The Green Bay Packers suffered one of the most gut-wrenching losses in their playoff history Sunday in Seattle and they have no one to blame but themselves. Head coach Mike McCarthy’s team showed a lack of poise, a lack of discipline and of course, a lack of special teams prowess.
The Packers certainly had their chances to win but their lack of poise under pressure doomed them from the beginning. It started with Mike Daniels taunting the Seahawks after a Ha Ha Clinton-Dix first quarter interception had set up the Packers with a first down at the Seattle four yard line. Thanks to Daniels 15-yard penalty the Packers failed to score a TD and that four points turned out to be the difference in the game. That is all on McCarthy. Could you imagine somebody doing that under Vince Lombardi? They would have been cut on the spot.
Two other unbelievably stupid plays that doomed the Packers were safety Morgan Burnett deciding not to return an interception with five minutes to go in the game. Instead of running into field goal range he inexplicably goes down on his own like there was 20 seconds left. Until Brandon Bostick’s onside kick gaffe that might have been the dumbest thing I have ever seen in all my years of watching NFL football. Bostick’s play though, was easily the worst play in Packers’ history.
All Bostick has to do is his job. Block the guy in front of you and Jordy Nelson catches the kick the Packers run out the clock. Again, Lombardi would have cut him on the spot. Like the infamous 4th and 26 game in 2004 this could be the beginning of the end of the McCarthy era in Green Bay. While that Mike Sherman coached team did come back and win the division the next year, they lost to the 8-8 Vikings in Lambeau in the playoffs and went 4-12 in 2005 and Sherman was gone.
The Packers will be extremely hard pressed to win another division title next year with an ever improving division that had the Lions in the playoffs and the Vikings showing significant improvement with a new coach and a new franchise quarterback. Even the Bears will be better next year now that they have a real head coach. The Packers just can’t seem to win even though they have had the best quarterback in the league for the last 20-some years.
The Packers might be better off trying to trade Aaron Rodgers while he’s in his prime and starting over with the boatload of draft picks they would get for him. Maybe a team like the Dolphins who are close to being really good would be willing to give up a couple of first rounds picks for the chance at greatness.
At the very least Shawn Slocum must be fired and I would send Dom Capers packing as well. If McCarthy has any chance of overcoming this debacle it has to start with sweeping changes. If you are not getting better you are getting worse. And the Packers clearly aren’t getting better on defense or special teams.
It’s going to be a long offseason for the Packers but it is exactly what they deserve.