Sunday, December 7, 2008

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.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

mike sherman was 4-12 when he got fired, if that's who you're talking about.

RightHooks said...

No, his predecessor was 8-8 on his last day in Green Bay.

Anonymous said...

oh, ok. haha you're right. i forgot about good old ray rhodes.

i don't think it's time to be calling for mccarthy's head yet. ray rhodes took a perennial playoff contender to a non-winning record in his first season. mccarthy, on the other hand, took a 4-12 squad to the nfc championship within 2 years, and then had one bad season. give him at least another season or two.

RightHooks said...

I like McCarthy...but what are the answers and who's going to have the answers? Something has got to change. What would you suggest?

Anonymous said...

i say use some of that cap room and bring in a top free agent corner to put opposite al harris, keep charles woodson at safety, put tramon williams back at nickelback, and let al harris stay on the other side. when al harris gets too old, tramon williams will be ready to step up and take his position (i think tramon has a TON of potential to be a great player).

also sign an offensive tackle, and maybe let mark tauscher go, depending on how much he asks for. and keep building through the draft. hopefully thompson will deliver some more rodgers and hawk picks, rather than harrell picks (although i'm not quite ready to give up on harrell just yet...if he can ever overcome injuries he might be good.)

RightHooks said...

OK, lots of good ideas there.

What about the defense? Use some drafts? Cash?

Anonymous said...

i think the defense needs a new coordinator. as i said, i think adding another corner and keeping woodson at safety would also help a lot. once we get cullen jenkins and the rest of our decimated defense back with a better coordinator, we will be in better shape. and we can always build our defense through the draft.

RightHooks said...

Let's hope some of that comes true. We have way more potential than has been demonstrated this year.