Yeah folks, I’m still alive. In my preparations for hari kari it occurred to me that all may not be lost. As someone pointed out it took the Packers 29 years to win their third Super Bowl and staying with the same pace the Packers are almost half way to another one. Who knows with a little luck they might pull it off in 27 or 28 years. Anytime in my lifetime would be nice.
It certainly is not going to happen this year. This year’s edition of the Green Bay Packers is headed nonstop to nowhere. With the division title out of reach barring a complete Viking breakdown, the Packers are playing for a wildcard berth which I believe will take an 11-5 record. That means the Packers would have to win seven of their last nine games, which I don’t see happening.
There are too many teams in the hunt. The only good thing is that the only teams on the Packers schedule that are in the wildcard hunt are the Cowboys, Bears, Cardinals, and 49ers. Only the Cowboys really scare me. I still believe the Cardinals won’t have anything to play for the last week of the season, even after their embarrassing loss last week. The Packers are at least equal to the Bears and 49ers and I think better. If the Packers were to win those four it would be huge in the tiebreaker and the only other NFC games are Tampa Bay and Detroit, two sure wins. The real problems are Pittsburgh and Baltimore, two sure losses. That only leaves one game to lose and the Packers are out. 10-6 won’t get them in and probably won’t even get them second place in their own division.
Of course the Packers might not win another game if they can’t find a way to pass block. Seven games into the season the Packers still have no starting five they can count on and either didn’t try or couldn’t find any help once the weakness was obvious. Trying to play pro football with a semi-pro line is not cutting it. Chad Clifton better be back this week and the Barbre experiment should come to a timely death. Mark Tauscher is ready to retake his starting position and certainly can do no worse. The Colledge experiment could come to end too if Jason Spitz is ready to play. Something has to be done.
The pressure is on head coach Mike McCarthy now more than ever. He can’t seem to fix the Packers problems even though he says he will every week. The “we’re gonna do what we did last week, what we always do and improve” line is wearing very thin. If even there had been minor improvement you could maybe give him the benefit of the doubt, but the refusal to adapt and adjust is a big negative. Mike Holmgren was a master of adjusting to his personnel, something McCarthy or Dom Capers have not been able to do. Ted Thompson finally made a big move in the draft by moving up to draft Clay Matthews, its time McCarthy makes his big move, but it might be a little late coming.
I’ll tell you, when you get close to the end, a lot of stuff goes through your mind, fortunately enough of it was positive. I apologize for the brief downtime. Those of you who know me know how the Packers are my life blood. Sad as it is.
I’ll get that cleaned up.