Sherman may be old news, but there's certainly continuing information about his style as a coach for us to use. We can see the same exact problems the Packers had in Texas A & M, too much love and soft soaping of the offense and disregard for the defense. Sherman spent too much of his time currying the offense at the expense of the defense, but when the time came for his offense to put up or shut up, he would let it off the hook lest the poor babies get a condition. The most infamous play of the Sherman Era, 4th and 26, traces back a little earlier in the game when Sherman pussed put and didn't go for it on 4th and foot and a half. He punted, the ball went into the endzone, netted about 18 yards of field position, which motivated his GM half to trade up for a punter, and the consequent 4th and 26 had him scapegoat Donatell from his HC half. That decision to not go for it with just a foot and a half, in the opponent's territory, to pretty much seal the game and advancement to the NFCCG was the origin of his undoing.
And yes, it was ultimately Harlan who was responsible for elevating Sherman to both jobs, but it was the fashion at that particular time, and he nipped the problem in the bud - the Packers technically coming off a division winning year, 10-6, and playoff appearance. But a closer inspection of the 2004 season shows what threadbare condition the Packers were in, the decision to let Donatell go not a small factor, and that something needed to be done. That, of course, was to bring Ted Thompson back, which unfortunately led to a string of very sensible decisions that for some reason irritated Favre to the breaking point, since those decisions neglected to take into consideration Favre's desire to turn the Packers into his Buddy Brigade. Of course, as anyone knows, that indignity can only be compensated for by revenge from a division rival. Circling back, Favre's first salvo over the bow of the USS Ted Thompson (circa 2005) was to publicly state that if the intrepid Mike Sherman were not retained, he very likely would not return. So, the first of many steps by Favre driving a wedge between himself and the team was throwing his weight around on Sherman's behalf. At least there was a subsidiary good reason that Favre didn't want to learn a new playbook. $12,000,000, 14% of the payroll, a year only gets you so much effort on that front.