Sunday, November 08, 2009

Green Bay Agonistes

You can occasionally see the precise moments when Packer coaches lose their jobs. For Bart Starr, it was when he stood with folded arms and sat on his timeouts while the Bears ran down the clock and kicked a short field goal to knock the team out of the '83 playoffs. Ray Rhodes did the same thing against the Panthers.

Yesterday, Ted Thompson lost his job (there really is no need to wait until the end of the season)and Mike McCarthy will need a miracle to keep his. While I believe that Aaron Rodgers is a star in the making, I continue to believe that Thompson threw Favre under the bus a year too early. But that's not the problem.

He knew he had major problems on the offensive line and did nothing. He knew that he did not have the players (in particular, people that can pressure the quarterback from the linebacker position) to play the 3-4 and he did not do enough. (He did draft Clay Matthews.) While he has done a nice job of drafting in the lower rounds, he can't hit on the first pick to save his life. (Matthews, being a possible exception, although he was the second pick in the first round.)This has resulted in a lack of impact players. He has allowed unspent cap dollars to collect interest.

McCarthy is not in much better shape. You should have seen some improvement in the offensive line play by now. Rodgers should be making quicker decisions by now. The special teams shouldn't still suck.

It's not so much that they lost to Tampa Bay. Any team in the NFL can beat you. It's that the same things keep happening again and again. These guys will be lucky to make .500.

4 comments:

  1. In related news, Jeff Jagodzinski was fired by Tampa Bay earlier this season.........

    ReplyDelete
  2. I find it ridiculous that Aaron Rodgers isn't getting more love this year. He's the #1 player in fantasy and his offensive line can't block for crap.

    I say Rodgers for MVP if the Pack make the playoffs!

    ReplyDelete