It's Not So Bad

(AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

There are few joys more delicious than beating the hated Chicago Bears...except maybe beating them at home and crushing their playoff hopes.

The Green Bay Packers were an outstretched arm from accomplishing this feat. Having played some good football with magnificent interceptions and great catches, the Packers hopes of ruining the Bears season and sweeping their 2008 series against each other was blocked by the Chicago field goal defense on an apparent chip-shot for Packers kicker Mason Crosby.

With the Bears dazed by two second-half interceptions by Charles Woodson and Nick Collins, the Packers appeared to be in the drivers seat late in the game. But then the Bears running game found some of the blatant holes in the Packers defense that everyone else has found late in the games this year. They exploited it to tie the game.

Then Green Bay got a big break with a stupid Bears horse-collaring penalty on the kick return and drove down to the Bears 38-yard line where once again the Packers ended coming up short - this time by getting Crosby's field goal blocked.

The Bears took very little time in the Overtime period to kick their own field goal and became another team to steal a game from the Packers in the 2008 season.

So close, but yet so far away has turned out to be the theme of this year. This has manifested itself in many ways, but the inability to score late in the fourth quarter while at the same time being unable to stop the opponent in that time frame summarizes a hopeful and disappointing season. The only way it could get worse would be to lose to the win-less and hapless Detroit Lions next weekend.

It is one thing to have a terrible team and a 5-10 record; it is another thing to have a thrilling offense, loads of talent and more promise than payoff.

However, despite the record, this year's team leaves Packer fans with an arm-load of hope instead of the empty futility from teams from the 1980's; this team is different. Disappointed? Yes. Bitter? Unbelievably, no.

This year's team put out an exciting product. Aaron Rodgers stayed healthy and proved himself to be a worthy successor to Brett Favre, Ryan Grant put out some great efforts, the Packers receivers showed that they are the best revceiving corps in the NFL, and Charles Woodson played about as well as a defensive back can play and might have had as fine of a season as any DB has had - ever.

And though this author has slammed general manager Ted Thompson repeatedly this season, the likelihood of his departure from his role with the Packers is small. And if he concentrates his resources on getting a solid defensive line, the Packers have every reason to expect to be fierce contenders next year.

So though this season did not go where the Cheesehead nation thought it would, the Packers are only a few short steps away from being a great team. Only this time we won't have to wait 29 years, but only about 6 meaningless months.

Jags Smackdown Pack; Thompson's Pudding is Cooked

The proof is in the pudding. And the pudding that Packers General Manager Ted Thompson has concocted with his own, personal choices of ingredients is fully cooked and ready to taste. The only problem is that it tastes so bad everybody keeps spitting it out of their mouth, leaving only one question: is Thompson's devastation, castration and dismantling of this team finished yet or do we all get to sink even lower, perhaps back to 1980's status?

The Packers showed signs of having a potent scoring attack against the Jaguars, but several critical Aaron Rodgers overthrows put the fork in the offense's ability to extend their second-half lead. So instead of applying the death-blow to an average Jacksonville team, the Packers once again let them hang around long enough for the Green Bay defense to fall apart on two late, quick Jacksonville scoring drives.

Has this not been the story all season long? Aside from a few one-sided affairs, the Packers could have won another five or six games. But nothing ever got fixed so that they could compete at a playoff-team level. Instead they are struggling to end the season as a mediocre team. Perhaps if Thompson had given coach Mike McCarthy enough tools to compete in the NFL some things could have been fixed, but McCarty really has a bad defense to work with, aside from a few bright spots.

As it is now, this team is a few moves from obscurity, but also a few moves from contention with a lot of talent on offense. Ted Thompson has had his time in the kitchen and what he has produced is lousy by any standard. It is bland, disappointing and forgettable.

Unless Packer management wants to return to the tasteless 1980's-form, they had better push Thompson down the road before he can do any more damage to what could be a good team. His own decisions have sealed his own fate and his future cannot include the Green Bay Packers.

New Lambeau Mistique...How Can Packers Win at Home?

(AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Aaron Rodgers is exciting; Donald Driver is exhilarating; Greg Jennings is fantastic; Charles Woodson is nearly immortal; Green Bay plays thrilling games and the fans have fun. It's all good...except they can't win.

With many successful displays of certain aspects of the game and an incredible turnover-forcing ratio, what the Packers lack, besides a pass rush, or the ability to stop the run, is consistency. Indeed, they have the ability to make the big play and made many of them against the visiting Houston Texans, but you can't establish dominance against another mediocre team if you can't convert on third down, which the Packers struggled to do all day.

With a decent running game, lethal receivers and episodes of brilliance by Aaron Rodgers, the problem has to come down to game plan and/or execution, which could be a reflection on Rodgers' own inconsistency. What else could it be?

I mean, the Packers played good football at times, which was, once again, almost good enough to win. But in what is becoming a habit for the green and gold, they cannot find a way to put an opponent away. And in the process, the new Lambeau Mistique for them is how the Green Bay Packers can win at home; or anywhere else.

This season is now a wash; Green Bay will not be playing post-season football. They will likely put up decent numbers in the remaining games, but somebody will need to start coming up with some answers. In fact, Coach Mike McCarthy's very job could be in question, for, at best, the Packers could finish an unacceptable 8-8. Not so long ago a Packers coach was fired for that posting that very record.

It looks like the wisdom of Ted Thompson and McCarthy's gamble to deal away a prodigal Brett Favre is becoming painfully apparent, but even with Favre, the defensive line incompetencies are not answered. So maybe a fuller examination of Thompson and McCarthy's overall competence as leaders finally needs to be evaluated. Something has to give, because the Green Bay Packers can't even beat a mediocre, warm-weather team on a 6 degree day at Lambeau Field.

The old Lambeau Mistique is gone.

So Close, But Yet So Favre Away

Photo AP/MikeRoemer

It is fourth down and a million for the Green Bay Packers.

Today's loss to the Panthers puts the Pack's record at a 'playing for the future' 5-7, and the playoffs about as likely as a Barack Obama birth certificate.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was generous in spreading the passing wealth on offense as he and the receivers put up big numbers on big plays in something of a banner performance.

Unfortunately, the defense once again did not hold its own and allowed four rushing touchdowns. Evidently Aaron Kampman has some others who play on the defensive line with him, but none of them can stop the run or put pressure on the quarterback. So who's decision was it to let KGB go? Who the heck let Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila go???

It is still possible for the Packers to win the division. It is also still possible for Rosie to get another television series. But it is not likely at this point.

So, it might as well be time to begin the season's reckoning. Leaders understand accountability; so I am sure that the Green Bay Packers leaders also welcome accountability. So let's look at who is responsible for the mess we're in.

Responsibility for the sub-par season falls solely on the man who wanted to put his own personal stamp on the Packers; and indeed has. Not all of his decisions were as widely seen as one, but perhaps his most public one was the one that says the most about the man, Ted Thompson. For when he sent Brett Favre away to the New York Jets, he was saying that he had a better plan than keeping with the team that went to the NFC Championship earlier this year. His dealing Favre away perhaps summarizes the level of football intelligence this man and encapsulates the whole of his theories and ideas.

Well, is 5-7 an idea that appeals to you? Nope, me neither. What's next, 5-8? 5-9? 5-10?

Who the heck let Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila go, anyway???

This season is a wash and it is time to start planning for next year, and what better place to start than with someone finally showing general manager Ted Thompson the dang door. It doesn't matter if the door is open or not, but the man needs to go through it. Now.

He wanted all the accolades for being another Ron Wolf, so he gets to, instead, accept the responsibility for being a failure, for being a sheep in Wolf's clothing. He needs to get moving down the road immediately, so that we can 'prepare for the future.'

Game Ball: Aaron Rodgers & Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila...

Don't Blame Aaron

Photo by Reuters

I don't know how bad the Saints beat the Packers; I turned the game off after the third interception. I am guessing that it never got close again. Not with the formula that the Packers were held up to most of the second half, which was pass, pass, pass. Oh, and don't play defense.

This basically meant that a successful running game and Ryan Grant got to sit next to the water boy for most of the final 30 minutes. It also put an unrealistic load on quarterback Aaron Rodgers who was left to produce large gains on every play. That wasn't football; it was being on the wrong side of a rout.

Broken down, it was karma and Drew Brees's night. With little or no defensive pressure on the Saints quarterback, he was safer than an al-Sadr insurgent in a mosque. Brees is far too dangerous of a quarterback, having an epic year, to allow him time in the pocket to pick apart the normally-solid Packers defensive backfield.

So before you knew it, with the Packers playing solid, balanced football and successive, methodical drives, like you are supposed to do, in a few blurry flashes New Orleans took a lead into halftime. And when they came out Ryan Grant and a solid offensive football team had precious few opportunities to establish themselves before the Saints were nearly out of sight.

Yes, Aaron Rodgers missed a few open receivers; but a balanced offensive attack that can push the ball down field allows some room for error. But when your team is forced to score on every drive to keep pace, unless your name is in or sure to be in the Hall of Fame, other interceptions are likely to follow because you have had to completely abandon your running game and everybody is playing the pass.

And even some other certain future Hall of Famers have had their share of three-interception games, haven't they?

The Green Bay Packers played very good, punishing offensive football in the first half. Aaron Rodgers had a solid first half. Who knew the sky was going to fall in on them in the third quarter?

And in the larger picture, watching good things happen to the folks in New Orleans in flood-like proportions like happened tonight, it's hard to have many bad feelings about karma. Don't blame Aaron.

Besides, we're still five games up on the Lions...

Game Ball: karma

Packers Prove That The Bears Suck

In a show of complete and total domination in all aspects of the football game, the Green Bay Packers demonstrated to the world, once again, that the Chicago Bears suck. The Bears running game sucked; their passing game sucked; their defense of the run sucked; their defense of the pass sucked and they made the Packers look like the best team in the world. The only thing the Bears are good at is sucking...and, of course, their quarterback's sissy-tripping after he throws an interception.

Ryan Grant looked unstoppable, as did his backup, Brandon Jackson. Aaron Rodgers looked like he drank a can of perfection prior to the game and his receivers were all sharp. Gone was the Packer Flag Day, as the absence of penalty after penalty on the Packers was a welcome reprieve. The offensive line actually lived up to their potential and with the running game in high gear, it opened up a healthy passing game.

The only Packer it seems who didn't have a good game was the Packer punter, who was used so little that nobody but statisticians know if he played at all. When Green Bay needed a first down, they generally got it. When they needed to stop the sucking Bear offense from getting a first down, they usually did it. And in the end, the Packers put up their best effort of the year and blasted the hated Chicago Bears 37-3 for an elated crowd at Lambeau Field.

Game Ball: Ryan Grant

Vikings Choke Packers

The Minnesota defensive line had Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers running around like the John McCain campaign the day before election day. When they weren't smashing him to the turf of the HomerDome, they were chasing him into the sidelines, making him rush his throws, or putting up safeties.

Furthermore, Viking running back Adrienne Peterson did whatever he wanted and got his big yards.

But with all the Minnesota dominance on the field, they still choked enough to give Green Bay a final shot at winning a game that the Packers had no business winning but Packer kicker Mason Crosby's game-ending field goal attempt was unfortunately inches wide of the goal post.

Much of the Vikings obligatory choke had to do with Green Bay's extremely stingy defensive backfield that picked almost as many Gus Frerotte passes as President-elect Barack Obama picked terrorists and radicals for friends. It was the defensive backfield and Will Blackmon who kept the Packers in the game. Charles Woodson should be put not only into the Pro Bowl, but also into the Hall of Fame immediately. Green Bay's pass defense is as good as it has ever been even with Al Harris.

But where is the pass blocking? Sure Minnesota has perhaps the best pass rush in the NFL, and has the talent to win the Super Bowl, but Green Bay has to find a way to protect Aaron Rodgers. Of course the Vikings will not win the Super Bowl, although they could beat any team in the league, because they will always choke, but if the Packers, who also could almost beat any other NFL team, want to be the best, they have to find a way to beat the best. Despite two losses to two very good teams, and games the Packers could have won, Green Bay is very close to being a dominant team. And getting the pass blocking down is a mandatory step for the Packers to find themselves among the parity-elite, so to speak.

There is a good chance that Green Bay could win the rest of their regular season games. There is also the chance that they could continue to play .500 ball. But there is no chance that any opponent will put up big passing yards against the NFL's finest defensive back cadre.

Game Ball to: Charles Woodson and Friends.

p.s. Obama the socialist still sucks. And packeraaron over at cheeseheadtv.com, a rabid, kool-aid-drinking Obama supporter, who cheerleads for all of the Messiah's socialist policies, will be more than willing to write each of you a nice, healthy personal check (to 'spread the wealth around' and 'redistribute the wealth') so that his actions (money) are consistent with his mouth. Otherwise he would be a typical liberal hypocrite.