Green Bay Packers’ president Mark Murphy had some interesting comments yesterday that deserve some reading between the lines. In stark contrast to former president Bob Harlan, Murphy had no problem talking about the current coaching staff. I’m sure you all read the article from the Journal-Sentinel so I won’t waste time quoting full comments, but Mr. President made it clear he was not happy.

When he mentioned how he would evaluate the coaching he mentioned the ability of the coaches to “make the adjustments and changes that are needed.” Since head coach Mike McCarthy has not been able to do that it was clearly a shot across the bow. That hit me like a ton of bricks so I can’t imagine how McCarthy feels. And to be honest I’m not sure how I feel about it. Harlan’s way was pretty damn successful, and he would never have called out his coaching staff like that. Of course, maybe Harlan was a beast behind closed doors, but we certainly never, ever, heard that about him.

I guess you must consider the differences in the job when these guys became president. Harlan took over a downtrodden franchise and turned it into a winner with a few shrewd front office moves and had the huge victory in getting Lambeau Field renovated. Murphy’s job is to maintain the success the Packers’ franchise achieved under Harlan.

I do think Harlan is partly to blame for the on-field mess because he gave both head coach and GM jobs to Mike Sherman when he had to know in his heart it wouldn’t work. He was the one who proved that to be true for heaven’s sakes. He was at the end of his career and that may have played a part in that decision.

Murphy’s statements seem to coincide with mine of the last couple of weeks that this is more of a coaching problem than it is a player acquisition problem.

Thompson and McCarthy certainly have to understand that Murphy played in the NFL and played on a championship team so he knows how it’s done. I guess I like him coming out and calling it as he sees it. Will the message trickle down to the players? I guess we’ll find out Sunday in what surely is a must-win game for the Packers.

I guess everything has a bright side and in the Packers and their fans case it is now at least we know who this year’s Packers team is. We don’t have to worry about any highly stressful games as the holidays approach. There won’t be any playoffs this year, just like last year, and only a marginally better record if at all. I’m confident they can stumble to two more wins but eight might be a stretch now.

In what I think was the worst play calling game of his career head coach Mike McCarthy has put his head clearly on the chopping block. His inability to adjust his offense to overcome his weaknesses is ridiculous. He used to do it. Remember when he kept Bubba Franks in backfield 90% of the time to help protect Brett Favre? Where is that kind of stuff for Aaron Rodgers? It was clear yesterday that the new vertical offense was not going to work, even though the Packers scored on a long TD pass on their second offensive play. This on a day when they could have rushed for 250 yards easily. Had they stuck with the run they would have they would have won the game.

Instead we now know the Packers are simply an average football team. They might win against a better team one week but will lose to a lessor team the following week. Losing to the Bucs makes games against Detroit and Seattle a lot tougher to call. And to make matters worse is the Packers almost for sure are going to drop a game under 500 next week against the 6-2 Cowboys. Demarcus Ware may set records that may never be broken against the Packers pitiful offensive line. I highly doubt Rodgers finishes this contest.

McCarthy said today he has no idea who will be starting on the offensive line next week. What a confidence builder that is. The bottom line is if McCarthy can’t get better play from the offensive line then he is going to get Rodgers killed. What a nice way to treat your franchise quarterback. Yeah part of it is Rodgers fault but all these deep patterns McCarthy calls need time to develop so Rodgers has to old the ball. But when one strategy doesn’t work, you try another. As my former boss would say “it’s not rocket scientist.”

Oh well, as our previous coach would say, it is what it is. We’ll sort this mess out in the offseason. I just hope we can get to eight wins, it just looks better in the standings all offseason. After yesterday, though, it is hard to find four wins in the second half. But I’ll be at all the games cheering them on none the less.

In trying to stay positive Aaron Rodgers was on The Larry McCarren Show tonight and he put on a brave face. He remains confident they can turn it around. At the very end of the show Rodgers said “We had a very interesting meeting today” but before he could finish his sentence the network went to commercial, so I’m dying to know what that is all about.

I’m going to try to focus on the play on the field and let the bloodletting take place after its all said and done. My guess though, is Thompson stays, McCarthy goes. No Capers, Cowher or Holmgren. Maybe Chucky, Shanahan or Shottenheimer.

12:00 PM:  My prediction is 31-13.

12:06 PM:  Good to see the penalties are cleaned up. Who the hell is coaching these guys?

12:08 PM:  I just said to my buddy let’s just go bing-bing-bing, and score by the 12 minute mark. One play later we did. I love it! 7-0 Packers.

12:21 PM:  Rodgers giveth, and now Rodgers taketh away. Terrible pass leads to a Bucs pick and two-play touchdown drive. This is the only way the Packers can lose this game. Turnovers giving the Bucs a short field. Maybe we should try to run the ball once or twice now.

12:36 PM:  That is more like it. Mix it up a little. They can’t stop us no way no how. Now let’s get at TO and put some distance between us.

12:39 PM:  Maybe now the defensive players know why Dom Capers hasn’t blitzed all that much – they simply can’t get home! If I’m Capers I’m calling off the blitz until somebody actually knows how to do it. Wow! A rookie quarterback ripping us to shreds.

12:49 PM:  Could this be our worst nightmare coming to light? Simply unbelievable. The Packers special teams are anything but special. I never did like Slocum, we should have went outside the organization to fill that spot. This is embarrassing.

1:21 PM A nice offensive drive to take the lead followed by two horrible drives, one after a nice Nick Collins interception. The defense might be settling down a little. No more mistakes and we should be OK.

1:54 PM: I guess the message didn’t get home at halftime – a special teams mistake to start the second half leaves the Packers on their own three-yard line. Come on man!

2:01 PM: Now I’m worried. Tauscher looks like he’s done for the year, the way he grabbed that knee was not good. This could get even uglier I guess.

2:13 PM:  Just when they start moving the ball the way they should they go and call a play like that. Just plain horrible, and Rodgers not checking down makes it even worse. Jennings was tripled covered and is lucky he didn’t get killed on the play. The defense is going to have to score some points I think for the Packers to win.

2:42 PM:  Shawn Slocum should not be allowed on the plane home from Tampa today. This is absolutely unacceptable! Another 83-yard kickoff return given up by the Packers. No excuses. Slocum has failed miserly in his new job. This game isn’t over yet even though Aaron Rodgers makes a beautiful touchdown run. Unbelievable.

3:00 PM:  The question has to be asked. Is Al Harris a liability on this defense? Every pass is thrown his way and he rarely makes a play. The Packers are about to fall behind to the lowly Bucs. I didn’t see this coming.

3:04 PM: So long playoffs, and hopefully so long Mike McCarthy. Once again he failed to get his team ready to play. Two weeks in a row the Packers have failed to show up and now they can kiss there playoff hopes goodbye. A sad day in Tampa, but at least the light at the end of the tunnel is the end of of the McCarthy era. Too bad there are so many more weeks left in the season. This is going to be a very long eight weeks folks. Very long.

One thing about the Packers’ schedule so far this year is after each heartbreaking loss there has been a crappy team for the Packers to take out their frustrations on. Sunday should be no different against the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs are starting a rookie QB and up until now have only moved the ball on offense by accident. Firing Jon Gruden has worked out real well so far the Bucs. Not!

The Packers are going to be in an angry frame of mind after getting ripped up by Brett Favre for the second time in a month and because of that the season hangs in a balance. The Packers character will be revealed in the next few weeks. What should be a sure win at Tampa is followed by home games against Dallas and San Fran. If the Packers want to be the team they think they can be then 3-0 over that span is a must.

The first seven games of the season hasn’t really defined the Packers if you ask me. I think because of the new defense and the Favre crap we haven’t seen a Packers’ team that is playing without distraction and focused on the task at hand. Hopefully the two butt-kickings Brett put on the Packers lights a fire and I think it will. Like I said before, the schedule makers did the Packers a favor by getting the Vikings games over early in the season. Now we can focus on the task at hand.

It starts Sunday with a 27-10 win at Tampa.

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.

After today’s debacle, it is clear the Packers should have kept Brett Favre. You all were right, I was wrong. Go Brett!

RIP Aaron Rodgers.

Thanks for your support over the years. it was fun while it lasted.

Over and out forever.

The Joker couldn’t have said any better. Five=and-a-half hours from now the Minnesota Vikings and Brett Favre will enter Lambeau Field for the biggest regular season game in recent NFL memory. Certainly the biggest non-playoff game in head coach Mike McCarthy’s coaching career. A win by the Packers could be the turning point in the post-Favre era would certainly give Aaron Rodgers new respect from all his doubters. A loss and the Packers are right back to being an enigma, and worse yet, fighting for wildcard berth at best.

I’ll be there and doing my part by screaming every time Favre steps under center, making it just as difficult to operate as the Packers faced in Minnesota last month. The Packers are at home, they are getting better on both sides of the ball, and should be able to use the 12th Man to their advantage and garner a win. It is a going to be electric in Lambeau today and I can’t wait to get there.

By the way, Packers 24, Vikings 21.