6-10 ............. Who is to blame?

[PackerBlues]

Well, I will admit that Rodgers has been better than the average QB all year...... but, I don't think we will be referring to him as "The Comeback Kid" anytime soon.

[sheepshead]

He gets the praise for 13-3, he gets the blame for 5-8. Fair is fair.

I remember a lot of people NOT giving him praise for 13-3, but you are right this time.

A lot indeed. Everyone thinks they can do that job. They know they can't run a 4.4 40, no vertical 45 inch jump, maybe knowing that playbook front to back and contributing to it seems a little daunting. But GM, well hells bells everyone says: I CAN DO THAT!! ESPECIALLY BETTER THAN THAT BUFFOON WE HAVE NOW!

[rbaloha1]

Shared blame.

Injuries, defensive breakdowns, penalties and MM's occasional poor play calling in crunch time.

[Partial]

Blame starts at the top. TT and MM get most of it.

[Gunakor]

Blame starts at the top. TT and MM get most of it.

TT and MM will not be judged on this season's failures by anyone except bitter fans. They will be judged by level headed fans and football experts on how they respond to these failures during the offseason. The blame for this season falls on the players and coaches, but the blame for not getting it fixed during the offseason (should it not be fixed) falls on TT.

TT doesn't do a whole lot during the season anyway except for scouting. He's not wheeling and dealing for a whole lot of players while the season is being played. He's not formulating gameplans or working with players on technique. What could people expect TT to have done in October, when the late game meltdowns began happening on a consistent basis?

TT's job starts in February. That's when rosters begin to change. What TT does between February and June is what he should be judged on IMO. If he gets the job done, people should acknowledge him for it regardless of the record this season. He didn't create the problems we are dealing with right now. His job is to fix the personnel problems heading into next season, which he can't start to do until February anyway. That is what he will be judged for. If he fails at that, then and only then would I blame him for this struggling franchise. If he succeeds, then he's done his job and should be commended for it. That's how I feel.

[Partial]

TT is flirting at .500, which is unacceptable for the G&G, especially after taking two years to rebuild in the past 4 years.

He's not going to lose his job. Neither is MM. But blame for the season starts at the top, then goes to coaching.

[K-town]

He didn't create the problems we are dealing with right now.

Huh? The mess at defensive line (counting on Justin Harrell and KGB instead of upgrading in the offseason) and the inconsistency/lack of development of HIS o-line draftees are EXACTLY the problems he created.
I give him credit for Greg Jennings, Nick Collins and the rebuilding of an aging team with no depth. But I also hold him responsible for the stuff that didn't work out.

[Gunakor]

TT is flirting at .500, which is unacceptable for the G&G, especially after taking two years to rebuild in the past 4 years.

He's not going to lose his job. Neither is MM. But blame for the season starts at the top, then goes to coaching.

Explain P. I hear you say this all the time, as if you are just spewing some company line. So tell me, after factoring in all of the intangibles such as injury and schedule, exactly how much blame can be placed on Ted Thompson? Then tell me why. Don't bring up Brett Favre, because there's nothing you can say that would convince me that the problem with this team is QB play. That's not the problem.

And after you are done ranting about all that, tell me how you expect anyone to rebuild a roster with 53 players on it in merely 2 seasons. Or 4 seasons for that matter...

[Gunakor]

He didn't create the problems we are dealing with right now.

Huh? The mess at defensive line (counting on Justin Harrell and KGB instead of upgrading in the offseason) and the inconsistency/lack of development of HIS o-line draftees are EXACTLY the problems he created.
I give him credit for Greg Jennings, Nick Collins and the rebuilding of an aging team with no depth. But I also hold him responsible for the stuff that didn't work out.

How is a player's inconsistency or lack of development the GM's fault? The coaches fault, sure. The GM's?

Do you even know what a GM does?

[Partial]

TT is flirting at .500, which is unacceptable for the G&G, especially after taking two years to rebuild in the past 4 years.

He's not going to lose his job. Neither is MM. But blame for the season starts at the top, then goes to coaching.

Explain P. I hear you say this all the time, as if you are just spewing some company line. So tell me, after factoring in all of the intangibles such as injury and schedule, exactly how much blame can be placed on Ted Thompson? Then tell me why. Don't bring up Brett Favre, because there's nothing you can say that would convince me that the problem with this team is QB play. That's not the problem.

And after you are done ranting about all that, tell me how you expect anyone to rebuild a roster with 53 players on it in merely 2 seasons. Or 4 seasons for that matter...

You don't blame the players for injury. The blame has to fall on someones shoulders, it always does. It goes on someone at the top.

I'm not saying Thompson has done a bad job as I historically have supported what he has done and I think he has a phenomenal eye for talent.

It's gotta fall on MM for a lack of preparedness. Injuries withstanding, the play has been generally sloppy, chalk full of penalties, and the gameplanning has left a lot to be desired ( sticking with an injured Grant, not splitting carries enough, too conservative of play calling when Aarons best pass is the deep ball, etc).

Teddy has rebuilt the roster. There is a lot of talent here. Problem is he has banked of two oft injured guys to be part of the foundation of the DL. Outside of those two, the rest of the injuries seems pretty freakish, one time kind of things.

I'm confident that with a coordinator change we'll be a top 10 D next year, especially with our secondary.

[Gunakor]

TT is flirting at .500, which is unacceptable for the G&G, especially after taking two years to rebuild in the past 4 years.

He's not going to lose his job. Neither is MM. But blame for the season starts at the top, then goes to coaching.

Explain P. I hear you say this all the time, as if you are just spewing some company line. So tell me, after factoring in all of the intangibles such as injury and schedule, exactly how much blame can be placed on Ted Thompson? Then tell me why. Don't bring up Brett Favre, because there's nothing you can say that would convince me that the problem with this team is QB play. That's not the problem.

And after you are done ranting about all that, tell me how you expect anyone to rebuild a roster with 53 players on it in merely 2 seasons. Or 4 seasons for that matter...

You don't blame the players for injury. The blame has to fall on someones shoulders, it always does. It goes on someone at the top.

I'm not saying Thompson has done a bad job as I historically have supported what he has done and I think he has a phenomenal eye for talent.

It's gotta fall on MM for a lack of preparedness. Injuries withstanding, the play has been generally sloppy, chalk full of penalties, and the gameplanning has left a lot to be desired ( sticking with an injured Grant, not splitting carries enough, too conservative of play calling when Aarons best pass is the deep ball, etc).

Teddy has rebuilt the roster. There is a lot of talent here. Problem is he has banked of two oft injured guys to be part of the foundation of the DL. Outside of those two, the rest of the injuries seems pretty freakish, one time kind of things.

I'm confident that with a coordinator change we'll be a top 10 D next year, especially with our secondary.

I don't blame the GM for injury either. Shit happens, it's a very violent game. If the guy can play, you give him a chance. Justin Harrell was a BEAST in college, so TT gave him a shot in the pros. It didn't work out, but it doesn't mean it was a bad decision. Imagine if Harrell was healthy and playing like he did in college right now. We wouldn't be bitching about a shitty DL nearly as much. Again, it didn't work out that way, but it couldn't have been predicted to fail like this. So chalk that one up as a "miss" on TT's resume, but don't use that as an example of him not working hard enough to rebuild this team.

I too am hopeful that we'll be a top defense once again with a new coordinator. But that's only part of the problem on defense. Teddy has rebuilt the roster on offense, but hasn't spent a whole lot of time on defense. Harrell didn't work out, and Jeremy Thompson and Pat Lee are too young to gauge whether they'll be starting caliber players or perennial backups. Other than that, pretty much everyone he's added to the defense has been older fill ins like Ryan Pickett or temporary fill ins like Brady Poppinga. Most of the starters on defense are still holdovers from the Sherman era, such as Nick Collins and Aaron Kampman and Nick Barnett and Al Harris. So it hasn't really been rebuilt, but IMO doesn't have to be.

The problem on defense this year is it has been mismanaged IMO. Part of that has been losing Nick Barnett for the season, as he was the quarterback of that defense. He'd make the pre snap calls and did a fairly good job getting his guys into the right position.

[sheepshead]

I blame Frost. He has is no longer a Packer and should be fair game.

I blame Ned Yost..

[Pugger]

The demise of our D is squarely on TT. He gambled that Harrell and KGB would be healthy and contributing and Pickett and Jolly would play like they did last season so he decided he had the luxury of trading a backup to Cleveland and it blew up in his face. We have zero pass rush and we can't stop the run so the rest of the defense is reeling. If we force our opponents to punt is is almost a shock.

The problems on the O line I lay at the coaches (Campen for sure). You can't have a revolving door on your O line and expect cohesion.

[Gunakor]

The demise of our D is squarely on TT. He gambled that Harrell and KGB would be healthy and contributing and Pickett and Jolly would play like they did last season so he decided he had the luxury of trading a backup to Cleveland and it blew up in his face. We have zero pass rush and we can't stop the run so the rest of the defense is reeling. If we force our opponents to punt is is almost a shock.

The problems on the O line I lay at the coaches (Campen for sure). You can't have a revolving door on your O line and expect cohesion.

KGB had, what, 9 and a half sacks last season? Do you fault TT for counting on him again this year?

Do you fault TT for counting on Jolly and Pickett to contribute as much as they did last year? I mean, remember, neither he nor you nor I nor anyone else had the benefit of hindsight back then. We all expected better from Jolly and Pickett this season. Just one year ago they were both very solid football players.

When the Williams trade was made, I can't think of a single person that wasn't pleased as punch that we were able to get a second round pick for that lazy ass. Besides, he ain't shit in Cleveland anyway. Based on his play this season, I'm not sure how much he'd have helped this ailing defense. Maybe, maybe not, but he certainly isn't doing a whole lot for that Browns defense.


If you are implying that it was moves TT made that have caused the collapse of this defense, I can agree with you. If you are implying that they were the wrong moves to make at the time, even without the benefit of hindsight to see how those moves turn out, I say you are dead wrong. I wouldn't make these choices knowing what I know now, but back then, I figured the DL was the deepest and most talented unit on our entire defense. It's not TT's fault that the only one of them that has stepped up to repeating last season's production is Aaron Kampman, while the rest of them have faded back into mediocrity.

[Pugger]

Of course we have 20/20 hindsight! But at the time there was no way to know KGB would not come back after his injury and that Pickett and Jolly would not play as well this season as they did last year. I had NO problem with TT trading Williams. I remember last season after Jolly went down Williams began to start and our pass rush disappeared. TT thought he had the horses on the D line so he traded a backup, but then we had all sorts of hits at that position and the rest of the defense has suffered. So yes, it was moves on the D line by TT that has caused the collapse of our defense this season and I hope he addresses it in the offseason big time.