Come season's end, the Packers will most likely not be in the playoffs. They are in a division at this point in time where they can still win. However, this team does not seem to have the same energy it did last season to pull that off.
The month of November was not friendly to the Green Bay Packers. In Week Nine, the Packers visited Tennessee and almost made them lose their first game of the season. Instead, the Packers lost in overtime 19-16.
Week 10, the Packers traveled to Minnesota to play the division rival Vikings. It was a different Viking's team than earlier in the season. The Packers would eventually lose the game 28-27, regardless of the fact that they scored two touchdowns in the matter of a minute or less.
Week 11 brought their only win of November, as they demolished the Chicago Bears in Green Bay. Ryan Grant had his best game of the season and second best game of his career. The Cheese Heads won 37-3.
Then came a game that brought all of the Rodgers' haters back out of their little shells they crawled under. The Green Bay quarterback threw three interceptions in a game that they would lose 51-29. The New Orleans Saints played a full 60 minutes of football, while the Green Bay Packers only played 30 minutes of football.
This bring up Week 13, where they had the game. Aaron Rodgers led the team down the field for a comeback. Ryan Grant was sidelined with a thumb injury. Brandon Jackson stepped up and put a spark in the running game. However, both their efforts were for nothing as the Pack fell for 35-31.
21 comments Last one added 7 months ago — Leave a Comment
Alexeiv Goodenov 7 months ago
I said they'd end 8-8 at the start of the season.
I'll stick with that prediction.
I agree nobody should be calling for Thompson's head just yet, the Pack have lost three very close games, they could be 8-4 right now.
However, they were 13-3 last season and if they don't make the playoffs in 09, I would bet Thompson does get fired.
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Mike Craig 7 months ago
8-8 is more likely than 9-7. If they go 9-7 I am 95% sure they will win the division.
I think if the 09 season is not profitable, Packers fans will have Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy, and Mark Murphy's head on pikes outside of Lambeau Field.
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Doug Dwyer 7 months ago
Go ahead and fire Ted Thompson right now. He deserves it.
However, the Packers game plans are atrocious. This weekend, once again, the Packers went 3 & out on their first two possessions. On their third drive, they got one first down before punting. This has been a consistent theme in all of their losses this year. The pressure is on the defense to stop the other team or else the Packers are playing from behind. And the defense ussually feeds off the offense in a game, so it unravels early.
The COACH should have a game plan to come out and attack the defense. Green Bay has the weapons on offense. This is horrible coaching or failing to get the team ready to play.
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Mike Craig 7 months ago
Now now, we do not know if Ted Thompson deserves it YET. Next season we will see.
As far as Mike McCarthy goes, something does in fact need to be done about his game planing because he sure as hell is getting it all wrong. Green Bay might need a new head coach.
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David Arreola 7 months ago
McCarthy has never gameplanned.
last year he had Brett Favre on the field. Favre acts as a coach as he helps McCarthy dissect the other team's defense.
This year Rodgers isn't that acting coach. So McCarthy is starting to find out the growing pains of a young quarterback.
I agree, don't take his head off.
But you may want to pick out the blade....
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Doug Dwyer 7 months ago
Ted Thompson's draft hasn't produced any Pro Bowl players. Going on four years now.
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Mike Craig 7 months ago
Greg Jennings is expected to be in the Pro Bowl this year. As a matter of fact, both him and Nick Collins are in the top 5 of their respected positions in pro bowl votes.
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Doug Dwyer 7 months ago
Jennings and Collins should make it this year. Especially Collins.
If the Packers miss the playoffs, they will have made it 1 out of 4 years in the Ted Thompson era. And he took over a team that won the NFC North for four years in a row.
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Mike Craig 7 months ago
This is true. That is four years though. I say give the guy a 5th year just to even it out and if things are bad next season...
Well as they say in the old days, off with his head!
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Don Zak 7 months ago
Doug it's true. I wen to the game and the fans went crazy not for a score but a first down!
I turned to my dad and said our standards have been lowered this year. We are almost no better than Lions fans!
But this old guy next to me commented, that after boing frost repeatedly, that A: He had never in his 30 plus years of games had hometown fans boo a player and B: That the fans are really booing TT and not Frost.
BTW, Frost is done as of today!
Go Pack Go
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David Arreola 7 months ago
Interesting break down.
The Packers are not done, all we need is for the Vikings to drop 2 games and we win out. As long as we beat the Bears we are good there too.
So win out and the Vikings must lose 2.
Which that Giants game may not be a certain loss. The Giants will have most likely clinched home field advantage and there will be no need to play starters in the second half.
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Mark Borchardt 7 months ago
WOW man, Ted Thompson made one of the most trivial decisions in football history man and he has failed horribly. He had a chance to go to the super bowl this year with Brett Favre man. He blew it man, he screwed packer nation out of hope. Thanks for everything you have done in GB ted man, now go apply at the local garbage dump cause thats where you belong.
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Edgar Antonio Nunez 7 months ago
Thompson should stay.
Rodgers will be a good quarterback. You can just see it in flashes. It's only his first year as a starter. And he handled the Favre controversy with such class and dignity--he's a leader.
The team has many components in place and it's a young team. (The Packers average the youngest team only because the Giants have two 40+ year old special teams players, Feagles and Carney, if not the Giants would be the youngest team, but the point is that GB has a good future). Some of these players are learning to play.
They are only a strong draft or two away from being contenders in my estimation. Let Thompson do his job. You need eventual replacements in an aging secondary and need to replace Driver soon.
It was a transition year from Day 1. Why fire Thompson?
Not every QB starts out like Big Ben, Flacco, Culpepper. But that's okay because as their careers have progressed, their production has declined for these fast starters.
Look at Eli's progression.
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Mike Craig 7 months ago
Very well said.
Unfortunately for Ted Thompson, if Green Bay doesn't make the playoffs next year, he, Mark Murphy, and Mike McCarthy might be run out of Green Bay.
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andy pech 7 months ago
Personally, based on my experience as a manager of people, it would be my approach to fire both TT & MM at the end of this season. I would not claim to know if either would be successful elsewhere. I do know that they have both, working as a team, exhibited the potential to make major mistakes. TT has based his GM style and reputation on trading down and building through the draft. Although there were glimmers of hope in this system last season, overall it seems flawed and has resulted mainly in failures, as seen at both Seattle and GB. In TT's tenure, the Packers best players have been Kampmon, Barnett, Driver, Harris, Tauscher and Favre. Pickett and Woodson have been two positive free-agents I will give to TT but where is the success in his draft strategy? Beyond Jennings there is really no real success. Greenbay has developed a fair group of average players but do not seem to be at all impressive. In fact, they are now moving more in the direction of being a poor team. MM has also displayed a poor game plan. Zone blocking??? Either they don't have the right guys or they don't know what they are doing. Favre leaving didn't reveal a glaring dropoff at QB as far as talent, what it did reveal was a galring lack of leadership and gameplanning. The Packers are getting worse talent wise and worse leadership and gameplanning wise. What would you do to change that???
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Mike Craig 7 months ago
That is only a four year period however. And if I was in charge of anything, I would make sure that if I hired somebody, they had at least five years to work things out. By the end of next season if things are not going right, then perhaps they and Mark Murphy need fired.
I love how the moment Mark Murphy got there, suddenly Brett Favre became public enemy number one.
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andy pech 7 months ago
I guess what I didn't say is that to me it isn't so much about a specific time period as it is about the direction a managment group has their organization headed in. If you are going in the wrong direction, no amount of time is going to correct that. The offensive line has gotten worse and the running game has declined. The defensive line has declined. Both saftey positions are questionable at best. Special teams are in shambles. Game management and play calling have been poor to terrible. This team is no longer about adding a player hear or there (unless you are talking about multiple superstars) This team doesn't have any solid all-pros anymore. Journeymen are fine but at some point you need stars. Rodgers is fine and dandy but can he carry a team? Can Ryan Grant carry a team? Can Jennings carry a team? Do we have a great defensive player who can change a game? Why wait to change direction, if you are obviously going in the wrong direction?
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Mike Craig 7 months ago
Ted Thompson is more to blame than Mike McCarthy.
Last season, Brett Favre was basically the coach of that team. Mike McCarthy has to actually learn how to coach now. Perhaps they both should be fired, however this is only one season. I do not see how you can say after a 13-3 season last year, that this team has been declining constantly.
When Ted Thompson took over, they went 4-12, then 8-8, to a 13-3 record. If anything, this season was nothing but a test. That is why I said if things do not pan out next season, do not only fire him, literally take his head off. This is Aaron Rodgers' first season as a starter and he hasn't been playing like a first year starter.
Brett Favre brought energy to that team which is why they were 13-3. If somebody else would step up and take the position of producing such motivation, this team could easily be as good as it was last year. However I do not see that happening this year. And if it does not happen next year, then TT, Mike McCarthy, and Mark Murphy need fired for their poor handling of the Brett Favre situation. After all I would rather have 2 really good seasons with a Legend, than an early bad future without Brett Favre.
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Doug Dwyer 7 months ago
Before Thompson took over, the Packers had won the NFC North 4 years in a row.
2001 12-4
2002 12-4
2003 10-6
2004 10-6
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Derek Lofland 7 months ago
Here's the quetsion you got to ask yourself. Can the Packers improve the problems they have by, 1) allowing their injured players to heal, 2) Developing their younger players into quality starters or contributing players, 3) Add talent in the draft that will allow this team to get younger a key positions. If you think that is what the Packers need to improve their record in 2008 Ted Thompson might be up to the task.
If you think they are a young team that needs to add quality free agents and veterans as starters to mesh with a young team that in the abscense of Favre is unable to win close games and makes the mistakes that young teams often kill themselves with then you need a change.
Ted Thompson has not shown he will improve this team in free agency. The Pack doesn't need another promising draft class. Can Ted the Tool while there is still a young base to build around. As long as Ted is the GM, Losing is Here to Stay.
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andy pech 7 months ago
Base??? What base??? Where is it that people see all this young talent??? Nick Collins isn't young anymore and although this is his best season to date, he is not exactly a game-changer. The o-line needs to be entirely rebuilt. The two best d-backs will be on their way out in a year and the young d-backs can't cover their own mothers. Bigby seems to disappear in big-games. The d-line was less than average before the injuries. The injuries didn't doom this team; they had little talent to begin with.TT seems to have everyone snowed on this one. He's has a terrible track record at building a team. Keep in mind he took over a playoff team to begin with. Look at this punter thing this year. And if he has added depth, how come the special teams stink? This TT genius thing has quickly turned into a fantasy. Keep in my what happened in Detroit. Stick with TT and the same thing will happpen in Greenbay.
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