Green Bay Packers Midseason Grades

Every course has a midterm grade, and we have reached that point in the season. (Technically, the Packers reached that before the Dallas game. However, with all teams having now had their bye week, Week 10 is the most appropriate time to do any comparison.)

Thus, I will be examining the grades I have given each unit, and analyzing the team strengths and weaknesses. In this article, I will focus on the offense and aspects of coaching; my next installment will focus on defense and special teams.

Like any good teacher, I have also re-examined some of the grades to see if they are fair.

For instance, as was pointed out by my most frequently-commenting Vikings fan, Mark, even considering the strength of competition and special teams failures that enabled the Vikings to score 38 points, I clearly graded the defense for that week too high (A-/D-/B+).

Likewise, even with the sorry competition of the Lions and Rams, I graded the units too low considering both games were over early in the second half.

Hence, below are my revised midseason grades by unit. (For the original grades, you can look back at my articles following each game with key words in the titles like game recaps, analysis, and report cards.)

Note: To enable a B+ to rate higher than a B-, I am using the following values for each grade to determine average: A+=12, A=11, A-=10, B+=9…D=2, D-=1, F=0.

Quarterback: B

(B-, B, B+, A-, B+, A+, A-, D, B)

This averages to a value of 8.6—nearly a B+, but I will only give Rodgers a B thus far. His passer rating of 101.8 is good for fourth in the league, and despite the poor blocking, he has led this team to the 11th most passing yards in the league, and the third most per play.

However, 20 to 25 percent of the sacks Rodgers takes are the result of him holding the ball too long. He will not reach an A grade until he can correct this tendency. However, he is 189-296 (63.9) for 2444 yards (8.3 per attempt) with 17 touchdowns and only five interceptions.

Rodgers is also the team’s second-leading rusher with 33 carries for 229 yards (6.3 average), three touchdowns, and only two fumbles lost. That gives him 2673 total yards, 20 scores, and seven turnovers.

Running Back: C

(D+, D-, C+, B+, B-, B+, D, B, C-)

These grades average to a value of 5.4, or a high C—that is about right given decent production behind a horrible line. The team is 12th in rushing and tied for 11th in yards per carry.

Ryan Grant is ninth in the league in rushing with 168 carries for 700 yards. The resulting 4.2 yard average is 17th in the league among backs with 100-plus carries. He also has 18 catches for 132 yards (7.3 average), but has just four touchdowns and one fumble lost.

Those numbers are solid and would rate somewhere around a B-. Unfortunately, the rest of the backfield has accumulated just 131 yards on 38 carries (3.4) and 19 catches for 131 yards (6.9), with a total of three touchdowns. It is generally not a good thing to have one back account for 76 percent of a unit’s production.

Receivers (WR/TE): B-

(C-, D+, B+, A-, A-, A, B+, B-, B)

This unit has totaled 154 catches for 2196 yards (14.3) and 15 touchdowns with just one fumble lost.

Donald Driver is leading the team with 41 catches for 663 yards (16.2 average) and four touchdowns, but does have the unit’s only fumble lost. Greg Jennings is right behind him with 38 catches for 543 yards (14.3 average) and two scores.

Beyond them, the Packers have three players with over 200 receiving yards: James Jones (14 catches for 280 yards, a 20.0 average, and three scores), Jermichael Finley (17-260, 15.3, 1), and Donald Lee (26-202, 7.8, 0), despite Finley missing a couple games. Jordy Nelson (11-136, 12.4, 1) and Spencer Havner (7-112, 16.0, 4) round out a deep and talented corps.

Offensive Line: D

(F, F, D+, F, F, B+, F, F, D+)

This averages to just under a D, but in looking at the line’s running stats, I think they would warrant higher were it not for some pretty soft defenses faced.

Even if one blames Rodgers for over 20 percent—say nine—of his 41 sacks (a reasonable guess, but consider that every quarterback can be blamed for almost half that percentage), this line would have yielded the most sacks in the league. They also “lead” the NFL in quarterback hits allowed.

The team is 14th in yards per carry, but that includes how well a back exploits a secondary when he can reach it. A better indicator of a line’s blocking is the number of negative plays they yield.

Surprisingly, the Packers are fifth in the league in lowest percentage of runs that result in a loss. (The ratio of rushes of 10-plus yards to negative plays gets better as the carries move to the right.)

Coaching: D+

Offensively, the team ranks eighth in yards, is tied for seventh in points, ninth in third down percentage, and tops in turnover ratio. However, the Packers struggle on special teams and with penalties. We have the most penalties and second most penalty yards.

Last season when the team was racking up penalties and yards, I chalked it up to inexperience. But after 25 games, those excuses do not hold up. The coaches are accountable for bringing discipline to the team.

I could live with the penalties, but there are other indicators of poor coaching, too. For instance, on Nov. 8, the Packers faced off against the previously win-less Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and looked like a team that took the win for granted.

It is absolutely unacceptable to have a lack of intensity. The failure to wrap up on tackles, no sense of urgency as the game was slipping away, no game plan to rattle a quarterback making his first start…

That lack of effort and preparation has led me to believe that not only should Ted Thompson be fired for the lack of talent on the roster, but Mike McCarthy has to go for not getting enough out of the talent he has.

Much like he did last season, McCarthy made the same mistakes leading to the same results.

He had a chance to rattle the emotional Old Guy in the previous two games with his chief rival. Why would you not pressure a player who is known throughout his career for making poor decisions because he wants to make big plays and who really wanted to show his old team up?

Yet he and Dom Capers sent almost no blitzes at the Old Guy in either game. They followed that up by rarely blitzing the young and presumably emotional rookie in his first start—a player who was described as raw coming out of college.

Moreover, the Packers were running the ball better than they were passing, and Ryan Grant is a back whose yards per carry go up as the game goes along. Nevertheless, McCarthy abandoned the run altogether once the Bucs took the lead.

If last week’s well-designed game plan is an indication the coaching staff is getting a handle on their role, fine. But they may have waited too long. Should the Packers fail to finish with a winning record, the coaches deserve as much blame for not maximizing talent as management does for not getting enough of it.

I originally wrote this article for SportsScribes.net.