Last night in the Big Easy the Green Bay Packers were thoroughly embarrassed by the Saints aerial attack.  From the very beginning, the Packers never matched the intensity of their opponent, “We weren’t ready to play”, muttered Nick Collins after the game, “They were and we didn’t have an answer for them.  We just weren’t ready to play.”
That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.  Mike McCarthy, who was so promotional of his team’s practice efforts this week, didn’t have his ball club ready when they took the field.  Defensive Coordinator, Bob Sanders, was “out schemed” by Saints Head Coach, Sean Payton, and his offensive unit.  It got so bad that Sanders finally gave up and went to zone coverage, something the Packers really aren’t good at.  I haven’t even mentioned the poor fundamentals such as tackling and blocking yet but believe me, that’s a high priority in the NFL, the Packers might want to enhance that just a bit.



Another component to a very ugly loss was Green Bay’s special teams.  Mike Stock, who’s flown somewhat under the radar, is squarely in the crosshairs now.  His desire to bring in Derrick Frost and kick to the curb John Ryan has proven to be a dismal failure.  Frost has been inconsistent at best.  His vaunted gift for getting hang time has been subpar at best and has been exceeded by his inability to kick consistently over 40 yards when needed.  Let’s not forget about his one consistency, shanks in domes….in domes.  They are weather controlled bubbles for God’s sake.  No breeze, no cold weather….perfect conditions and he’s guaranteed to shank one when you need it most.  One more thing special teams-wise, last night late in the ball game, when Will Blackmon was struggling for yardage after yet another New Orleans kickoff, there were guys actually walking off of the field before Blackmon was down.
This leads me to the offense.  It was like watching a prize fight in which both heavyweights were slugging it out until one fighter lands the blow that takes the other out of his rhythm.  That punch was when Greg Jennings slipped and fell down on an out play in which Aaron Rodgers threw to a particular spot.  The ball was in the air before Jennings made the cut.  Saints cornerback Jason David has an easy pick and scampered down to the Packers 3 yard line before Rodgers gave him a full body block, leading with his bad shoulder.  Rodgers, in the next series, wasn’t on the same page with Jordy Nelson and threw yet again to David.  That was the knock out blow.  The Packers never regained their form.  It didn’t help that the Saints were rushing 3 and 4 men and the Packers schizophrenic offensive line, minus Mark Tauscher, couldn’t hold a block to save their lives.  Rodgers, later in the game, forced a pass that was destined for his 3d pick of the game.  This was the first time this season that I saw Rodgers clearly frustrated and began to come a little apart.



This was a poor game all the way around.  Include the fact that both the Bears and the Vikings won on Sunday, to put the Packers a game behind in the NFC North. Also, Minnesota and Chicago play each other next weekend so the Packers still won’t gain any ground in the division even with a win over Carolina.  The Caroline game is now a MUST WIN game.  The only positive coming up is that Green Bay has 2 warm weather teams (Carolina and Houston) coming to Lambeau in consecutive weeks.  Maybe they can get a couple of wins, gain some confidence and get on some type of roll.  But let me caution, you can’t get bigger, stronger or faster at practice.  The only way the Packers will be able to remain a viable candidate for the post-season is to play mistake-free, fundamental football, something they show a clear propensity not to be very good at on a consistent basis.