A 1-1 start to the 2009 NFL season has armchair general managers coming out of the woodwork.
The Green Bay Packers have struggled offensively, the offensive line hasn’t been able to protect the quarterback, the running game has yet to get off the ground, receivers are dropping passes and the general timing is clearly off. That just the offense.
On defense, after a good start in week one, the Packers lost the physical battle and the Cincinnati Bengals ran the ball right down their throats.
Special teams won the week one battle, but that also ended in week 2.
Penalties continue to be a problem, just like last season where the Packers often times lack discipline. And now injuries are starting to creep in as well.
What are the Packers going to do at tackle? Should they sign Mark Tauscher? How about veteran Jon Runyan as a free agent.
It’s always easy for the fans at home to come up with all the answers, but it just doesn’t work that way. Yes, the Packers need to fix a lot of things, but many of these players have done it before. Aaron Rodgers threw for a boat load of yards last season and his receivers held on to the football.
I’ll admit to drinking a bit of the preseason Kool-Aid, although I’m not going to kick my 11-5 prediction to the curb. But you don’t go with young football players and kick them to the curb at the first sign of trouble either. Mike McCarthy says many of their problems are fundamental. His players are losing one-on-one battles. He said they simply have to do better.
Two weeks are down and there’s still 14 left to play. I admit that some of the progressions are a bit disturbing, but selling out your own team 2 weeks into the season is a bit much. Every area of this team must improve, including the coaching. But that’s what coaches are supposed to do. They’re supposed to coach up their players, get them to improve and play better on Sunday’s. Let’s see if they can pull it off in the next couple of weeks.
