You hear Packer players saying we are what we are and our record is who we are. For the past two year and half years, I've looked at Mike McCarthy and was duly impressed with his coaching staff. I thought he had really coached his team up and that their record was better than the talent because they were so well coached. This year I don't see that same high level of coaching. I see a team making mistake upon mistake and missing assignments all over the place. Certainly that isn't a sign of good coaching.

I've heard the discussion about how injured we are, but even before Barnett went down, he wasn't playing very well. Both Tauscher and Clifton along with the rest of the entire line has struggled mightily. So what has happened to this team? Are we really this bad?

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uh, yes. we are who we thought we were.

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I don't think we're as bad as our record. Just look at our points for/points against.

Last year, in our first seven games 6 were decided by a touchdown or less, and we were 5-1 in those games. This year, we're 1-5 in games decided by a touchdown or less. That's the main difference.

If we had gone 1-5 last year in close games, we would have been 2-5 instead of 6-1 after seven games. That whole season would have gone differently. If we had the same record this year (5-1) in close games we'd be sitting at 9-4 right now.

What we have is a very young team--led by a young quarterback--that is inconsistent and hasn't figured out how to finish out a game yet.

The defense has been a lot worse than I expected, and (in my opinion) a lot of that falls to the coaches and defensive schemes.

We're essentially one play/stop in each game away. But we didn't/couldn't make the play/stop in any of those games. And that says a lot about the youth and about the coaches preparing the players.

We are seeing the... shall I say it? Brett Favre difference. What he meant to this team last year is on showcase here.

I know I am going to hear the no comparison, sick of the subject, etc. BUT, fact of the matter is that the Favre factor was more than just throwing TDs. The whole team knew they were playing with a living legend on their team. Favre's affect on the team went WELL beyond the TD passes and the ability to bounce back from the tough hits.

We are seeing it now. The same team that learned to win with Favre at the helm last year are losing the same kind of games this year.

Don't give me this crap about the stats bearing out different facts.

Stats don't bear out the What Favre brought to the field.

Rodgers is a good QB but is still learning to be a great one. Packers season is all but over and Packers have been embarrassed in ways they NEVER were last year.

YES Packers defense stinks and the team is hurt in several key positions but Packers were missing players last year also. As matter of fact, Grant didn't even come to play until the mid-season.

Packers are capable of winning the next three games and salvaging an 8-8 season. They are also just as capable of laying an egg the next three games as they have proven in the last 3 games.

This team is suffering the pains of losing their team leader, the one everyone took pride in, and the definitive driving force of the team from the last several years.

It is sad. I am one to move on from the saga that was Brett Favre but this is the aftereffects of a season in which Favre played his guts out and drove the team to do the same and his disappearnce from the team that he defined.

I hope the Packers win out the rest of the season for pride sakes. But the truth is the truth and it hurts right now.

I am NOT saying we should have kept Favre, merely that we should have expected this.

Go ahead, rip me apart.

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Embarrassed in ways they never were last year?

The BF portion of the Dallas game, both losses to the Bears?

We've been blown out once this year, New Orleans. A couple of different bounces and we'd have a completely different record.

I'm not saying that we're a great Football team but we've held our own against great teams this season.

I didn't know what to expect this season, I think next year will be a whole different ballgame.

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Losing to the Cowboys was NOT an embarassment. IT was expected. Were they NOT the first seed last year?

A mediocre Saints team BLEW us out this year.

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1st off give us the starting D players from last year, then put the ones from this year..

Let us really see how much different this D is?

Then after that look at this

For 16 games last year

D last year gave up 1597 yards rushing

4.1 per carry

13 tds

they gave up 20+ yards 20 times

40+ yards 4 times

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So far this year

1841 yards ( over 16 games that 2265 yards )

4.8 yards per carry

17 td ( over 16 games thats almost 20 tds )

Gave up 20 + yards 14 times

Gave up 40+ yards 4 times

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Our D compared to last year SUCKS

Brett would not have made Harrell, Montgomery, Bishop play any better and btw those were starters last week or played lot more then they should have\


So stop with the Brett would have made the D better thats BULLSHIT

Maybe the offense could have played a notch better but IMO that would have only been one more win, vs Tampa

I agree a lot with this post. Pretty much all of it in fact. A lot of stupid mistakes/blown plays are a factor, as well as youth, coaching, injuries, etc..

However, obi1 brings a valid point. While I don't see us being a better team with Favre on the roster, I do believe that we have been seeing a lot less fire from our players. That extra bit of aggression that gives players a push. The one that the Giants had last year in the playoffs, or the tenacity that a player like Merriman/Haynesworth/Ray Lewis brings. I agree to the point that we lost a leader on our team, and we've struggled to replace their presence. Rodger's is in his first season as a starer so we can't expect too much, but no veteran has really stepped up to the plate. We don't have a fiery player that gets us pumped up and I think if we got one our team would play different.

bravo! I couldn't have said it better myself. +1

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I'm just going to copy my post from a basically unread thread.

No, we aren't this bad. We have the talent, but we haven't had our starting 11 on D the whole year. Bigby and Harris were injured earlier, and that effected our run defense, and Jenkins and Barnett are out for the year which effects both run and pass defense heavily. There's nobody getting a pass rush outside of Kampman and although Chillar and Poppinga are solid linebackers, they aren't the stud linebackers that a team with a weak DLine can survive with.

I would never ever call this a bad team though. We have had opportunities to beat the Titans, Bucs, and Panthers who are all 10 win teams. Bad teams don't compete with these teams week in and week out. We won't make the playoffs this season, but we are in no way in a spiral downward.

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