What a disappointment by the Green Bay Packers. It starts with no one else besides the three main contributors to day-to-day game planning for the Packers.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has not been great this year after back-to-back MVPs seasons. This has been Rodgers’s worst start in his career ever. Rodgers is missing a lot of open guys down the field. The scheme is working but Rodgers is not letting the ball rip. Instead, Rodgers is attempting to play hero ball half the game. It may or may not because he wants to prove he can play at a high level without Las Vegas Raiders receiver Davante Adams. What needs to change with Rodgers is to play within the offense and not try to be spectacular. The Packers do not need Rodgers to play like the superstar he was and can be.
They just need him to make the right plays within the offense. An example of this from the game against the New York Giants was with all the run pass options especially at the end of the game. It is understandable to not hand the ball off when the box is loaded but when you have two downs to get two yards to get a first down to live another day and have one of the best one two punches in the NFL, its hard to make it justifiable throwing the ball two straight plays and have it be tipped at the line. Rodgers has the ability to change to any play he wants but it seems he may be doing it to try to rack up his statistics to look better or maybe he just is not seeing the field well right now. The bottom line is Rodgers needs to start playing better by letting the ball rip and play within the offense or the Packers are in trouble. Rodgers and the offense are so bad that even some fans are starting to say that they would rather see what Packers quarterback Jordan Love has got.
Now the guy who should be most concerned for his job. Joe Barry. What are you doing? Nobody understands it. This Packers defense has so much talent on it but is failing to be dominant. It is due to your bad coaching and game planning. Much like the offense the defense plays well for half the game. Your defense has had hard times stopping mediocre offenses. The defense plays aggressive for half the game then you start to play conservative. We see this every week when the opposing offenses are in a third and long and you have the secondary playing fifteen yards off the ball basically at the first down marker. This is horrible. The defense gave up so many first downs after third and long last Sunday it is not even funny. Another issue is in the secondary is that the secondary is ranked for second in the NFL in passing yards allowed but most of them have come from crossing routes. They cannot stop crossing routes. What the strength of that defense was supposed to be the strength of this team and they have arguably been the worst part. You need to get this fixed. After a promising first year, the expectations were high. Now the defense is disappointing and it’s all because of playing conservative. If this does not get fixed you will be on the hot seat if you aren’t already as fans are calling for you to be fired.
Now, Matt LaFleur. What are you doing? Maybe it was a good thing you guys lost because now you guys cannot hide behind an ugly win and say there is still a lot to clean up. We have been hearing that for a month now and nothing has gotten better. Now you’re forced to make changes after that frustrating loss. You’re failing this team. How do you not get the best offensive player on your team with only 13 touches? Then your second-best player 6 touches? Coaching should not be this hard. You’re making it harder than it needs to be. All you have to do is find ways to get your best players the ball and you’re failing at it. Your job as the play caller is to get the plays that are going to help the players to succeed best and that isn’t happening by calling three straight pass plays. Sure, the Giants were stacking the box, but you were averaging 5 yards a carry. You have to use Aaron Jones and AJ Dillion more. If you don’t, then the Giants game isn’t the only game fans are going to be losing. There has not been one game this year that Jones or Dillion have 20+ touches in one game. That’s disappointing. LaFleur, you also need to hold everyone more accountable.
All the fans and media know is that if you do not improve your play calling and finding ways to get your best offensive players the ball, this is going to turn into a dumpster fire. You must turn the ship around as you’re already losing the locker room with cornerback Jaire Alexander saying if you guys continue to play like you are going to lose to the New York Jets this week and Jones saying he would put his money on him and Dillion getting two yards to extend the game. If you do not fix it, who knows may even you’ll end up on the hot seat as well. This team is too talented to be playing this mediocre. The only good thing that this team has right now is special teams thanks to Rich Bisaccia. Otherwise, the rest of the main guys on this team have not been good enough. You guys better get it fixed or it is going to be a long season and a lot of questions that will need to be answered at the end of the season.
