My Take -> Week 16

Greetings, G-Force.

The 2008 Season is a lost cause. It's disappointing.

At the game, a 13 year old kid turned to me and said, "Hey Cheesehead! This team must be made out of swiss cheese because your defense has holes all over it." Reality hurts.

The most desire our team showed was when Al Harris and Brady Poppinga engaged in a post play altercation. Poppinga was attempting to direct Harris to cover the outside receiver. Harris wanted to cover the slot. Clearly, the coaching staff has lost all control of this team.

And now, we're dead.

There are few things that I hold a strong dislike for in life. But, one of them is the Chicago Bears. And, frankly, it's hard to even get excited for this Monday Night's match-up.

Each week - it's the same thing. Our defense finds a way to lose a lead. Our offense is unable to put together the game winning drive. 7 times - we've choked in the 4th Quarter.

Against the Jags, in the 4th Quarter, we had them at 3rd & 18. We rushed 3! Yes, 3 men. The play before - we rushed 6 and Hawk came away with a sack. He was untouched in pursuit of Gerrard. After we rushed 3 on 3rd and 18, all I could do was hang my head. Bob Sanders must go.

If we finish 5-11, we get a top 10 pick. Even that is hard to get excited about. All around the league, rookies are making plays. It's not happening in Green Bay. Joey Haynos was a guy that was receiving rave reviews ALL preseason. He could not make the Packers roster. Yesterday, he caught a 19-yard TD in traffic for the Miami Dolphins.

Somewhere - there's a disconnect within our organization. Either we are drafting bums or they're not getting the strength, conditioning and teaching from the coaching staff. Look at the last two year's draft choices:

'07 Draft:

Justin Harrell - He can't stay healthy. When he is healthy, he's being pushed backwards.

Brandon Jackson - Sure, he's shown signs of good running ability this year, but in two years,
Brandon Jackson has just over 500 yards rushing.

James Jones - He's shown glimpses of being a nice possession receiver, but injuries have limited him to 8 games played and 16 receptions for the year.

Aaron Rouse - He takes terrible angles towards the ball. He's slow in coverage. Misses tackles. He's a decent special teams player and will never be 16 game starter for the Packers. Injuries have also hindered his development. He played in 11 games last year and he's missed two games due to injuries this year. His inability to develop has caused the Packers to move Charles Woodson to S. Woodson, now playing out of position, was our top performer at CB.

Allen Barbre - Two years in, he does not look like he'll have a life as a Green Bay Packer.

David Clowney - He never played a game in Green Bay.

Korey Hall - He was a LB in college. We've tried to develop him into a FB. He's done alright, but now he's our back-up FB, playing behind John Kuhn. He's got above average special teams ability. Very limited offensive skills.

Desmond Bishop - The jury is out. Amazingly, he barely played yesterday. A week after an 11 tackle performance in which he was our MVP, Bishop was almost never on the field. Instead, we saw Chillar get run over. We saw Poppinga look foolish. Yes, in short, we continue to tolerate the same inefficiencies.

Mason Crosby - A terrific K.

DeShawn Wynn - Consistently injured. Lacks toughness.

Clark Harris - Never made it as a Packer.

'08 Draft:

Jordy Nelson - I hold out hope that he can be a Joe Jurevicious type WR. Hard working. Tough. Good hands.

Brian Brohm - If he does not develop fast, he won't have a career in Green Bay.

Patrick Lee - Injured for most of his rookie year. His rookie year ends with 5 games played. 2 tackles. 1 Pass Defensed. Yikes.

Jermichael Finley - He looks like he has the tools. Lacks the brain. He can't get off the line of scrimmage. He gets pushed around. Runs poor routes. I want to like him because he's a young physical specimen, but, boy, is it painful to watch him right now.

Jeremy Thompson - See Jermichael Finley.

Josh Sitton - Showed great promise in the preseason, but injuries spoiled his year.

Breno Giacomini - Got blown up in the preseason. Got beat out by Tony Moll for the 4th tackle spot. Hard for me to imagine that this guy ever makes an impact.

Matt Flynn - Looked below average in the preseason. We gave him a pass because he was better than Brian Brohm yet his performance was less than stellar. He's a fighter. A gritty competitor.

Brett Swain - Looked bad in the preseason. He had trouble getting off the line of scrimmage. He had trouble holding onto the ball. At this stage, I'm not sure what we see in this guy. Yet, we kept him around on the practice squad.

Any way you look at it, over the last two years, we have had 20 picks. Thus far, the only player that has consistently shown me that he's a guy to build around has been Mason Crosby. And he's a K. If you swing and miss, it does not matter how many picks you have. This makes it difficult to get excited for next April as well.

We're in trouble. We're loaded with guys that you don't want on our team. You can't expect guys like Brady Poppinga, Michael Montgomery, Jason Hunter, Colin Cole, and Brandon Chillar to make game changing plays. Yet, consistently, they are on the field for our defense - especially on 3rd down. AJ Hawk leaves me scratching my head. Ryan Pickett has had a bad year. Willie B. is not a CB in the NFL.

Our team MVP, Charles Woodson, is even saying it to the media - "We're just not very good right now. I mean, you can point to a lot of different things, but bottom line, we're not a very good team."

At this point, that's an obvious statement. In 16 years with Brett Favre as our starting QB, we had one season with a losing record. In 1 year without him, we've already had a losing record. For 16 years, we were used to winning the close games late in dramatic fashion. In 1 year without him, we've seen how difficult it is to win close games late.

We need a leader. Someone we can turn to in times of need. I believe that Aaron Rodgers could be that guy. At times, he's shown greatness. With the exception of the last 5 minutes of the game, Rodgers has been extremely reliable. He controls the ball.

We can build around Rodgers, but right now, we are in a rebuilding stage. We need to look at OL. We must draft DL. We need help at LB. S is a concern. Before the year, we thought we had depth. But, this year, our depth has been exposed on special teams.

The hard part is that no one seems to want to take responsibility for our poor performance.

Happy Holidays,

Talkin' S-Mac.