Well, I sure do not wish for a playoff loss because of a missed FG this year off the foot of Crosby. I propose to give T. J. Lang a shot at kicking FG's. Problem solved.
I've read reports where crosby has been nailing everything in practice and in warmups which is why the coaches say it's mental (duhh). Maybe we need to go for it everytime if the attempt is over 35 yards so this guy can go on a streak and get some confidence back knocking in some easy ones. Only thing is we put more pressure on the defense potentially giving up field position if we don't convert, and the offense to have to convert so were not giving up field position. So Crosby's inability to make FG's has put pressure on everybody really. The last person on the team people should be talking about is the darn kicker. Now we have to hear about how bad he is and how MM is sticking with him on every dog'on football show.
Maybe I am remembering wrong but I thought I recall in his first preseason, Masthay getting some kickoff duties and kicking with about the same leg strength as Crosby. So if we had to bring in a weak-legged kicker for field goal attempts only, we would still be covered on kickoffs.
practice and warm ups are different senarios than game time. Pressure, crowd noise, defensive line coming after you and jumping up to block.......game time & practice = apples to oranges
Besides just kicking the ball, the snapper, holder, and kicker all have to be on the same page. Might be a bit late in the game to accomplish that for this season. Cutting immediately would be very risky. Bringing someone in on the practice squad was my vote - at this point it is not going to wreck Mason's confidence any more, it is already in ruins. It would help also if we called plays to get first downs rather than deep routes when it is 3rd and 2 on their 35 yd line. In this last game it seemed like MM was finally doing this rather than trotting Mason out there for a 55 yd attempt.
Could there be 3 or 4 guys going out, one is deep, one is short curl, and one or two is a short/medium out/in? So when Rodgers tosses to the long route, is that MM's fault?
^ I think what he is trying to say is: it has been a trend this season to toss a long bomb on 3rd and short. Just seems like it hasnt worked out yet. IDK if they are look for a PI call or what, but I'm tired of seeing that junk too.
I think what Bozz is saying is that you don't really know what's going on at 1265. McCarthy doesn't give much up to the press and he's not going to on this either.
Crosby represents a minuscule amount of our overall problems. The largest part of that 99 goes to the O-Line. If the O-Line wasn't as big as a problem, we wouldn't have to rely on Crosby so much. It would take him out of the equation.
Last I checked, Jimmy Johnson also had a pretty decent track record. In 1991, the Cowboys went 11-5 with Ken Willis as their kicker. Willis went 27 for 39 that year and was cut. In 1992 Johnson won a Superbowl with Lin Elliott as his kicker. The following year, Elliott started the season, but in the second game he missed two FG's, Dallas lost to Buffalo by a score of 13-10 to go 0-2 to start the season, and Elliott was cut - after two games! Johnson brought in 37 year old "Steady" Eddie Murray, won 12 of the next 14 games, and won his second Superbowl in as many years. There are plenty of NFL caliber kickers out there that can kick the ball through the uprights in pressure situations. I hope we don't have to depend on the one they have...
My main point was that there is a tremendous difference between doing something like that in Week 2 versus Week 16. There is also a difference between cutting Vic So'oto at this point and cutting a 6-year veteran, who is 8 for 10 in playoff FGs. He may not be a vocal leader, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that Crosby is a leader in that locker room one way or another. I'll just wait to see if TT, MM, and I are the only three that can say 'I told you so' after this season. I think that staying the course with Crosby is the right move. I'm nowhere near 100% sure that he will snap out of it, but I'm also nowhere near 50% sure that bringing in a FA kicker is the best move at this point of the season.
Well they could have at least bought in some competition ijs. Some people perform better when the threat of sombody else taking their job is presented. Crosby needs to know his job is at stake, imo he's way to comfortable.
This just in from the Packers Practice field.....Crosby kicked 5 in a row from 30 yards and MM gave him the rest of the day off to practice his tournament putting. Sign a second kicker already dammit!
Lets just wait till the playoffs start and go steal Orlindo Mare from the bears (since they wont be there ha ha lol ), he can still kick, we've seen that.
I'm not going to say that this is the wrong strategy, because depending on the use it could be smart. However, I will give you guys something to think about regarding that notion. Here are Crosby's career (not including this season 2007-2011) and 2012 stats: Career__2012 100%____100%__0-19 yards 95%_____100%__20-29 yards 86%_____71%___30-39 yards 69%_____70%___40-49 yards 50%_____13%___50+ yards As far as percentages go, he is at career averages for everything but 30-39 and 50+. He is 5 for 7 in the 30-39 range which is not unusual for him, but missing any more from that range would tie his record of three in 2008. What has really dropped his overall season average is going 1 for 8 kicking over 50 yards. Compared to other Packer kickers, Crosby's career averages are better than Chris Jacke's and even with Ryan Longwell's stats under 50 yards. Over 50 yards those guys kicked 65% (Jacke) and 59% (Longwell) while Crosby is a career 50% guy. So clearly Crosby is -- EVEN THIS SEASON -- kicking just fine under 50 yards, but he sucks from long range. The point is that bringing in another kicker to go 50+ could be a good decision. Why McCarthy keeps trotting the guy out for 50+ kicks is the head-scratcher. No other Packer kicker has attempted more than 6 field goals except when Chris Jacke went 6 for 7 in 1993. The point is that he isn't connecting long and might be killing his confidence. Keep him kicking under 50 where he is doing just fine and the Packers will be just fine. For anybody who thinks that bring Olindo Mare in, he's a worse 50+ kicker than Crosby at 44.2%. He went 0-2 last year from that distance and missed three FGs in the 30-39 range last year as well. He's no better than Crosby right now, in fact worse. Think before you type.
I don't even care about the 50+ yarders. No one is talking about bringing in Longwell or Kasay or any other aging kicker with 50+ yard FG's in mind. Just go for it or play field position back from the 30 yard line, depending on distance to go and game situation. I would, however, like to have someone not make a 38 yard FG regularly look like an adventure.
You can throw career averages out the window, especially with a field goal kicker. It is ALL about what he is (or isn't doing) now. Why can't you face the fact that for whatever reason, Crosby is in a bad slump, whether its mental or physical, we have 2 games left that mean something (home field advantage) and the playoffs ahead that a made field goal could be the difference. Everyone has been waiting for Crosby to kick his way out of this, but it isn't happening. Do you keep putting a career 300 hitter up to the plate when he is batting 150 over the last half of the season? No, you sit him down and bring in someone who can hit. Keep Crosby in the line-up (for kick-offs and PAT's), but bring someone in that is wearing some big boy pants and can make a damn field goal.
The problem with your stats are that they are season averages. They don't factor in the current slide by Crosby. The stats from those distances for the last 5 or so games wouldn't be nearly as pretty.
