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Cheese Curds: Green Bay Packers Updates


swede700

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https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2018/10/8/17951344/green-bay-packers-mike-mccarthy-aaron-rodgers

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Rodgers is 34 years old, and in August the Packers signed him to the richest contract in NFL history, a four-year, $134 million deal that will presumably be his last in Green Bay. The expectation with a deal of that magnitude is that Rodgers would just continue to lift the Packers to the postseason by virtue of little more than his own singular greatness. But following Sunday’s ugly 31-23 loss to the Lions, Rodgers and the Pack are now 2-2-1, and their once-dominant offense looks dormant. As Rodgers and McCarthy continue their slog through another potentially underwhelming season, it’s become impossible to ignore the crime against football that’s been perpetrated in Wisconsin over the past half-decade: The Packers have squandered the prime of the most gifted quarterback of the past 25 years.

The loss to Detroit (who I still think are pretty bad) drops GB to 2-2-1. They’ve played 3 home games already. They’re 1-1-1 in the division with arguably their two hardest division games left, on the road in Chicago and Minnesota. They’re 0-2 on the road, with non-division road games still remaining at the Rams, Patriots, Jets and Seahawks.

The Packers are 29-23-1 in the regular season since 2015. Given that they started 2015 with 6 straight wins, they’re 23-23-1 since the fateful SNF game at Denver in November 2015, when the Broncos completely shut down their passing game. Add the 3-2 post-season record from 2015 and 2016 and they’re 26-25-1 since November 2015.  

Rodgers has started all but 9 of those 52 games.

 

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9 hours ago, Krauser said:

The Packers have squandered the prime of the most gifted quarterback of the past 25 years.

 

I would revise that to say that they've literally, as an organization, squandered the most enviable quarterback situation of any franchise in the last 30 years.  To have back to back HOF QBs and only 2 trophies, which bear their most famous coach's name, to show for it should be considered a high crime and misdemeanor and worthy of relegation to the CFL.   

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29 minutes ago, swede700 said:

I would revise that to say that they've literally, as an organization, squandered the most enviable quarterback situation of any franchise in the last 30 years.  To have back to back HOF QBs and only 2 trophies, which bear their most famous coach's name, to show for it should be considered a high crime and misdemeanor and worthy of relegation to the CFL.   

Eh, it’s really only the last few years that the team has fallen off. They made 2 Super Bowls in Favre’s earlier years, and probably would’ve made more if they hadn’t kept running into the dynasty Cowboys in the playoffs. They didn’t have a losing record or a negative point differential from 1992 (Holmgren and Favre’s first year) to 2005, though they had a couple of years downturn in 1999 and 2000 when they finished out of the playoffs at 8-8 and 9-7, which led to Sherman taking over as HC. Their only truly bad year in that span was 2005, when they collapsed from 3 straight division titles to 4-12, after which they fired Sherman and brought in McCarthy. The tail end of Favre’s time in Green Bay wasn’t great but they still made a NFCCG and only lost in OT to the eventual Super Bowl winning Giants. 

Rodgers first year as a starter in 2008, they went 6-10 but with a positive points differential and DVOA that suggested they were closer to a 9-10 win team in quality. They followed that with a stretch of 8 straight playoff appearances, including 5 division titles, 3 championship game berths, and a Super Bowl win. 

Last year was only their 3rd losing season of the last 26 years (2005, 2008) and only their 4th negative points differential (2005, 2006 and 2013, the year Rodgers missed half the season) in that stretch. 

Much as I think there’s been a clear dropoff from the peak of the Rodgers era (2009-14), they were still able to “run the table” at the end of 2016, winning a division title and getting to the NFCCG. 

I’m not counting them out this year, but they have a tough road ahead of them. A number of the things that needed to go right haven’t: the edge rushers have been ineffective, Graham hasn’t been a difference maker, the rookie receivers have been inconsistent. There are some promising signs: the young CBs have looked good (even if the safeties haven’t), and the OL has been solid thanks in part to Bulaga coming back strong. But Rodgers is banged up and seems unhappy, and Crosby had a Carlson-level disaster game in Detroit. 

The Packers have shown a willingness to move on from a coach in the middle of a starting QB’s tenure, once they have a bad season or two. McCarthy apparently got a mulligan for last year, with Rodgers hurt, and the idea was that a more aggresssive approach to adding personnel in free agency plus a couple of 2010 vintage coordinators would turn things around. If that fails to happen, and they miss the playoffs again, I don’t think McCarthy will be back next year. 

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I was being facetious there at the end...but the point remains...if I were a Packers fan I would be extremely angry at them for not winning more titles with the situation they've had...just as angry as I was at Dennis Green for losing all the playoff games he did and as angry as I was at the Timberwolves for wasting the prime years of Kevin Garnett's career with their inability to get beyond the first round more than 1 time.  I don't care who they played against...with back to back HOF QBs, you should expect to make more than 3 SBs and win more than 2.  Hell, the Steelers have made 3 Super Bowls with Roethlisberger alone.  

At minimum, you should expect to have 5-6 Super Bowl appearances over 30 years with back to back HOF QBs.  The 49ers had that with Montana and Young and they did that in half the time.  I understand the league had a different structure then, but that's why I indicated that it should only be 5-6 instead of 8+.  

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What happened to them immediately after the two Super Bowl appearances in the late 1990s? I was younger, so I don't really remember much. A wild card loss and two straight years missing the playoffs seems surprising for a team with a QB in his prime who was playing every game. Missing the playoffs 3 of 4 years at the end of the Favre era/start of Rodgers era seems a little more self-explanatory.

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8 minutes ago, Klomp said:

What happened to them immediately after the two Super Bowl appearances in the late 1990s? I was younger, so I don't really remember much. A wild card loss and two straight years missing the playoffs seems surprising for a team with a QB in his prime who was playing every game. Missing the playoffs 3 of 4 years at the end of the Favre era/start of Rodgers era seems a little more self-explanatory.

Main thing was that Reggie White (16.0 sacks in 1998 as a 37 year old) retired. 

Points allowed: 

  • 1996 (Super Bowl win over Patriots): 210 (1st in the league, 13.1 per game!)
  • 1997 (Super Bowl loss to Broncos): 282 (5th)
  • 1998 (wild card loss): 319 (11th)
  • 1999 (4th in the Central): 341 (20th)
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