We’ve seen it done. A team struggling mightily all of a sudden gets hot and starts winning. The Packers did it last year going 7-1 down the stretch. This year the turnaround game comes two weeks earlier and against a much tougher opponent. The Packers have one chance and one chance only to turn their season around and that is Sunday night against Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings.
A fourth consecutive loss to the Vikings would leave the Packers headed toward a losing season with another loss surely following in New York against the Jets. On the flip side, beat the hated Vikings and even at 4-4 they would still be in thick of things even with all their injuries. But if they beat the Vikings I think they would have a much better chance in New York. All they need is some confidence.
The question is, how do they get that confidence? Beating the Vikings is a good way to start but the odds of that happening seem remote considering the Packers’ injuries and the poor play of the offense. I think the Packers’ defense has played halfway decent considering who they have out there, if the offense could give them a rest every now and then they will be OK. Hopefully some of the reserves forced into action will improve as the season goes on.
I don’t have an answer for the offense’s problems. If it was me I would try to give the ball more to Brandon Jackson, and would stop all this Harry high school crap of changing running backs every play. Jackson and Kuhn are probably so tired from running on and off the field they have nothing left for the actual play. You want to bring in a fullback, bring in a fullback, but Jackson stays on the field.
Secondly I would call more plays and find more ways to get the ball in Greg Jennings hands. He should be used like Sterling Sharpe was in Favre’s early days in Green Bay, everybody knew he was getting the ball but the Packers found ways to get him open and when they did big plays happened with regularity. This spreading it around to keep everybody happy is for Pop Warner, you play to win the game in the NFL, if it hurts somebody’s feelings so what.
It seems like the Packers don’t have an offensive plan to attack a certain defense, or they do and they aren’t sticking to it. They just can’t seem to make two good plays in a row. Half the reason they can’t get in a flow goes back to the change in personnel every play, they have to wait to huddle up all the time. Back to the old days when a player ran a play in every single play. That’s what we’ve become?
Let’s see a little no huddle offense once in a while, the quick slant, hell, I’d even settle for the old wrap-around hand-off every now and then. Anything is better than what we are seeing and something has to be done to get the pressure off Rodgers, who is taking a beating again this year.
As you can tell I don’t have a good feeling about this game, not sure if I even want to go. More on that later.