The BIGGEST message I take from the Packers regular season is that having a top flight football team is UNBELIEVABLY hard and whenever you have one, it is FRAGILE!
The Pack had not been swept by the division at home since 1968! I was FLOORED ... we had a number of teams during the '70s and '80s that lost to St Norbert's School for Blind Girls by more than two touchdowns in exhibition games! Yes, yes, we always give thanks for the Motor City Kitties, and how hard it is for them to play when their paws are cold, but wow. 1968!
It ought to be clear by now that NOBODY has a clue as to what all went wrong with the offense, but the fact is that early in the year Rodgers was playing GREAT and he got a tremendous amount of credit for that (too much), so it is really only fair that now he is starting to get some blame:
At the end of the day, the buck stops with the quarterback. Every game, Rodgers is missing open receivers and making plays no Packers fan expected to see this season. In Week 17, he had two opportunities to put together a drive to tie the game with his team down by 7 points in the fourth quarter. During the first possession, Rodgers called a crucial timeout because he was unable to get his offense ready to snap the ball on time. Without calling that timeout, the Packers would have had an extra 40 seconds on their last possession.
On the next play, Rodgers threw an ugly interception in the end zone when it looked like James Jones made a strong break towards the pylon and had a chance to catch the ball in the end zone. Instead the ball was thrown softly and far behind Jones, giving him no opportunity to make the catch. The final drive ended in a Hail Mary due to the wasted time out, and the Packers did not end up as lucky as they were in Detroit earlier in this season. The result: second place in the NFC North.One of my theories is that given the Packers situation now, Rodgers extreme hatred of interceptions is working against him. He's losing fumbles for TDs trying to "safely make something happen". Favre would have slung it in there come hell or high water. NOTE, I've OFTEN lamented that Favre was WAY too much over on the "sling it" side, but I'm afraid that given the tattered line and the receivers that aren't going to get the separation that Arod wants to see, he needs to err a bit more on the "gun it" side if we want to win a playoff game.
Reason says that we lose to the Redskins somewhat pitifully -- amazingly, if you take the 2nd half of the season, Kirk Cousins is high seed QB and Rodgers is low seed!
Of course, my hope never dies, especially after the end of the Detroit game. The true optimist says. the last time we lost the NFC N, we won the Superbowl!
'via Blog this'
