The NFL season has returned. But before I get into my impression of the “new look” Packers, let me first say that I am not the sports fanatic I used to be when I was younger. Part of it has to do with the fact that the best players rarely hang with "your" team for long anymore, especially in baseball; there is no “loyalty” to the fan base—it’s just about money. So why have “loyalty” to a team that is nothing more than a night out for “entertainment”? Of course in football, management throws the bank at a star quarterback, so at least there is “continuity” there, especially when the quarterback piles-up impressive stats over the years—if not necessarily championships (that’s you, Aaron Rodgers).
I suppose it is amusing that I’m not particularly interested in the local sports scene in Seattle since I am a “fan” of the teams I grew-up with, although outside the Packers that means when they field winning teams and make runs into the postseason. I don’t read the local newspapers much or watch the local news on television, so I suppose I could be “forgiven” for not even realizing that Seattle has fielded an NHL team the past couple of years, or the fact that the Pac-8/10/12/2 has imploded, with most of the teams moving to other conferences by next year. After Stanford and Cal announced their moves to the Atlantic Coast Conference, that leaves just Washington State and Oregon State left to hope someone will let them join their conference—and they are not exactly “big market” locations.
It seems insane, but the Pac-12’s presidents and regents allowed this to happen out of greed, and it didn’t have to happen. It had a chance to become a “superpower” conference with a big TV deal when what remained of the Big-12 after Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC (again, for money) agreed to join the Pac-12. But as the Los Angeles Times reported, when Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff proposed the deal, USC president Carol Folt immediately shot it down; because USC was a “big name,” the other school representatives were cowed into silence. It was later revealed that Folt and USC were already in discussions with the Big-10 to join that conference, but had yet to make this intention known.
WTF you say? Perhaps it isn’t too insane given their locations that the two Arizona schools, Colorado and Utah are joining the Big-12. But Washington and Oregon joining UCLA and USC in the Big-Ten expansion? That’s only slightly less nuts than two Pacific Coast teams moving to the Atlantic Coast. Just the travel expenses will dilute any “extra” money those teams get from a “richer” television deal. Even after UCLA and USC were the first to announce their departure, ESPN offered a $30 million per team television deal for the remaining 10 teams, which was about the same the Big-12 had signed for, but somebody decided the teams were worth $50 million, and ESPN dropped the offer.
Eventually all that was left was Apple’s $23 million streaming service deal with no televised games promised, which of course “offended” everyone—or at least provided the excuse they needed to do what they always intended to do for the “big money” and the higher “profile” that games televised earlier in the day brings them, or so that is the theory. Of course like Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC, they may discover that losing to equally good teams on a regular basis doesn’t do much for their “profile.”
OK, so back to the Packers. They won two of their three regular season games, with Jordan Love playing a couple of possessions per game, or at least long enough to lead to one score to keep the fans’ confidence up. The Packers will be starting the season with a lot of “kids” on offense, particularly at the wide receiver position, where no one has more than one year of NFL experience; that includes undrafted Malik Heath, who led the team with 12 catches for 146 yards. The Packers had little choice but to add RB Emanuel Wilson, who was kicked out of Denver as an undrafted rookie, but after being subsequently picked up by the Packers impressed with a preseason league-leading 223 yards, including an 80-yard run.
The Packers also have rookies starting at the kicker and punter positions. Irishman Daniel Whelan is the punter, while Anders Carlson showed that although he has problems on short kicks (he missed three extra point tries), he has a powerful leg, easily making a 57-yard field goal attempt against the Seahawks.
However, what seems to be disturbing to many observers is the fact that the Packers have no experience at the backup QB position, going with Sean Clifford. Alex McGough—who fumbled on his only previous pass “attempt” going into his late appearance in the final preseason game—had the best throw of the preseason when he connected with Jadakis Bonds on a 52-yard pass in the game-winning drive against the Seahawks. It was a little late in the day, and both McGough and Bonds were cut from the 53-man roster, although McGough was re-signed to the practice squad.
In fact the team tried out no quarterback outside of Love who has thrown a single pass in a regular season NFL game. From what I saw in the first preseason game against the Bengals, despite throwing two interceptions in tight windows that he probably shouldn’t have thrown, Clifford looked pretty good leading the team to 3 touchdowns and a field goal against an admittedly spotty defense; he pretty much sowed-up the backup position then and there. Listening to him talk and his “gunslinger” performances, he somewhat reminded me of Favre, and I think if he does get thrown in there, things could get more interesting than people fear—especially without a Mike Holmgren to keep him in check.
Some people actually have the Packers starting out the season with more wins than losses. Jones and Dillon are back in the backfield, and Doubs and Watson look to break out if Love can get them the ball. Looking at the schedule, it appears to be somewhat favorable, with only the Week 13 game against the Chiefs looking like an "automatic" loss. But what that also means is if the Packers don’t win many games, this will be yet another experiment with a "non-traditional" quarterback that the Packers tried to shoe-horn in that failed miserably.
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