OK, folks. I've calmed down a bit now. I've had my coffee and my lunch, my clocks are turned back and soon it will be dark by 2 in the afternoon. I welcome the winter, but I cannot welcome what has become of the Packer's season.It's strange, but this is what most upsets me: Ahman Green returning kick-offs. I know. I know. He wouldn't be back there if it weren't for all the injuries. It still upsets me. This is a McCarthy thing and I'm sick of McCarthy. Ahman Green isn't a weapon anymore and he is slow, dear readers, so very very slow. Just about every other team in the NFL, no matter how good or bad, understands that a kick returning needs to be lightening fast and shifty as a goose. While Jordy Nelson may be fast, he's not game-changing fast, and he sure ain't shifty. It's too bad Will Blackmon got hurt, because he was about the only decent kick returner McCarthy has every used in his four years at the wheel.
Special teams have just been rotten during the McCarthy era. If it's not Ahman Green falling on his face it's the penalties or the poor blocking. Almost every game McCarthy heads out to coach, our team gets beaten on special teams, and I'm sick of it. Just look at the average starting field position for the two teams. Not even close. Even after the team fought back and closed the scoring gap with Spencer Havner's second touch-down of the game, lightening returning Percy Harvin quieted the crowd with a dagger run deep into Packers territory at the end of the third. Special teams can swing momentum like that, and McCarthy's teams usually lose momentum rather than gain it.
Regardless of all that went wrong in this game, we should all remember that we had the ball, down 5, with a chance to go down the field and take the lead with 8 minutes to go. After failing to do much of anything for the first half, the team did respond and Ronnie Rodgers led another almost-come-back. At least we can say they fought back, but that's not what folks will remember a week from today. Mostly, they'll remember that we didn't change our strategy much from the first contest and the outcome didn't change, either, and on November 1, 2009, the Vikings put a strangle-hold on the NFC North title.
I really can't let this column come to a close without bringing up the obvious question: How long do Ted and Mike keep their jobs after this disaster?
Ted, at least in the short-term, was wrong about Old-Whats-His-Name. That's what makes this so difficult to figure out, folks. Yes, we got burned by #4, but what about next year? And the next? Rodgers may be 0-2 against the Old Man, but he has also learned a lot in a season and a half as the starter, and what is that worth in the long-run? On the other hand, none of that will matter one bit if he keeps taking 10 sacks a game.
And what about Mike? Or Capers? Or the rest of the coaching staff? The problems are not getting fixed and until they are fixed, we ain't gonna beat many good teams, and we ain't going to do squat in the playoffs if we some-how back the trailer down the icy ramp.
I'd better quit before I say some-thing crazy, but there are plenty of those types of thoughts in the old melon today. I wish I could go back to bed until next Sunday, but there are things to do. Let us all think about other things for a while and meet back here after a few sunrises.
Until then,
FG
