coolman3
12-24-2007, 12:03 AM
http://www.packersnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071223/PKR07/71223054/1989
Mike Woods column: Lions game becomes a must-win
We’ve come to believe there are certainties in life. The sun will rise, Paris Hilton will do something stupid and the only creatures on earth guaranteed to excel in arctic conditions are polar bears and the Green Bay Packers.
Well, we can now cross one of those off the list.
Yeesh. In a game stuffed with significance at a time of the year when you need to be crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s, the Packers suffered a meltdown of nuclear proportions as they were ripped by the down-on-their-luck Chicago Bears 35-7 today at the icebox more commonly recognized as Soldier Field.
You can, if you wish, just write this one off as one bad afternoon. The first clunker of the year. It was bound to happen. Now it’s over and done with and it’s onward and upward.
Those, however, are all excuses. Nothing more.
If you care to take a closer, and more realistic, look, this a second straight subpar performance. These guys are on the elevator going down and they need to discover a way to get off.
“Frankly, some of the things that manifested today, in my opinion, showed up last week against St. Louis,’’ Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “I thought we addressed it this week in practice but I didn’t get that done and that’s my responsibility.
“We need to clean our house starting Wednesday. We need to go out and perform well against Detroit.’’
Well, that will take a lot. This is a team that gave up an 18-play scoring drive on the Bears’ first possession. They couldn’t effectively stop the poor man’s Adrian Peterson. They allowed Bears’ third-string quarterback Kyle Orton to look like, well, Jim McMahon.
They couldn’t run consistently themselves, couldn’t pass worth a lick and looked like hopelessly lost tourists on special teams, with two punts blocked.
“Concentration is the biggest thing in conditions like this,’’ Packers quarterback Brett Favre said, “being able to focus on the task at hand at that particular moment. It’s easy to lose focus when conditions are like that.’’
The Packers’ collective brain freeze is probably the biggest concern after this affair, for if they are displaying significant lapses in mental toughness late in December, it doesn’t bode well for early January.
It would seem to be imperative that McCarthy take the necessary steps to ensure his team regains its footing next week against the lowly Lions.
But here’s the rub. The loss cemented the Packers’ playoff position as the No. 2 seed in the NFC, which means they could chose to rest those in need next week.
But do they even dare after this? Do you want to head into the playoffs with the possibility of two straight losses to end the season, and with the knowledge that your last meaningful game was an unmitigated disaster?
I would think not. But McCarthy was noncommital about his plans for who will play and who will sit.
Favre, at least, offered his two cents.
“I can look at it two different ways,’’ he said. “I think it’s important, based on what we did today, or didn’t do. Also I think it’s not as important when you look at it from the injury standpoint or what you stand to gain.
“If it were me, I think we need to look at it like it’s no different than preseason. I think you need to go into the playoffs with some momentum. I don’t think today, as bad or as ugly as it was, doesn’t make or break your season. It’s like the preseason to me in that you’d like to go into the season on kind of on a roll as a player and you would like to go into the regualr season feeling good about what we’re doing. Or what we can hang our hat on. I don’t look at this as much different.’’
In game that too often had the Packers looking as if they did not know what they were doing, then the choice seems to be clear. They cannot afford to approach this final regular-season game as an opportunity to rest the weary. The need to approach it as if it’s game they must win in order to restore confidence.
After today, that much seems to be certain.
Mike Woods column: Lions game becomes a must-win
We’ve come to believe there are certainties in life. The sun will rise, Paris Hilton will do something stupid and the only creatures on earth guaranteed to excel in arctic conditions are polar bears and the Green Bay Packers.
Well, we can now cross one of those off the list.
Yeesh. In a game stuffed with significance at a time of the year when you need to be crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s, the Packers suffered a meltdown of nuclear proportions as they were ripped by the down-on-their-luck Chicago Bears 35-7 today at the icebox more commonly recognized as Soldier Field.
You can, if you wish, just write this one off as one bad afternoon. The first clunker of the year. It was bound to happen. Now it’s over and done with and it’s onward and upward.
Those, however, are all excuses. Nothing more.
If you care to take a closer, and more realistic, look, this a second straight subpar performance. These guys are on the elevator going down and they need to discover a way to get off.
“Frankly, some of the things that manifested today, in my opinion, showed up last week against St. Louis,’’ Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “I thought we addressed it this week in practice but I didn’t get that done and that’s my responsibility.
“We need to clean our house starting Wednesday. We need to go out and perform well against Detroit.’’
Well, that will take a lot. This is a team that gave up an 18-play scoring drive on the Bears’ first possession. They couldn’t effectively stop the poor man’s Adrian Peterson. They allowed Bears’ third-string quarterback Kyle Orton to look like, well, Jim McMahon.
They couldn’t run consistently themselves, couldn’t pass worth a lick and looked like hopelessly lost tourists on special teams, with two punts blocked.
“Concentration is the biggest thing in conditions like this,’’ Packers quarterback Brett Favre said, “being able to focus on the task at hand at that particular moment. It’s easy to lose focus when conditions are like that.’’
The Packers’ collective brain freeze is probably the biggest concern after this affair, for if they are displaying significant lapses in mental toughness late in December, it doesn’t bode well for early January.
It would seem to be imperative that McCarthy take the necessary steps to ensure his team regains its footing next week against the lowly Lions.
But here’s the rub. The loss cemented the Packers’ playoff position as the No. 2 seed in the NFC, which means they could chose to rest those in need next week.
But do they even dare after this? Do you want to head into the playoffs with the possibility of two straight losses to end the season, and with the knowledge that your last meaningful game was an unmitigated disaster?
I would think not. But McCarthy was noncommital about his plans for who will play and who will sit.
Favre, at least, offered his two cents.
“I can look at it two different ways,’’ he said. “I think it’s important, based on what we did today, or didn’t do. Also I think it’s not as important when you look at it from the injury standpoint or what you stand to gain.
“If it were me, I think we need to look at it like it’s no different than preseason. I think you need to go into the playoffs with some momentum. I don’t think today, as bad or as ugly as it was, doesn’t make or break your season. It’s like the preseason to me in that you’d like to go into the season on kind of on a roll as a player and you would like to go into the regualr season feeling good about what we’re doing. Or what we can hang our hat on. I don’t look at this as much different.’’
In game that too often had the Packers looking as if they did not know what they were doing, then the choice seems to be clear. They cannot afford to approach this final regular-season game as an opportunity to rest the weary. The need to approach it as if it’s game they must win in order to restore confidence.
After today, that much seems to be certain.