A Scout's Take on the State of the Green Bay Packers

The 28-22 overtime loss that the Green Bay Packers suffered against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game at CenturyLink Field will probably go down as the most devastating loss in the storied history of the franchise.

Why? The Packers totally dominated the game for 56 minutes. They were just a few minutes from going to Super Bowl XLIX. But then the team had a monumental collapse in the last few moments of the game.

In fact, when safety Morgan Burnett intercepted Russell Wilson with 5:13 left in the game with the Packers holding a 19-7 lead, the Packers had a 98.2 percent chance of winning the game, according to Joe Posnanski of NBC Sports.

We all know what happened after that. I recently wrote about how the painful loss will linger for the Packers.

The result is that it's the Seahawks who are in Glendale, Arizona, this week to face the New England Patriots in the 49th Super Bowl.

I wanted to get the opinion of scout Chris Landry as to what it's going to take for the Packers to regroup and get refocused on the 2015 season and beyond. I had an opportunity to talk with him last Friday on 620 WDAE's Steve Duemig Show to get his take on the state of the Packers.

I first asked Landry about the special teams disasters the Packers had in the game against the Seahawks, which makes sense seeing that they finished 32nd in the NFL in the special teams rankings put out by Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News.

"The fake field goal in particular was pretty easily diagnosed by Seattle," Landry said. "That's tough. Particularly when Seattle comes out, and you don't normally see this, but to say that we saw that [the rushing tendencies of Brad Jones] on film. And that's a dagger into [special teams coordinator] Shawn Slocum's heart or back, however you want to put it."

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Landry then discussed how the Packers had impressed him versus the Seahawks.

"They've got some tough decisions to make," Landry said. "I think what Ted [Thompson] and Mike [McCarthy] are going to do is listen, they are doing things the right way. This is a good team. I got to tell you, I'm disappointed for the Packer fans. I was pretty proud of how they played.

"I thought that they played better than I thought they would. I thought they had a chance. But I didn't think that they would take control of the game and basically kind of rattle Seattle and take them out of their game quite like they did.

"I think there's a lot of positives in what is a real big, negative downer. Because they lost that game more than Seattle winning it."

Landry then talked about what the team has to do moving forward.

"I think you have to take something out of it. You have to look at all the things that we are building. The offensive line is getting better. The running game is getting better. They've got to work on special teams.

"Like everybody, you've got some roster decisions that you have to make. You've got a quarterback [Aaron Rodgers] who needs to get healthy and who is the best one in the league, I think. A lot of positives to build from.

"I think you can overdo it. You can panic. They are doing that in other places. They are doing that in Denver. I don't thinks that's the way to go. I think they are going to do the right things and be calm about it.

"They need to tinker with some things, and maybe it's just not, 'Off with the head of Shawn Slocum,' or maybe it is that they make a move with a new special teams coach. Or they will certainly do things differently in-house.

"They have to improve things, but listen: I think they finished the season pretty well. And I know it's not what you want to hear, but I think the worst thing you can do is to start to make heads roll, and now you are starting to rebuild over with what is a really good team and a really good organization.

"I don't think Ted and Mike are going to allow that to happen."

Earlier in the show, Landry made a point to Duemig about the way the Packers offense played in the red zone early in the game.

"There is no doubt, a huge factor in them not winning the game was their ineffectiveness in the red zone offensively early. They turn that around, and there is not going to be a comeback for Seattle."

Landry was also very impressed with the way the Green Bay defense played.

"I thought Dom Capers called a great game," Landry said. "Their defense got worn flat-out in the second half when [Marshawn] Lynch started to run the football on them.

"He didn't call any less effective a game; they just didn't have the legs. That is why you have to put that team away. Because they stay committed to the run."

Landry then reflected more on the the key plays of the game.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

'I thought the two-point conversion was critical. [Ha Ha] Clinton-Dix played great but had three or four major snafus late," Landry said. "I don't think he saw the ball. I think he got turned, and I don't think he saw it, which was basically like a fair-catch ball.

"And then you've got the onside kick. I mean, people say, 'How can that happen?' Well, very simply, you teach a guy [Brandon Bostick] that he's got to block, another guy [Richard Rodgers] that he's got to block and that you [Jordy Nelson] go up for the ball."

"What happened, and I did this on a TV show earlier in the week, is if I throw a pen at someone across the desk, their natural instinct is to catch it. That's what happens in the moment when the ball is coming at you, even though you are taught to block, is to grab the ball [sic].

"It's tough. The kid [Bostick] is just killing himself this week. Because if he blocks that guy, that's the guy who ends up catching the ball for Seattle.

"If anyone of those things go a different way, we are talking about Green Bay in the Super Bowl."

Bottom line, all the Packers can do is pick up themselves up and get refocused for next season. I don't think there is any doubt that there will be some changes, but there won't be drastic ones.

As Landry said, the Packers are doing things the right way. Thompson and McCarthy have built a consistent winner in Green Bay, and the team will continue to win.

Since Thompson hired McCarthy in 2006, the Packers have gone 94-49-1 in the regular season, which includes five NFC North titles.

The Packers have also been to the postseason seven times and have played in three NFC Championship Games, where they have won one and lost two, both in overtime.

Green Bay also won Super Bowl XLV under the Thompson-McCarthy tandem.

Although the end of the recent NFC Championship Game was very disappointing, it is not time to panic, as Landry also said.

Time will tell what changes will be made this offseason to the coaching staff, but don't expect more than one or two modifications.

In terms of the roster, the Packers are a draft-and-develop team and will continue to be so under Thompson and McCarthy.

It's a winning philosophy that gets tweaked from time to time but never changes.