The Packers Have Hired a New Coach…..Really You Packers.com Readers

Those Packer Backers who get their news from anywhere else than Packers.com (it is 12:41 a.m. January 8, 2019 when I write this and the word came down from the real world about the hire about 8 hours ago on January 7) know the Packers have hired a new head coach. The new man is Matt LaFleur the offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans. I have no trouble with this hire because the powers that be took my advice and hired a young hot-shot assistant instead of an old retread or that well known flake Josh McDaniels, which was one of the others the Packers interviewed. UPDATE: It is now 3:34 p.m. on January 8th and still no announcement on Packers.com. 

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART 3BIGLY

(we still live in a Trump world, day 283 and counting)

SUBLIME

Title Town, USA

Today marks the 300th post from Lombardi’s Den. I hope those of you who follow my musings, meanderings and inner most thoughts about the Green Bay Packers have enjoyed my manner of writing as I try to get across those of us who aren’t particular fans of certain front office and coaching personnel aren’t being disloyal to the Packers, but just the opposite want the best for our beloved team.

A New Season or the End of the Old Season?

The Brett Hundley Era begins when the New Orleans Saints invade Lambeau Field today at noon. The Packer faithful will get a glimpse over the next 8 weeks of what life would be without Aaron Rodgers and whether General Manager Ted Thompson has built a team that is truly a playoff contender or a team built around just one player who lifted his teammates to that level.

Things Are Changing in the North

The Packers dominating the Bears was just the beginning of a week of change for the four teams of the former NFC Central Division, now called the NFC North.

The Bears $45 million man Mike Glennon has been benched after the former Buc turned the ball over 4 times to the punchless Packers defense, including two absolutely terrible overthrown interceptions. Glennon spent his first 4 seasons with the Bucs having started 18 of his first 19 games, but the past two years he has been a backup appearing in only 2 games.

Draft Day: Recap and Evaluation By The Others

I was reading the draft evaluation on Packers.com and almost had a diabetic reaction with all the kiss-ass sugary pap about the genius of Ted Thompson and the absolute greatest of all 10 of his draft picks. The evaluations of the rest of the local media weren't much more objective.

I then moved out of Wisconsin and to check on the national media, who are far enough away from the evil clutches of Thompson, who doesn't like criticism (or at least he seems to with the way the local media praise him at every opportunity) to see what they what grade they gave the Packers draft.

Draft Day Three Was Offensive

After drafting two defensive backs and a defensive tackle in the second and third rounds Ted Thompson started the last day of the draft by drafting an outside linebacker before turning to the offense with the last 5 picks.

2017 Ted Thompson to 2015 Ted Thompson, "You blew it".

After Ted Thompson chose Washington cornerback Kevin King with the first pick of the second round and North Carolina safety Josh Jones in its second pick of the second round pick it's now evident that Ted Thompson's 2015 draft was a dismal failure.

Draft Predictions and Late Free Agent Stuff

Well, it seems The Ted has a philosophy about unrestricted free agent offensive linemen. He only signs two kinds. The first kind is veteran backups like the first UFA he signed guard Adrian Klemm and the second is used up former All-Pros at the end of the line like center Jeff Saturday and now guard Jahri Evans. And none of them proved to be a good pick up.

Season And Future At A Crossroads This Week

I know I've said this before, but the game against the Seahawks at Lambeau Field will determine the future of the Green Bay Packers in the short term and the long term.

 

General Manager Ted Thompson and Head Coach Mike McCarthy have backed the Packers in a corner this season having to win the last six games in order to keep their playoff streak alive and, to be brutally honest, nothing more than that because Thompson has left the 2016 Packers without enough talent to seriously content for the Super Bowl.

 

After wins over the Eagles and Texans following four straight losses to teams the Packers should have been able to beat (Falcons, Colts, Titans and Redskins) and seeing the Packers Power Ranking drop to 24 and sitting not only behind the Lions, of all teams, but also behind the Vikings after letting the Vikings win the North Division with a victory over the Packers at Lambeau Field the current owners of the mantle of Curly Lambeau, Vince Lombardi, Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren have put the Packers on a course the "Tedders" and Ask Vic have been afraid of.

 

Ted Thompson's Record Examined

The first of the mock drafts came out today by Luke Easterling from USA Today Sports. The selections are an indictment on the job that General Manager Ted Thompson has done since the Super Bowl.

 

No. 1. RB Dalvin Cook, Florida State; No. 2. TE Jake Butt, Michigan; No. 3. EDGE Marquis Haynes, Mississippi; No. 4. G Kareem Are, Florida State; No. 5. CB Brandon Facyson, Virginia Tech; No. 6. WR Josh Reynolds, Texas A&M; No. 7. S Weston Steelhammer, Air Force

 

The actual player is unimportant, however, TE Jake Butt is interesting because the rumor is former 49ers coach and current Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is rumored to be in the mix for Mike McCarthy's job next season.

 

Ted Thompson Has Curious Office Hours

Watching the Packers.com transaction section is a mission in frustration. First, Packers.com is the ABSOLUTELY last place to go for timely news. The national news wires have Packers news quicker than Packers.com, so I normally don't check it.

 

Second, General Manager Ted Thompson only does business on Friday and Saturday. He makes moves for the next game at the last minute so whatever player he picks up doesn't have time to get ready for the game, leaving the Packers with one or two players unable to contribute.

 

Once again this happened this week. Cornerback Demetri Goodson, who had finally began to contribute in his third season, was placed on injured reserve after suffering a very serious knee injury three games ago against the Titans.

 

Who Will Run The Ball Against The Texans And Other Stuff

Since Eddie Lacy went down with an ankle injury in Week 6 quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been the Packers leading rusher. He has consistently gained yardage averaging 6.2 yards a carry and saved drives by making 20 first downs most on third down.

 

However, last week in the win over the Eagles Rodgers tweaked his hamstring, so his mobility will be restricted leaving the ground game up to the halfback James Starks, tailback/slot back Ty Montgomery, fullback Aaron Ripkowski and halfback Christine “A Boy Named Sue” Michael.

 

Starks is beginning to show signs of life with 41 yards on 17 carries against the Eagles for 2.8 yards a carry after beginning the season with the worst statistics of his career averaging just 1.8 yards. Starks had some good runs, but he needs to do more this week.

 

If We Only Had Defense

"We could while away the hours, conferrin' with the powers, consultin' with Mike Pence. And my head I'd be scratchin' while playoff thoughts were hatchin' if we only had defense."

 

Prior to the win over the Eagles last Monday Night the Packers suffered through a four-game losing streak, the longest since a 5-game streak in 2008 when Aaron Rodgers became the starter and the team fell to 6-10.

 

While the Packers offense in general and Aaron Rodgers in particular had been dysfunctional at best and downright awful at worse for 14 straight regular season games it wasn't the offense that let a 4-2 record fall to 4-6.

 

Clueless From The Head Down

The old saying, "a fish rots from the head on down" certainly relates to the current state of affairs with the Green Bay Packers. For the first time since 2008 the Packers are under .500 at this stage of the season and besides all the happy talk from CEO Mark "The Laughing Cow" Murphy down to quarterback Aaron Rodgers the fortunes of the Packers over the last six games will not improve by just ignoring the situation and saying it will turn around.

 

Murphy had stayed in his Ivory Tower all season and has made no statements since August until last week when he stuck his head out of his ass and made these statements, "I do hear from a lot of fans. And I tell fans: Like them, I'm disappointed."

 

Really when has he sat down and said anything to the fans directly as he just said he has. I would like any ordinary Packer Backers who have talked to Murphy one-on-one to let me know and I will admit I am wrong, but  I digress, "Certainly, the season hasn't gone the way we had all hoped, but there's a lot of football left to be played." Hold on there buckaroo, it seems "there's a lot of football left to be played" is the catch phrase of the season because Rodgers and few of the other players, Coach Mike McCarthy and General Manager Ted Thompson have used the same phrase. The watchword for surviving a crisis is to stay on message and the Packers braintrust and team leaders certainly are doing that.

 

NOW Invades 1265 Lombardi Avenue

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."

 

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART ZWEIUNDZWANZIG

(German because our soon to be ex-president was in Germany this past week)

 

SUBLIME

 

There is nothing sublime in Packerville these days. Actually I am wrong come to think about it. I made Frozen Tundra Chili last week and it was delicious. Here's the recipe:

Not So Frozen Tundra

 

The Current State of the Packers

The Packers have hit their rightful level I'm afraid. They have lost 3 in a row and 4 of their last five to fall under .500 (4-5) for the first time this late in the season since 2008.

 

While the offense hasn't been up to the lofty standards of the Aaron Rodgers era it has seemed to found some sort of productiveness averaging 27.25 point a game over the last 4 games after averaging 22.8 the first 5 games.

 

The ironic part of the offensive explosion is the Packers only score major points in 1 of the 4 quarters during a game - the 2nd quarter - where the Packers have scored 80 points compared to 60 in the 4th, 58 in the 1st and a measly 25 in 3rd quarter.

 

At a Crossroads

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.

 

Another One Bites The Dust

Every week another starter is lost to the Packers and this week it was starting center J.C. Tretter, who was put on the shelf with a knee injury.

 

Through the first seven games during which the Packers went 4-3 the Packers lost 16 players to injury for a total of  37 missed games. In fact, there hasn't been a week where the Packers didn't have a player out because of injury.

 

Week 1 Josh Hawkins (hamstring), Trevor Davis (shoulder), Chris Banjo (hamstring) and Jayrone Elliott (hamstring) sat out the game. Week 2 Hawkins, Elliott and Banjo were still out with Sam Shields added with a concussion.

 

The Defensive Wheels Fell Off

For the umpteenth time since 2010 the defense let down the Packer offense in the loss to the Atlanta Falcons Sunday.

 

With Aaron "R-E-L-A-X" Rodgers seemingly channeling his old self for the second week in a row it was left to the Ted Thompson/Dom Capers led defense to come up with a big play or shut down the Matt Ryan and the Falcons air game, but as could be predicted, and I did at the time, they didn't and the Packers lost 33-32.

 

Before I get into my analysis I want to say something about the argument being made for why the Packers defense is below par. The Tedders are hanging their "suckup" hats on injuries being the main culprit (i.e. being without Clay Matthews, Sam Shields, Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins), but injuries are part of the NFL and the truly great teams have backups that step in and step up.