the 1st time the starting offensive line was intact with David Bakhtiari starting at left tackle for the 1st time since the opening game, Bryan Bulaga starting at right tackle for the 2nd consecutive game since missing the 1st 3 games, Lane Taylor back at left guard after starting the last 2 games at left tackle along with Corey Linsley at center and Jahri Evans at right guard for the 5th consecutive game.

However, they didn’t play well allowing 4 sacks, 13 quarterback hits and 4 tackles for loss while not helping the running game that averaged just 3 yards a carry and a long run of 9 yards.

To add injury to insult Bakhtiari and Bulaga didn’t finish the game and Taylor was also injured. The line that ended the game was guard Justin McCray at left tackle, guard Lucas Patrick at left guard, Linsley at center, Evans at right guard and extreme journeyman tackle Ulrick John at right tackle.

Thompson has left the offensive line with no competent backups for a Super Bowl contending team.

Capers defense since the Super Bowl have been ranked last (411.6 yards a game) in 2011, 11th (336.8) in 2012, 25th (372.2) in 2013, 15th (346.4) in 2014, 15th (346.7) in 2015, 22nd (363.9) in 2016 and 14 (326.2) this season. Not a single Top 10 defense since the Super Bowl team was ranked 5th (309.1) and the 2009 defense was ranked 2nd (284.4) Capers first season at the helm.

The problems with Capers defense are myriad, including not being able to play coverage despite having drafted 6 defensive backs in the first 2 rounds since 2012 (#2 Casey Hayward, #1 Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, #1 Damarious Randle, #2 Quinten Rollins, #2 Kevin King and #2 Josh Jones). The middle is always open no matter the down and distance.

Since 2012 the defensive line has also been addressed with 3 picks in the top 2 rounds (#2 Jerel Worthy, #1 Datone Jones, #1 Kenny Clark) and the linebackers 1 pick in the 1st round (Nick Perry).

In fact 9 of the 11 defensive starters this season have been drafted since the Super Bowl and the other 2 the 2 years before (#4 Mike Daniels, #1 Kenny Clark, #4 Dean Lowry on the line; #1 Clay Matthews, #4 Jake Ryan, #4 Blake Martinez, #1 Nick Perry at linebacker; and #1 Damarious Randle, #4 Davon House, #1 Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, #4 Morgan Burnett in the secondary).

Capers is not a good defensive coordinator and has needed to be fired since 2011. However, McCarthy has as much a man-crush on Capers and CEO Mark Murphy has with Ted Thompson. Those relationships are hurting the Packers organization.

The Packers season and in my opinion the direction of the Packers organization is at a crossroads. Let’s hope the right decisions are being made with the personnel at hand because Ted Thompson will not pick up any veterans to help out to save the 2017 season.