Hi, I'm a Worthless Dick
6 allowed sacks for -39 yards, 89 total team rushing yards, 43 of which were courtesy of a scrambling Rodgers. Honorable mentions: Ryan Grant, Ed Hochuli.
Labels: Bag of Dicks, Barbre, Clifton, Colledge, HIAWDA, lights out, Sitton, Spitz
posted by bubsbrother @ 8:58 PM
18 comments
18 Comments:
Just a real tough Sunday on the football field and the pocketbook. Great pictures that should help us close the door on this one. Thank god for the Ravens kicking ass.
I've been obviously optimistic about the Packers, and I'm not going to let one game ruin that. But I will say that if the Packers don't figure out the tackle situation in the next two weeks, this season could quickly start to resemble last. You win football games at the O and D lines. Both lines were completely abysmal today. If Clifton is out for any length of time (more than next week's exhibition game against the Rams) this team is fucked. Let's cross our fingers and hope Giacomini or Lang can play left tackle because we know for fucking sure that Colledge can't. Colledge versus Jared Allen in week 4? Can you even imagine?
Colledge has as much of a chance against Allen as Tequila did against Merriman.
I wouldn't call my gambling prediction a lack of faith as much as, well, I just didn't see anything in the first regular season game that told me the Packers could beat the Bengals by ten. I'm feeling better about my football knowledge, especially my college football knowledge, after this weekend.
This loss was tough to watch, but at least it was against a non-division, non-conference opponent. They didn't get blown out and they could have won the game...they certainly didn't deserve to...but were at least in it. It's a long season, there are worse ways to lose much more important games.
That said, figure out blocking schemes or put Kuhn in the backfield on every fucking passing play already...that shit was embarrassing today.
Credit the O-line, specifically Colledge, for stealing the award from Jarrett Bush this week. I expected Bush to be the HIAWDA at least 8 times this year. With 3 penalties, terrible secondary play and even worse punt coverage (the team he is the captain of), Bush was very deserving. There's only so many HIAWDAs you can give in a week and Bush hasn't won one yet.
The way things are currently heading, it seems as though Rodgers will be the only one immune from receiving the coveted award.
Completely off topic, after the hendies and the football season are over, the blog should compile a "BCS's Favorite Cubs" list and vote on the winners. This'd be like shooting fish in a barrel and could liven the blog up quite a bit in the otherwise slow month of February. I imagine the list and corresponding images would be plenty amusing. The idea obviously inspired by Bradley's suspension.
I, too, will not let one game ruin my optimism for this season, but what an ugly fucking game. Maybe it was the glare from the sun on the concession stand TV up at the Beechwood softball park, but they sure looked like poop.
A guy said something that really scared me today, but I think it may be accurate: he likened the way TT viewed the O-Line coming into the season the way Doug Melvin viewed the starting rotation coming into the year.
We are fucked if we don't start to see some drastic improvement each week.
Last few comments: Nick Barnett is a fag; Ryan Grant is a vagina; Charles Woodson is the best player the Packers have had since Reggie White; and way to go on keeping 3 FBs and 3 TEs and cutting a decent backup runningback (who is better than Grant) and a safety that woudl be starting in week 3. Fucking stupid.
Another point - not only did we cut Smith, who is 3600 times better than Jarred Bush, but we traded a back-up lineman, who now also would be starting, for a corner/safety that was probably about as good as Smith, if he's lucky. How the fuck does that make any sense?
That game was painful to watch. But I am still high on the Packers. As far as the release of Anthony Smith, sure he made a lot of plays in the preseason against scrubs but they burned him almost as frequently. That really wasn't a loss. Also after one series Woodson replaced Bush at saftey. Also Moll would not be starting right now, there is no way in hell he is a left tackle. And the players they kept, Lang/ Meredith have much higher ceilings than Moll. The difference between the Crew's starting pitching and the Offensive line is Starting pitchers pitch alone, O-lines work as a unit in conjuction with the other blockers. The line should improve the more they play together, they just need to stay healthy which isnt happening. As I stated in the preseason. Clifton would be the most difficult player to replace on the line. Colledge sould be better(although probally not good) with a week of preparing for left tackle footwork. Seriously though the penalities and dropped passes killed the game, well that and Benson having the best game by far of his career, or that bullshit 40 yard fumble/screenpass/clusterfuck. Ugh that makes me ill. I made some pictures for this week but Tequila getting choked out trumps the self-inflicted gunshot wounds and a palm face pictures I have made. I can send these to someone if they want to add them to this post.
also I love the flick off pick and how that guy was so drunk he had to re-rack because he pulled out the wrong finger the first time.
Again, I'm optimistic about the Packers, but there isn't a chance that this line is going to be good next week without Clifton. They can survive the constant injuries to the safeties, who are all vaginas. They couldn't afford the injury to Clifton. The only reason to be optimistic is that they're playing the Rams this week, and the Rams are the worst team in football.
It's hard to blame the refs for the loss at all when the Bengals had something like 41 penalties for 355 yards. And it's hard to blame Grant's fumble (even though Grant is a bad running back), when Carlson Palmer basically handed the Packers 14 points on his own. No, the Packers were destroyed...by the Bengals. That's just not good.
The drops were awful, too, but I don't think we'll see that going forward. Those were just weird. Someone who didn't get mentioned for the HIAWDA but who really should get consideration is Greg Jennings. 0 catches. A drop or two.
I'd like to echo a point that Condescendy made earlier, and that has been touched on repeatedly here, but one that simply cannot be stated enough: The offensive and defensive lines are the most important parts of a football team. Quarterbacks are certainly important, but you can mask a bad quarterback. You cannot mask bad lines.
To illustrate points like this, I typically like to deal in extremes and work backwards. I contend that the most important part of a football team is the offensive line. Here's how I make my case: Assume the Denver Broncos (15th ranked offense, 17th ranked defense, per Pro Football Outsiders) are holding a team scrimmage. Their offensive and defensive units are league average, and such a scrimmage should be expected to yield a league average number of points per play. Taking things to the extreme, what if the offensive line is replaced by eight year old girls? Even if the quarterback begins with the ball in the shotgun, even a league average defense would be able to hold the offense behind the line of scrimmage on nearly every down. The expected points per play would drop to some negligible number accounting for broken tackles on a slip screen of some sort.
Compare this to a situation wherein you replace the quarterback with an eight year old girl. The girl can at least be expected to catch a flying shotgun snap and distribute the ball to a runningback on occasion. This offense would surely gain more yardage and thusly score more points than the offense led by Kyle Orton behind an effectively absent offensive line.
What about the defensive line? This is the next most crucial element of a football team. Overall, the importance of a good defense trumps that of a good offense, but that is because Linebackers and Secondary are more important than offensive skill players. Imagine the eight year old girls switch sides and man the defensive line. The offensive line has near-instant access to the second level of defenders, and offensive plays should net substantial positive yardage. However, because the defense is able to spread around the field, we should not expect a full six points per play in this scenario as we would expect effectively zero points per play on the defensive side.
The difference is that all action begins centered behind the offensive line and plays take at least some time to develop. On defense, there is a supporting cast that can pick up the pieces on occasion.
You can, of course, use the eight year old girl analogy at any other position (skill positions, linebackers, secondary), but the outcomes will yield more points-per-play on offense and fewer points-per-play on defense as those deficiencies can be more easily masked.
Naturally, at the NFL level the discrepancy in talent isn't remotely as substantial. However, the illustration above goes to show that, all else equal, a poorer offensive line, and secondarily a poorer defensive line, are detrimental to the overall success of a team.
What's my point? My point is that, yes, we're all very optimistic about the Packers, especially given that they looked like they were playing eight year old girls in the preseason. However, the offensive line woes are of alarming concern. Early reports are that the Nobel committee has already issued its award for quarterback decapitation to Jared Allen in anticipation of his performance against the Packers' eight year old girls in two weeks. Aaron Rodgers has played nearly flawlessly so far (I should note that through five games, my two favorite quarterbacks have 11 TDs and 0 INTs), but he's not going to survive for 16 weeks getting hit as often as he has been. Further, Ryan Grant, a below average runningback, can't be expected to produce anything if the line continues to face problems. The Packers have enough talent elsewhere on the field to win 7 or 8 games, but without a solidified offensive line, I fear that they're going to get burned as they face good-to-great pass rushing defensive ends.
Holy shit. Maybe some of you still paying attention to baseball have seen this, but Angel Villalona was charged with murder over the weekend.
This is obviously something I agree with. Look back about 5 years ago at the Packers offense. The skill positions honestly weren't very good. Ahman Green? Brett Favre in his worst seasons. But the Packers had Clifton, Wahl, Flanigan, Rivera, and Tauscher left to right. The running game was fantastic. The passing game was fine because Favre always had time to throw. This team, despite a terrible defense, was good.
First, credit goes to Rodgers, though I think he's been somewhat poor in the first two games, for not fumbling a single time. That is huge. Quarterbacks fumble a lot. Extra credit for taking a sack rather than throwing the ball up for grabs. Conservatism in a quarterback is a huge virtue.
Second, taking Bub's extreme examples, I further subscribe to the "line is only as good as it's weakest link" and "defense is only as good as it's weakest link" theories. Right now, the Packers have 2 8-year-old girls on the O-line. They are fucked. They are extra fucked when they play the Viqueens in two weeks. What can the Packers do about it? More passing from the shotgun would help. Putting a fullback on the left side would help, but that leaves the right side and middle exposed on blitzes. Essentially, the Packers can never have more than 3 players running routes and defenses that rush more than 5 players will still force Rodgers to throw in under 2 seconds. This is not a recipe for success. On defense, I do think the Packers will be okay. I can't explain why the D-line looked so bad against Cinci other than to say perhaps it was because of the heat and the 40 minutes of possession cinci had. Raji would be a huge boost to the line. The weakest link is safety now, but hopefully backups can fill the void left by all three safeties being out. With Jerrett Bush playing safety, expect at least 7 extra points allowed every week. Still, that's not as devestating as the O-line woes.
Third, though the O-line is largely a unit, the tackles are greatly more important than the center and guards, especially in pass protection. Both tackles playing this week and indefinitely into the future are horrible. I'm actually more willing to say Barbre will be fine than to say Colledge will be fine at left tackle. Colledge was a fringy left guard. He is the worst left tackle in football.
I just don't know what the Packers can do to cure this other than to cross their fingers and hope Clifton comes back. I just wish that Ted Thompson had spent a couple more early picks on linemen two years ago and last. Even had Clifton not gotten hurt, he's getting old. The Packers have absolutely no plan to replace him.
I did see that. That figures to hurt his prospect status some.
"Every starter on the offensive line except Clifton is a Thompson draft pick, all of them young, athletic players who have been groomed to anchor this offense. Thompson and McCarthy went through three seasons of growing pains with Colledge and center Jason Spitz, developed right guard Josh Sitton last year and worked for two seasons to prepare right tackle Allen Barbre for a starting spot.
Now they're dealing with the leaks in the dam."
Pretty great analysis by one of the 8 people still employed by the Journal Sentinel.
Also, as it said in an article that I forwarded to the Bub, one can't help but wonder why the Packers have so little depth at safety and the o-line and yet held onto THREE full-backs in the 54-man roster.
Are we counting Fat Snoop Beefaroni as two men?
T Jamon Meredith is headed to the Bills. Damnit, he had character issues, too.
Wow that is bad news about Meredith, He along with the huge brasilian bastard where pretty much the only high ceiling left tackle projects the Packers had. Too say that there is no hope for improvement for Colledge and Babre is pretty hasty. Babre has all of two starts under his belt, I am not saying the guy is going to be an all pro, but he should get better via experience. He was pass blocking ok and bulldozing guys in the run game in the preseason against #1's I doubt they where letting him do that. If you recall Clifton was also a bag of dicks his first few starts too. They also have Lang and Beno to try if he doesnt start improving.
Colledge, other than in training camp when Clifton was out has taken few snaps at left tackle. The footwork difference between a guard and a tackle is huge. The assignment difference is also huge. A full week of practice there this week and one more if Clifton stays out will help a lot. It will also give the coaching staff more time to adjust the pass blocking and general offensive scheme. College doesn't not have great length or plus strength an NFL left tackle needs. but he does have pretty good feet which is the most important thing a left tackle needs to pass block. If he can get his drop step right that should at least keep him in front of guys which will give him and Rodgers a chance.
I agree that the D should be ok, My guess is the line played poor as the game went on because they where on the field a lot, and Motgomery wasnt doing anything all day. Wynn is pretty meh. So basically you had three guys playing almost the whole game. They need Raji for that rotation bad. He doesn't need to be a stud just better than Motgomery and they should be ok. I thought Pickett had a nice game, he got in the backfield fairly often but just couldnt finish. The linebackers really have to play better. But really if the offense can stay on the field more, the Defense should be fine.
As for special teams, they had a shit day. At least the punter seems ok
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