Even though I live in the area, I’m not a Seattle Mariners fan, but flipping the channels I happened upon the Mariners first home playoff game since the 2001 debacle when that 116-win team lost the ALCS to the Yankees 4 games to 1 (but hey, this year’s 111-win Dodger team lost to Padres in the division series). I left it on until I was ready to do something else, but as the game wore on and the Mariners and Astros kept putting up a “0” every inning into extra innings, I kept thinking, the Mariners have to score at some point and win this thing. Even if they didn’t win the series, this game will be a “classic.” But no, the team had to let down the fans in the 18th, when a homerun in the top of the inning swept them from advancing further.
You got to feel for Packer fans now too. In London last week the Packers were favored over the Giants by 8 points and lost after failing to score an offensive point in the second half. If anything today’s loss after entering the game a touchdown favorite over the Jets was not just far worse, but one of the worst—if not the worst—home losses in the Aaron Rodgers era, 27-10. While the margin wasn’t “blowout” wide, it was beyond embarrassing.
The Packers offense just hasn’t appeared to be improving with more real-game experience. As other teams get their own acts together, Aaron Rodgers doesn’t appear to be watching much film these days, particularly the film from last week’s debacle, when he just got away from the game plan (if there was one), and didn’t take advantage of the Giants lack of run defense, and just made poor decisions on when he was looking to pass.
Here today Rodgers throws the ball deep beyond Romeo Doubs’ reach on a fourth-and-three play when he had four receivers in first down territory:
Special teams also let the team down again. Last year, the Packers had one of the worst special teams in the NFL, and during the off-season special teams coach Maurice Drayton was fired. The Packers then hired the Raiders special teams coach Rich Bisaccia; in an odd “twist,” the Raiders hired Drayton as their special teams coach. I guess whether you are a “good” coach or not depends on your personnel: going into today’s game, the Raiders’ Daniel Carlson has converted on all 15 field goal attempts (including four from 50+ yards), and punter AJ Cole is averaging 52 yards a punt after leading the NFL last season.
With the Packers, they have not trusted the gray-haired Mason Crosby on a single field goal attempt of 50 yards or longer; anything beyond reaching the opponents 35-yard-line is subject to a punt or a loss on downs play. If Crosby can’t make field goals of 50+ yards anymore, then the Packers need to explore an alternative next off-season; but then again he is not the only the problem, as we saw on the failed recovery of a muffed punt last week that led to a Giants touchdown. There is also something wrong with the Packers offensive line play, and it is affecting not just the offense, but the special teams play as well if today’s loss shows anything. On the blocked field goal, Crosby had two options, kicked toward the guys who busted through the line on one side, or the guy jumping skyward on the other side, neither of which was promising:
Having abandoned the run game again, Rodgers did his own running throughout the game, sacked four times and hit 9 more times. Where did this guy come from?:
That sack led to an even worse blocking breakdown. Forced to punt, you would think that the punter has plenty of space to do his work...
…if the line wasn’t retreating 10 yards within seconds right into his face….
…leading to this touchdown by the other team to make it a 17-3 deficit:
But the offense and special teams isn’t the only problem. In prior seasons the Packers defense gave up a lot of yards but forced enough turnovers to keep the points allowed fewer than what the offense was scoring. For the third game this season the defense forced no turnovers, and as a team are -4 in the turnover differential, ranking them near the bottom of the NFL; last year the Packers were third in the NFL in positive turnover differential at +13. Although the 123 points allowed through 6 games isn’t awful, it could be a lot less if the defense forced a few more takeaways—especially when the offense has scored only 107 points and near the bottom of the NFL at less than 18 points a game, a fairly appalling state of affairs for a team that won 13 games three years in a row.
One must admit at this point that the Packer have no true R1 receiver, which is important for one reason: that if it did it would force defenses to put more than one defender on the R1, and the quarterback should have an open back-up receiver if he is looking for him, which is something that Rodgers didn’t often do in the past. But a poor pass protection line means the ball has to leave his hands quicker, and for some reason Rodgers is just not “finding” enough people to throw the ball to when the other team is zeroed-in on him on passing downs—which seems to be most downs these past two games.
The Packers are supposed to have a run-first oriented offensive philosophy, which could work just fine when you have proper hand-offs, like not here...
...which of course doesn’t suit Rodgers, and the Packers have run the ball only 40 times the past two games, while passing the ball 84 times (and sacked on six other passing plays). This obviously has not proved to be a “winning” offensive strategy. Next week the Packers play the Washington Commanders (the Redskins was a lot better name) on the road, and the odds are not all that great on winning that game, either.
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