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You can parse this any way you want, or grind whatever axe is closest at hand.
Special teams is the easiest call, and no one is going to shed tears for Bisaccia or McManus getting shown the door. But they say success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. That can’t be allowed to pass anymore. Every level of this organization had its fingerprints all over this thing.
Both lines were bad, and they’ve been a problem all year, and they were unacceptably shallow all year. And the entire world knew CB was a glaring weakness. Wouldn’t you know it, those things still hurt the Packers last night. That’s on Gutekunst.
Hafley sounds great at the mic, but his defense just gave up a historic comeback to a QB that routinely can’t hit the broadside of a barn and for whom they had no answers. Nothing he dialed up worked late and while you can say the third quarter offense did his group no favors, I’m not going to defend 25 late points given up when the offense didn’t turn the ball over. That doesn’t fly.
And the offense. The magic is gone on the o-line. Steno and Butkus are out of leash. They made their bones on getting maximum production out of some B-grade investment there, but they’re running on reputation and it hasn’t been reality for a while. That second half screamed for ball control and churning some ground yards and they got stuffed in a locker by a Bears front that doesn’t intimidate anyone.
But when the chips are down, and everything else is falling down around their ears, the one thing that has to be a constant in Green Bay is the QB and playcaller. At the very least, they have to know how to move the sticks, play situationally sound football, and bleed out a trailing opponent, especially an inferior one (though at this rate, it’ll be nearly impossible to say the Bears should be dogs in next year’s matchups). LaFleur and Love have accomplished much that can be praised, and they were always going to look diminished after Rodgers left. But even accounting for that, they choked again in the second half of a playoff game. They come up small in the biggest moments.
But the point is, the whole team comes up small. Running it back is unthinkable, but once you start firing one person, I can’t fathom how you’d defend any of the others when it’s been this bad. The whole team needs a new identity. I can’t see any other way forward.
Special teams is the easiest call, and no one is going to shed tears for Bisaccia or McManus getting shown the door. But they say success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. That can’t be allowed to pass anymore. Every level of this organization had its fingerprints all over this thing.
Both lines were bad, and they’ve been a problem all year, and they were unacceptably shallow all year. And the entire world knew CB was a glaring weakness. Wouldn’t you know it, those things still hurt the Packers last night. That’s on Gutekunst.
Hafley sounds great at the mic, but his defense just gave up a historic comeback to a QB that routinely can’t hit the broadside of a barn and for whom they had no answers. Nothing he dialed up worked late and while you can say the third quarter offense did his group no favors, I’m not going to defend 25 late points given up when the offense didn’t turn the ball over. That doesn’t fly.
And the offense. The magic is gone on the o-line. Steno and Butkus are out of leash. They made their bones on getting maximum production out of some B-grade investment there, but they’re running on reputation and it hasn’t been reality for a while. That second half screamed for ball control and churning some ground yards and they got stuffed in a locker by a Bears front that doesn’t intimidate anyone.
But when the chips are down, and everything else is falling down around their ears, the one thing that has to be a constant in Green Bay is the QB and playcaller. At the very least, they have to know how to move the sticks, play situationally sound football, and bleed out a trailing opponent, especially an inferior one (though at this rate, it’ll be nearly impossible to say the Bears should be dogs in next year’s matchups). LaFleur and Love have accomplished much that can be praised, and they were always going to look diminished after Rodgers left. But even accounting for that, they choked again in the second half of a playoff game. They come up small in the biggest moments.
But the point is, the whole team comes up small. Running it back is unthinkable, but once you start firing one person, I can’t fathom how you’d defend any of the others when it’s been this bad. The whole team needs a new identity. I can’t see any other way forward.
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