Uhh, Coach?

[Fritz]

Ted Thompson has been a lightning rod in this organization, no doubt. Criticism (and sometimes praise) tends to flow his way, including criticism and praise of his coaching choice.

However, I'd like to forward the notion here that this long string of ignomonious defeats at the hands of mostly mediocre teams falls primarily upon the shoulders of Mr. Mike McCarthy. Yes, there have been injuries. But other teams, like the Jags, have injuries too. Yet in the past five or six games, MM has gone into a few of these games with what would seem more talent than the other side - yet the Packers have lost and lost and lost again.

They look befuddled. Some of the losing does fall to a lack of talent, to be sure. There is a lack of defensive line pressure. Poppinga seems to slow to be an effective starter. And you can go on. However, the Packers are now failing against teams that they appear to have more talent than.

This is coaching. The ZBS and the finesse approach of this offesne seems to fail this team at critical times. That's a coaching decision, to run the schemes that are run. The defense is as soft as butter, and that's a coaching issue. Sanders seems incapable of getting the defense to play together for any stretch of time.

So, how about it, coach? What do you need to do this offseason to turn this around, so that at least your team is winning the games in which it has more talent - whether that's twelve games or eight games?

[sheepshead]

I am right with you on this one. We loose 6 games by fours points or less? That's not the general managers fault. He's done his job. I see a lack of execution. Wacky play calling. (every teams fan base bitches about that however) and mistakes. Penalties, unable to run plays properly. We saw guys out of place in week 16?? Come on. MM isnt going anywhere, but there needs to be a major overhaul and MM should share with us his outline for a new direction and level of commitment along these lines.

[Deputy Nutz]

The coaching all the way around has been lackluster this season. the depth of talent outside the receiving core and in the secondary is frightful.

The legend goes that it takes a drafted player 3 to 4 years before potential is reached. Well I feel like since Thompson hides away during free agency we are left at many positions without capable players due to young players still learning the game at an NFL level. Free agency wasn't great the last two years, but this upcoming year there are two big name free agent defensive linemen that are hopefully going to hit the market in Haynesworth and Peppers. To me Peppers is a no brainer, if he is on the market you give him what he wants to come to Green Bay.


If my counting is correct, Thompson is now .500 as a GM.

[sheepshead]

This crap is a good example:


Packers: Frustrations boil over into conflicts
By JASON WILDE
608-252-6176
jwilde@madison.com
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As disappointing as the Green Bay Packers have been this season, they generally kept their composure and didn't let the strain of failing to live up to expectations show on the field.

Until Sunday's 20-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, that is.

It began with quarterback Aaron Rodgers voicing his displeasure with rookie tight end Jermichael Finley after a botched third-and-goal play shortly before halftime forced the Packers to settle for a field goal.


• Same-old, same-old for Packers


That was only a preview, though, of the heated on-field exchange between cornerback Al Harris and linebacker Brady Poppinga early in the second half.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy blamed the infighting on "communication" breakdowns, but he wouldn't go into specifics of what caused the problems despite being asked repeatedly about the incidents.

"The communication wasn't as clean as it needed to be and it affected some of our performance," McCarthy said.

The Poppinga-Harris confrontation was the worst. With 11:15 left in the third quarter, Jaguars wide receiver Reggie Williams was left uncovered in the left slot. Harris angrily motioned at Poppinga to cover Williams, and after David Garrard's 36-yard completion to Dennis Northcutt went to the opposite side of the field, Harris ran up to Poppinga and got in his face.

After the game, Harris would only say it was an "animated discussion," while Poppinga tried to downplay the incident.

"The bottom line is we're both competitors. Stuff like that is going to happen on a team, especially two guys who want to win," said Poppinga, refusing to say who was supposed to cover Williams. "Sometimes you have a little conflict. To say that conflict is a bad thing is not true.

"I don't have hard feelings against him and he doesn't have hard feelings against me. ... How it looked is how it looked. But how it really went down is how it really went down. You can make it out as big as you want it to be, but it's not as bad as it looks."

It was bad enough that defensive coordinator Bob Sanders brought the entire defense together on the sideline after the Jaguars punted — "Just basically the same speech they give us, 'Stay together, stay focused, we're going to come out of this,'" Poppinga said — to restore order.

"We just sat 'em down, tried to make sure everybody's on the same page," Sanders said. "In the heat of the moment, everybody's working hard to do the right thing. It's a lot of competitive guys."

The Rodgers-Finley disagreement came when Finley looked confused on a third-and-goal play from the 5-yard line following a Jacksonville timeout. He lined up first on one side of the formation, then scurried to the other before the snap, and Rodgers was clearly displeased with him after a shovel pass to Donald Lee gained nothing.

Rodgers said it was "just miscommunication with the formation" on a play that resulted in a touchdown earlier this season against Atlanta.

Like Rodgers, Finley called it "just miscommunication with the play-call," then intimated it was Rodgers' fault.

"It wasn't on me at all," Finley said. "But I went with it."

McCarthy said such a mistake was inexcusable because of the Jaguars' timeout that preceded it, but wouldn't say who was in the wrong.

"We should be set and ready to go there," said McCarthy, who went onto the field after Mason Crosby's field goal to talk to Finley before assistant special teams coach Shawn Slocum yanked Finley from the kickoff coverage unit. "I don't want to get into (whose fault it was). It's all of our faults. We should not have problems lining up after a timeout. That's what happened."

[texaspackerbacker]

I tend to agree, McCarthy has been well below his coaching level of a year ago.

I've said many times, losing five, now six games by 4 or less points is mainly a result of bad luck. It also, however, is a result of poor play calling--way too cautious, IMO, as well as crucial mistakes--the plethora of penalties, some of which may have been bad calls, but most of which have just been screwups, and other mistakes--route running, missed coverages, etc.

I'm generally against paying big money for free agents, but at this point, Peppers looks really good, and Haynesworth almost as good. Drafting D Linemen is a shot in the dark at best--Jamal Reynolds, Harrell, etc. I really doubt the free agent thing will happen, though, and if the team stays healthy next season, we could do extremely well even without free agent help.

[hoosier]

I agree that the Packers struggles this year raise some troubling questions about the coaching. Both McCarthy and some of the position coaches seem to be having problems getting their players prepared and keeping them disciplined. The combination of frequent penalties and soft defense against the run is especially disturbing (a highly penalized defense that plays physically at every level would be a different matter, but with the exception of Al Harris and Woodson that's not the case here).

But it's also important to keep in mind that this is a young team. By now it's pretty clear that last year they overperformed, and their success was based on good luck in the early part of the season against Philly and SD, and they used those fortunate wins to build confidence and gain momentum through the middle of the season and down the stretch. When they hit the occasional bump in the road (being dominated at Dallas) they were able to bounce back the next week. This year they're not bouncing back. On the contrary, they have regressed after an impressive start, and have been unable to build on whatever minor success they've had.

I take two points from this. First, that we shouldn't underestimate the importance of confidence. Look at the difference between the Packers and Vikings: in terms of talent they're very similar, and I wouldn't dream of swapping McCarthy for Chilly. At the halfway point the two teams were more or less in the same position. But now the Vikings have been able to build on successes and gain momentum whereas the Packers seem to have had their confidence destroyed. The other point is that the difference bewteen a soft or lucky 13-3 and an unlucking, underperforming 5-11 in today's NFL just isn't very great. I like what McCarthy was able to do last year, and will give him another season before I start to seriously question his judgment.

[cpk1994]

Like Rodgers, Finley called it "just miscommunication with the play-call," then intimated it was Rodgers' fault.

"It wasn't on me at all," Finley said. "But I went with it."

Looks like someone doesn't want to stay employed anymore. Just when you thought this guy could act like a bigger idiot.

[channtheman]

Like Rodgers, Finley called it "just miscommunication with the play-call," then intimated it was Rodgers' fault.

"It wasn't on me at all," Finley said. "But I went with it."

Looks like someone doesn't want to stay employed anymore. Just when you thought this guy could act like a bigger idiot.

I was going to ask, is Finley the guy that was having the problems earlier too? Like he thought he was entitled to get the ball thrown to him. He really sounds like a jackass and I don't get how if he lined up wrong it is not his fault.

[cpk1994]

Like Rodgers, Finley called it "just miscommunication with the play-call," then intimated it was Rodgers' fault.

"It wasn't on me at all," Finley said. "But I went with it."

Looks like someone doesn't want to stay employed anymore. Just when you thought this guy could act like a bigger idiot.

I was going to ask, is Finley the guy that was having the problems earlier too? Like he thought he was entitled to get the ball thrown to him. He really sounds like a jackass and I don't get how if he lined up wrong it is not his fault.

Yes, this is the same jackass.

[Partial]

Jermichael Finley has thrown his QB under the bus twice this year... is this guy ever going to get a clue?

[sheepshead]

Like Rodgers, Finley called it "just miscommunication with the play-call," then intimated it was Rodgers' fault.

"It wasn't on me at all," Finley said. "But I went with it."

Looks like someone doesn't want to stay employed anymore. Just when you thought this guy could act like a bigger idiot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR4PGt9oOto

[PackerBlues]

Seems like M3 finds himself in a "4'th and short yardage" situation late in the 4'th quarter quite often. The last two games in that situation, it seemed to me that M3 was thinking "OH F@#k!!".

I dunno, but it seems like everytime he gets in that situation with the game on the line, he chokes. Nothing ever seems to go right. It's like every game they lose, you can go back to that one single 4'th down play call and say "if only M3 had played that differently......"

Look at the number of O-line penalties all year (if anyone knows where to find penalty stats for the season.....I couldn't find it). That alone points to poor coaching.

Maybe next year......

[gbgary]

i loved the deer in the headlights look MM had, at the end of the game, in the previous two losses.

[denverYooper]

Like Rodgers, Finley called it "just miscommunication with the play-call," then intimated it was Rodgers' fault.

"It wasn't on me at all," Finley said. "But I went with it."

Looks like someone doesn't want to stay employed anymore. Just when you thought this guy could act like a bigger idiot.

I saw that too and wondered if he was baited into that quote because of his earlier comments. There was blood in the water. Not that that excuses him -- it was still a really dumbass thing to say.

[MateoInMex]

This crap is a good example:


Packers: Frustrations boil over into conflicts
By JASON WILDE
608-252-6176
jwilde@madison.com
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As disappointing as the Green Bay Packers have been this season, they generally kept their composure and didn't let the strain of failing to live up to expectations show on the field.

Until Sunday's 20-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, that is.

It began with quarterback Aaron Rodgers voicing his displeasure with rookie tight end Jermichael Finley after a botched third-and-goal play shortly before halftime forced the Packers to settle for a field goal.


• Same-old, same-old for Packers


That was only a preview, though, of the heated on-field exchange between cornerback Al Harris and linebacker Brady Poppinga early in the second half.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy blamed the infighting on "communication" breakdowns, but he wouldn't go into specifics of what caused the problems despite being asked repeatedly about the incidents.

"The communication wasn't as clean as it needed to be and it affected some of our performance," McCarthy said.

The Poppinga-Harris confrontation was the worst. With 11:15 left in the third quarter, Jaguars wide receiver Reggie Williams was left uncovered in the left slot. Harris angrily motioned at Poppinga to cover Williams, and after David Garrard's 36-yard completion to Dennis Northcutt went to the opposite side of the field, Harris ran up to Poppinga and got in his face.

After the game, Harris would only say it was an "animated discussion," while Poppinga tried to downplay the incident.

"The bottom line is we're both competitors. Stuff like that is going to happen on a team, especially two guys who want to win," said Poppinga, refusing to say who was supposed to cover Williams. "Sometimes you have a little conflict. To say that conflict is a bad thing is not true.

"I don't have hard feelings against him and he doesn't have hard feelings against me. ... How it looked is how it looked. But how it really went down is how it really went down. You can make it out as big as you want it to be, but it's not as bad as it looks."

It was bad enough that defensive coordinator Bob Sanders brought the entire defense together on the sideline after the Jaguars punted — "Just basically the same speech they give us, 'Stay together, stay focused, we're going to come out of this,'" Poppinga said — to restore order.

"We just sat 'em down, tried to make sure everybody's on the same page," Sanders said. "In the heat of the moment, everybody's working hard to do the right thing. It's a lot of competitive guys."

The Rodgers-Finley disagreement came when Finley looked confused on a third-and-goal play from the 5-yard line following a Jacksonville timeout. He lined up first on one side of the formation, then scurried to the other before the snap, and Rodgers was clearly displeased with him after a shovel pass to Donald Lee gained nothing.

Rodgers said it was "just miscommunication with the formation" on a play that resulted in a touchdown earlier this season against Atlanta.

Like Rodgers, Finley called it "just miscommunication with the play-call," then intimated it was Rodgers' fault.

"It wasn't on me at all," Finley said. "But I went with it."

McCarthy said such a mistake was inexcusable because of the Jaguars' timeout that preceded it, but wouldn't say who was in the wrong.

"We should be set and ready to go there," said McCarthy, who went onto the field after Mason Crosby's field goal to talk to Finley before assistant special teams coach Shawn Slocum yanked Finley from the kickoff coverage unit. "I don't want to get into (whose fault it was). It's all of our faults. We should not have problems lining up after a timeout. That's what happened."

That statement eerily reminds of Mike Charmin. This year can't get over with fast enough. And with each passing loss this season, we're finding out more and more things are flawed with the GB Packers....I'll fall on to my bean-bag comfiness of pointing the finger at TT, just as much as I'll point the finger at Mike McCarthy, the offensive line, defensive line, Mike Stock, and Bob Sanders.

30-32 under GM Ted Thompson. I guess we can wish that he looks more at Free Agency this offseason, but 4 years of treating FA like it's the ugliest stripper at the club is a good sign TT will continue to ignore it. Next season is a make or break year for Ol' Teddy and the coaching staff. I'm anxious to see how they're going to adjust from THE TOP--------DOWN..because that's where it starts...It doesn't start on the field.