My Take -> Week 16

Greetings, G-Force.

Yoda, the Master of all Jedi’s, states: “The greatest teacher, failure is.” The 2017 Season was a failure. A full-out waste. A true bummer. An utter disappointment. How the Packers respond to this failure is something I’ll watch with great curiosity. The Packers can’t continue to walk down the same path and expect to watch different outcomes. Something needs to change on the defensive side of the ball. It’s been our demise for too long.

I’m the kind of guy that loves the same through thick and thin. Life’s road isn’t always easy. There’s a roller coaster to life. And, with perseverance, when you hit the bottom, you climb to the top again. It’s a boomerang effect. The Green Bay Packers have brought great joy to my life. 2017 was fun while it lasted and I’m grateful that we got the Rodgers game at Carolina. But, in the end, it wasn’t meant to be. And, so, this Christmas season will not include meaningful Packers games. It won’t include high impact sports drama. That’s really unfortunate.

I listen to John Lennon’s Power to the People: The Hits. The three song concoction of “Imagine”, “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” and “Give Peace a Chance” is as magical as it gets. Beautifully concocted. Lyrically powerful. Spiritually moving.

Here are my quick vibes from the last week:

Mike McCarthy. The Packers are fortunate to have him. He took over a dying franchise in 2006. In 2007, the Packers went to the NFC Championship. In 2009, one year after the face of the franchise dramatically exited the organization, the Packers were back in the playoffs. In 2010, we won the Super Bowl. In 2011, we went 15-1. In 2012 and 2013, we won the Division. In 2014, we made it to the NFC Championship Game. In 2015, we made the playoffs with the majority of our starters injured. In 2016, we made it to the NFC Championship. In 2017, we hit rock bottom. I don’t place the blame on him. The quickest way for the Packers to climb back to the top is to keep the QB + Head Coach combination intact. Other changes need to occur.

Dom Capers has to go. It’s time. The Packers needed the defense to carry the weight without Aaron Rodgers. The defense failed mightily.

Crazy to think, but next year, the Packers will likely have a 3rd place schedule. We’ll play the NFC West and we’ll likely have games against Washington and Atlanta.

I’m not a guy who enjoys being negative about something I’m invested in. I don’t see that purpose in life. I like to find solutions to present or to give optimistic energy with a hope for the future. All year, I thought that McCarthy’s leadership and Rodgers’ energy would spark a run. I felt like there were magical things happening around the franchise. It faltered quickly. On each of Rodgers’ three interceptions, he had WR’s streaking open. On each play, he underthrew the WR. We’ve been accustomed to seeing those plays result in TD’s. Against Carolina, they were turnovers.

Shocking to see how much Josh Jones regressed this year.

Marwin Evans. How did he go from being the best player on the field in August to a nobody in the regular season?

Need to play the young guys moving forward. Let’s see what Michael Clark can do. I’d play him extensively this week. Get him some live action.

Next year – when building the team – the Packers should look at patching together depth holes with players in their low-to-mid 30’s. Not necessarily to start, but guys who still have juice in the tank and can be used in the rotation. Ahmad Brooks was a highlight this year, when healthy. This is going to be a tough offseason. We drafted 4 players on defense last year and we were excited about all of them, but we didn’t learn anything from any of them in their rookie year. King, Adams and Biegel were hurt. Jones never settled in.

The Packers will enter into the 2018 offseason with more uncertainty than they’ve had since 2005. Prior to the 2016 season, I called it a Super Bowl or Bust season. I thought that a window was closing. I thought the window reopened with some masterful GM work from Thompson this offseason. I loved the Bennett signing. I loved the Draft. I was happy about Jahri Evans’ addition. I thought House could be a solid perimeter nickel corner. I liked the Dial, Brooks and Ricky Jean Francois signings. But, Bennett quit, Evans wore down and the Draft has as many question marks and thumbs down as exclamation points. Dial and Brooks got hurt for portions of the year and Ricky Jean Francois didn’t pan out. Consider that along with questions regarding the contracts and production from key components such as Bulaga, Clay, Nelson and Cobb; and all of a sudden, the Packers are looking like they’re entering a crucial, dangerous time in their franchise. The Packers will likely have 9 picks in the first 5 rounds, so they’ll have ammunition to add talent, but they’ll have to fill holes at RG, RT, TE, WR, OLB and CB.

I don’t fault Thompson for the 2017 failures. I put the 2017 failures solely on the defensive coordinator. He made fine work of the offseason and had the Packers reconstructed for a Super Bowl run. But, Dom Capers never maximized the defense’s potential. Sure, we could use injuries as the excuse. But, the defensive side of the ball was responsible for the team faltering down the stretch more often than not since the glorious XLV Super Bowl run. Capers has been given an arsenal of high draft picks in the secondary. Still, today, the secondary remains the weakest link on the roster. And, the successes of the likes of Casey Hayward + Micah Hyde post Green Bay shouldn’t be overlooked.

I seriously thought Rodgers would return as a savior. I thought he’d uplift the franchise, once again. He brought his spirit. He brought his swagger. He didn’t bring his A-game. I don’t fault him. It was great to see his competitive fire. It just wasn’t meant to be.

The Packers need to invest in two CBs. I'm not sure who is available as a 2018 NFL Free Agent, I’d either trade for or buy a highly priced FA CB and I’d draft a CB or two in the first 3 rounds. These days, CB is as important as any position on the field outside of QB.

With Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams, the Packers RB position is set for the future. I also like Ty Montgomery. It’ll be interesting to see if the Packers can conjure a way to play both Williams and Jones. Williams seems like he needs multiple carries to get into a rhythm. He’s not a rotational back.

Kenny Clark is a sensational football player.

I’d rest Jahri Evans and play Lucas Patrick. Need to see what we have at RG going into next year.

I hope to see a lot of Vince Biegel, Montravious Adams and Lenzy Pipkins on the field this week. I want to see what those youngsters bring to the squad.

I wonder what Ted Thompson’s role is within the organization right now. Is he really the GM? Or is he a glorified aid as he grooms Elliot Wolf and Brian Gutekunst? A consultant, of sorts. Does Thompson accept more input from Wolf and Gutekunst than he did in past years? I tend to think so. It should be noted that Thompson wasn’t even giving a press conference after the picks like he did in years past. Instead, it was Wolf and Gutekunst that were most present. Further, the construction of the team didn’t have the Thompson print like past years. There was a different approach towards the construction of the team. The vision for building the team was vastly different than years past.

Davante Adams. Feel terrible for him. If healthy, he commands roughly $15 million in the open market. But, he’s had 3 concussions in the last 14-15 months. How much can you invest in a guy that has his injury history?

I no longer understand the rules of the game. What’s a catch? What’s not a catch? I don’t know. Neither do Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Mike Pereira.

This week – it’s the ‘queens coming to town. We’ll find out what kind of fight this team has in them. Will there be a revenge factor? Will we come out with an intense vengeance? Will we get feisty? Or will we be outmatched and overpowered?

I agree with David Bakhtiari’s assessment of how to approach this week. “I think we’ll see guys characters, who they are, and hopefully if there is any quitting – which I don’t intend on seeing, but if there are – hopefully, it’s noticed and gets weeded out.” My guess is that the Packers come out swinging. Intense. And, in some ways, cheap. Playing beyond the whistle. Playing with aggression. Frankly, they’ll be pissed off. The ‘queens are the little brother. They just took our prize for the 2nd time in 3 years. Each year – McCarthy has outcoached Zimmer once. My guess is that he devises a strategy to attack the ‘queens on the perimeter and pounds away at the heart of their interior.

Zimmer will definitely be dialing up blitzes. Hundley shows composure. He looks for the dump off. He plays safe.

The first time we played, Hundley was a turnover machine. This time – he protects the ball.

The temperature lingers near 0 degrees. Hits hurt. Mike Daniels, Clay Matthews and Nick Perry are determined to put pain into the ‘queens backfield. This is going to be a street fight. Look for a late night, rowdy Lambeau Field crowd to make a difference.

Hundley gets the ball late. Needing a TD. Again, he’s cool as a cucumber in hot sauce, baby. It’s Hundley running the 2 minute offense. It’s Hundley finding pay dirt as he scrambles free.

Packers 24.
‘queens 23.

For now and forever, GO PACK GO!

Talkin’ S-Mac.
Talkins-mac.blogspot.com