Monday, December 8, 2008

Overhaul

It's patently obvious that this Packer team is not good. The defense is atrocious. The Texans had 4 turnovers and still won a road football game in shitty weather. What the hell? Kevin Walter looked like Randy Moss. Matt Schaub looked like Troy Aikman. The Packers secondary looked like crap. The pass rush was as absent as any sort of half time adjustments to the drubbing. Make no mistake, the Packers defense got absolutely killed yesterday.

549 yards is a God damned indictment of everything and everyone involved with the defense. AJ Hawk is inches from bust. Tramon Williams is inconsistent, Brady Poppinga is a terrible player (anyone who gets burned that badly by Vonte Fucking Leach should probably just open a vein) and Desmond Bishop is a joke. Who plays on the opposite end from Kampman? Exactly. Do the Packers currently have interior defensive linemen?

Leach was wide open in the right flat when Brady Poppinga read run and
let him go. Said Poppinga, "Just one of those plays you get caught up
on the run."

I wish you'd get caught up by a bus.

Bob Sanders is not the answer to any question other than "Name a shitty defensive coordinator."

That was God damned embarrassing. Unless Brett Favre all of a sudden turned into Lawrence Taylor during his stint in New York this team is no better with him on the field. I don't want to hear it.

Ryan Grant sucks. Tony Moll sucks. Daryn Colledge sucks.

Penalties start at the top. This team is not good enough to give up 80 penalty yards per game. This is Mike McCarthy's problem. Mike McCarthy, to put it eloquently, also sucks. Too many deep routes the first three quarters, too much conservative play in the last six minutes. This pattern holds true for every game. Six minutes left? McCarthy puckers up like Ned Beatty when he hears Dueling Banjos. Wasting a time out on that two point conversion. Really shit head? Really?

Ted Thompson needs to make changes. From the coaching staff to kick coverage, this team needs an overhaul, because that shit yesterday was pathetic.

19 comments:

Chris said...

Well said I cannot argue with anything you said in this post. In hindsight I do not believe they were as good as their record last year. They caught some breaks and won some games they should have lost and that gave everyone a false sense of security.

There are too many holes to fix through the draft alone they will have to use some of that cap room to find some FA's who can come in and help right away.

E.S.K. said...

One of the things that is most concerning to me is AJ Hawk...what the hell?

Horace said...

AJ Hawk, after being solid the first two years, looks absolutely awful. I find it hard to believe that a player could slip that much in one season at his age for any reason other than injury or not giving a shit. Hawk strikes me as the kind of guy who's gonna give ya what he's got every week, although I don't know that to be true ... its only a perception. He HAS to be hurt, doesn't he??

I'll tell you something else that bothers me ... and I used to see this with Ed Donatell defenses. Guys never seem to get better. A couple guys have shown marked improvement to me ... most notably Nick Collins and Tramon Williams ... over last year. Everyone else looks the same or worse. Barnett looked worse before his injury. Hawk looks worse. Poppinga looks worse. Pickett looks worse. KGB got worse. That to me tells me that there are coaching issues ... players are not being developed ... they are not being put into positions they can succeed, or they aren't giving an effort, or some combination of all of the above. None of those players, with the exception of KGB and maybe Pickett and Hawk can blame the degradation in thier play on either age or injury. Its yet another indictment of Sanders and his defensive staff, with the possible exception of his D-Backs coach.

E.S.K. said...

I don't disagree with you, but to be fair part of the linebackers looking worse could be the fact that the interior of the line is not giving them any help, thus forcing them to deal with lineman 3 and 4 yards down field.

They've always looked terrible in pass coverage.

I am also encouraged by Williams and Collins though.

E.S.K. said...

It just strikes me as odd that an entire corps of linebackers would all of a sudden be worse than they were a year ago.

Anonymous said...

You answered yourself, E. A year ago they had Jenkins, Corey Williams and a fairly productive KGB upfront. Without them, Hawk is exposed as slow and stiff, Bishop as a reasonable talent sorely lacking in instincts or experience, Poppinga as just a guy, and one who never could cover anybody. None of that surprises me. The only surprise I've seen out of the linebackers this year was Barnett, who seemed to take himself out of a lot of plays this year before going down.

E.S.K. said...

Right, but that's actually a good thing. If they can sign two above average linemen, Barnett and Hawk are all of a sudden good again.

Anonymous said...

I don't recall watching any game and thinking Hawk was good. Sure, he's had some nice spot performances, but so did Brady Clark. I watch Hawk and I think some old guy is wearing his stuff, running a step behind, getting pushed out of the play, usually standing next to the pile, not in it, at the whistle.

steveegg said...

I don't know how to break it to you, but this is Ted Thompson's team. According to the "How Built" page at Packers.com, there are only 9 players left on the roster who became Packers before 2005 (and 2 of those are on injured reserve).

Speaking of injuries, there is a reason why MASH units, which is what the Packers have become, don't win consistently. Other than Justin Harrell (and surprisingly, not Aaron Rodgers), that's not the fault of the GM or the coaching staff.

As for the difference between last year ahd this year, that's the difference between a last-place schedule with the weakest AFC division and a first-place schedule with a stronger AFC division.

PaulNoonan said...

Would someone mind posting that Mark Tauscher has a torn acl?

D'oh.

PaulNoonan said...

Oh, and as someone who has defeded Thompson in the past, I've basically turned around on him.

Eric said...

The following is an intellectual exercise. Sorry Chris.

Is it possible these guys are the same good players they've been but simply aren't playing well this year? Is it possible they are playing for a paycheck and not overly concerned with outcome?

I don't know how you measure intensity or desire to win. So as usual i'll grant that i have no yardstick for the following hypothesis.

The players aren't playing well because they believe management gives a shit. How so? Well, last year the team was 13-3 and subsequently traded away their starting quarterback. Players may believe that no matter how well they play, they too may be shown the door. So why risk injury by playing all out?

Chris said...

Fuck you Eric found a job yet?

steveegg said...

Damn. That makes 6 healthy pre-Thompson players left on the roster.

Anonymous said...

Of course, You?

E.S.K. said...

catty

Horace said...

I think this team plays hard. They have kept themselves in several games they should have been blown out in, which I think is a measurement of effort. I just don't think the guys they have on the field right now are very good in a lot of positions. Injuries on defense definitely have a lot to do with that ... losing Jenkins and Barnet, KGB rapid decline, and nagging injuries to Picket, Hawk and Bigby have decimated this defense and exposed their lack of depth. They don't strike me as a very smart team either. They often look confused on defense and the whole team commits a lot of dumb penalties.

I was one of the biggest critics of the Favre trade. But frankly, I don't get the impression that there were all that many guys on this team that were unhappy to see him go. I suspect that they were even more tired of the soap opera every year surrounding 'will he come back or won't the' then fans, since it impacted their work place. So I'm not buying the 'they don't give a shit because they traded Favre' theory.

They just aren't very good ... and at least this year ... haven't been particularly well coached. I also agree that injuries and performance drop off up front on defense exposed or created problems across the board on defense. If you're front 4 can't stop the run or generate a pass rush, you get a defense that looks a lot like the Packer's. Offensively, they have been inconsistent, and lacking an identity. I still can't figure out what kind of offense they want to be. They spend the entire 2nd half of the Panthers game ripping apart their secondary, and then decide they need to run it 3 times from the 1 to try and score. After putting together a string of pretty good games on the ground, they run just 19 times against Houston, and spend the whole first half throwing deep balls. Sometimes I think they wind up looking too clever by half.

As for Thompson, I think his best personnel moves were getting Woodson and Pickett, drafting Jennings and maybe Tramon Williams, and getting Aaron Kampman resigned, and trading for Ryan Grant, clearly a bargain for a 6th. Beyond that, most of his moves have been pedestrian at best. Hawk hasn't worked out yet, but I don't think you can blame that on Thompson ... I think just about any GM would have made that pick in that spot if they had been drafting for the Packers. I think failing to resign Mike Wahle, trading Corey Williams, drafting Justin Harrell, signing Grant to the huge contract they did, and yes ... Trading Favre, were notable mistakes. His drafts have been average to poor. As I look over the roster, outside of Jennings, I don't see a Pro-Bowler in the making anywhere. Some solid guys ... the rest just roster filler.

I figure, in a normal Football organization, Thompson is on the hot seat next year. In Green Bay with Murphy at the helm, who knows ... but I get the feeling those two are in lockstep and if anything, Thompson is pulling his strings. McCarthy probably is safe for a couple years under Thompson.

Anonymous said...

Thompson was hired after the 2004 season, which makes me wonder what your point is about the number of players he didn't first put on the roster. At a glance I'd say 9 holdovers is pretty consistent with the number other teams that aren't consistently in the gutter would retain.

I don't think re-signing Grant was a bad move. Sure it hasn't worked out but after 07 you had to re-sign him. Tough to forecast his injuries this year. And as far as I know there's nothing guaranteed about any subsequent years in the deal, nor did the deal eat up money they could've used to help the team elsewhere. They had/have cap room.

Harrell, however, looks like a bust. He just goes backwards.

Anonymous said...

in fairness the theory is the players don't give a shit because management doesn't care about the players. Favre was a manifestation of the theory not the theory itself.

And at best it's hypothesis, not strong enough for theory.