wizard 87
Old Enough To Know Better
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2008
- Messages
- 549
- Reaction score
- 13
From Packer news:
For three months, the Green Bay Packers have fooled us into believing they were a respectable football team and legitimate playoff contender.
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We have been duped into thinking that just one more play here or a defensive stop there could have turned any one of a half-dozen losses into victories.
We have been sold a bill of goods about this team, but finally, 13 games into a dreadfully disappointing season, the hoax has been exposed.
Good teams find ways to win games. Bad teams find ways to lose them.
Shame on me for taking so long to realize where the Packers stand. They are a bad team, and their 24-21 loss to the Houston Texans at Lambeau Field on Sunday offered ample evidence.
“It’s a little bit of a picture of how our season has gone,” a dejected coach Mike McCarthy said following his team’s fifth loss in its last six games. “We had a number of opportunities and we didn’t cash in on them. We had some breakdowns, and unfortunately, that’s why we’re sitting here again with a loss.”
That’s why the Packers are sitting here with an awful 5-8 record. That’s why they are all but mathematically eliminated from playoff contention in the first week of December. That’s why they are 3-8 since mid-September. That’s why they have a losing record at home. That’s why only three teams in the 16-team NFC own a worse record. And that’s why it was foolish to continue believing this team would eventually turn things around.
The Packers are like the talented but troubled employee who always has a good excuse for showing up late. His car broke down, the basement flooded, his kid got sick, the power went out, he came down with a bad cold. He occasionally does good work, but can never be trusted to show up on time and do his job.
In the same way, the underachieving Packers cannot be trusted to show up and win a game that matters.
There’s always something with this team. If it’s not injuries, it’s defensive gap control, or blocking breakdowns, or dropped passes, or blown blitz pickups or crucial turnovers. The reasons for losing change, but the results remain the same.
A strong argument could be made that a phantom holding call against Tony Moll late in the game cost the Packers a victory over the Texans. But that would only be falling into the same old tired trap.
An abysmal defense that allowed 549 total yards was far more responsible for the Packers’ loss than an errant penalty flag. And a sluggish offense, with just one scoring drive through the first three quarters, didn’t help the cause.
Once again, the Packers were locked in a close game, and once again, they gagged up another loss. No one in the locker room wanted to admit the Packers choked, but this was the sixth down-to-the-wire defeat of the season, so what else can you call it? The Packers are inventing new and creative ways to lose, the mark of a bad team.
I was hoodwinked into believing the Packers showed their true colors in lopsided victories over Indianapolis and Chicago. As it turns out, those games were aberrations.
I bought into the mind-set that because the Packers practiced hard and got along with each other, they possessed the ability and character to overcome adversity and eventually would make a playoff push.
I was wrong, and I won’t be the only one spending the offseason trying to figure out why.
For three months, the Green Bay Packers have fooled us into believing they were a respectable football team and legitimate playoff contender.
Advertisement
We have been duped into thinking that just one more play here or a defensive stop there could have turned any one of a half-dozen losses into victories.
We have been sold a bill of goods about this team, but finally, 13 games into a dreadfully disappointing season, the hoax has been exposed.
Good teams find ways to win games. Bad teams find ways to lose them.
Shame on me for taking so long to realize where the Packers stand. They are a bad team, and their 24-21 loss to the Houston Texans at Lambeau Field on Sunday offered ample evidence.
“It’s a little bit of a picture of how our season has gone,” a dejected coach Mike McCarthy said following his team’s fifth loss in its last six games. “We had a number of opportunities and we didn’t cash in on them. We had some breakdowns, and unfortunately, that’s why we’re sitting here again with a loss.”
That’s why the Packers are sitting here with an awful 5-8 record. That’s why they are all but mathematically eliminated from playoff contention in the first week of December. That’s why they are 3-8 since mid-September. That’s why they have a losing record at home. That’s why only three teams in the 16-team NFC own a worse record. And that’s why it was foolish to continue believing this team would eventually turn things around.
The Packers are like the talented but troubled employee who always has a good excuse for showing up late. His car broke down, the basement flooded, his kid got sick, the power went out, he came down with a bad cold. He occasionally does good work, but can never be trusted to show up on time and do his job.
In the same way, the underachieving Packers cannot be trusted to show up and win a game that matters.
There’s always something with this team. If it’s not injuries, it’s defensive gap control, or blocking breakdowns, or dropped passes, or blown blitz pickups or crucial turnovers. The reasons for losing change, but the results remain the same.
A strong argument could be made that a phantom holding call against Tony Moll late in the game cost the Packers a victory over the Texans. But that would only be falling into the same old tired trap.
An abysmal defense that allowed 549 total yards was far more responsible for the Packers’ loss than an errant penalty flag. And a sluggish offense, with just one scoring drive through the first three quarters, didn’t help the cause.
Once again, the Packers were locked in a close game, and once again, they gagged up another loss. No one in the locker room wanted to admit the Packers choked, but this was the sixth down-to-the-wire defeat of the season, so what else can you call it? The Packers are inventing new and creative ways to lose, the mark of a bad team.
I was hoodwinked into believing the Packers showed their true colors in lopsided victories over Indianapolis and Chicago. As it turns out, those games were aberrations.
I bought into the mind-set that because the Packers practiced hard and got along with each other, they possessed the ability and character to overcome adversity and eventually would make a playoff push.
I was wrong, and I won’t be the only one spending the offseason trying to figure out why.
