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Admit it. Despite your hatred for that "traitor" Brett Favre, you're starting to notice, game-by-game, what truly is lacking from this Green Bay Packers football team.
Let's get the obvious problems out of the way.
They can't protect the quarterback. Their running game stinks. And that transition to the 3-4 defense? So far, not so good.
Their play-calling and overall decision-making has been average, at best. And their special teams has been downright atrocious, almost in every facet it could possibly fathom.
These talented Packers, 13-3 and one win away from a Super Bowl two years ago, are 4-4 on the heels of an embarrassing loss to the previously 0-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and staring a losing record in the face with the formidable 6-2 Dallas Cowboys coming to town.
When I refer to "magic" missing from this team, I am indeed referring to Brett Favre. Favre isn't the only glaring hole in what seems to be an offense that reveals a new missing link each week, but if you track this thing back to 2005, when it all started to unravel in the first place, this is becoming an oddly familiar feeling.
The Green Bay Packers have the youngest roster in the NFL for what seems to be the 10th year in a row.
Combined with youth, Ted Thompson allowing Pro Bowl guards Marco Rivera and Mike Wahle to jump ship, and season-ending injuries to Javon Walker and Ahman Green, the rebuilding era officially began in 2004 under GM Ted Thompson.
It was almost like it was planned. That's because it was .
Thompson hired current coach Mike McCarthy the next season, and the Packers rose to 8-8, barely missing the playoffs. But we are all too familiar with what happened from here.
The point is, from 2004 to now, nothing has changed in Green Bay. No, not really.
The Offensive Line Still Stinks
Those Pro Bowl guards have still not been replaced. A plethora of average, scrub offensive lineman have tried, but Green Bay still can't protect the quarterback, allowing 34+ sacks in back-to-back seasons, already with more sacks given up this year than last year.
Aaron Rodgers, as athletic and crafty as he can be, has taken 34+ sacks for two straight seasons, something Brett Favre never managed to do in his entire career. Interesting enough, Rodgers has endured (with eight games remaining in this season), 71 sacks in 24 games as the Packers starting quarterback. Compare that to Favre's 487 sacks strewn out over an entire 19-year career .
True, the line is struggling with pass protection, but game tape shows Rodgers is reluctant to throw down field when under pressure, and refuses to take risks when being chased out of the pocket.
This cuts back on turnovers and keeps his completion percentage rather high, as well as conserves his passer rating, but it doesn't help the offense move the ball.
While Favre was always known for his turnovers, he was also widely know for keeping plays alive, and making them, regardless of his offensive line's status.
The Defense Still Stinks
Contrary to popular belief, the Packers defense in 2007 was not the beginning of a trend. It was an aberration. It was crap the two seasons before that, and it's been crap ever since.
The Packers finished sixth in points allowed in 2007, which was impressive, but failed to finished better than 16th in 2005, 2006, 2008, and so far in 2009 sit at 16th in the NFL.
This shows that Ted Thompson has made no major strides in both the offensive line that he decimated with his own lack of moves, as well as a defense that he has now had four-and-a-half seasons to improve.
The Moments Are Gone
Without Favre, the turnovers are down and the offense appears more efficient, but aside from two forgettable seasons (2005/2006), it's no better than what Favre had been doing from 2001-2004.
Favre led the Packers' offense to four straight top-six appearances in total offense before Thompson took over and began to dismantle his line and made the team younger than it needed to be.
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