Green Bay Packers: Management is key to a Super Bowl 51 run
I’ve been watching the game of professional football and the Green Bay Packers for more than 50 years and have pretty much seen it all.
Championships; heartwrenching losses in overtime; tie games; botched onside kick recoveries; miracles followed by other miracles … and so much more by the Green Bay Packers.
But if there was a season as disappointing as the 2015 Green Bay Packers’ campaign, I don’t remember it.
A team courted by nearly everyone in August as the team to beat, the Packers roared out of the gates by winning six straight … But it wasn’t a team without issues.
The offense was sluggish, at best. The defense had its moments, but also showed a few warts (remember the San Diego game?) and it became clear early that injuries were going to play a big part in the season’s outcome.
But we had been through that before … In Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy we trusted.
Then came the bye week and the Denver Broncos … embarrassed, outcoached, lethargic … you pick your description.
When the Packers were beaten … and beaten badly by the Broncos … they also set the table for others to copy them.
And the Packers never adjusted and never recovered. From that point on, the team that everyone was picking as a Super Bowl favorite started a slide downhill from which they would never recover.
I’ve always said that the difference between teams in the NFL is ever-so-slight when it comes to talent … the difference between winning and losing teams has always come down to coaching and management.
Why do you think we’re watching the New England Patriots once again in a championship game? Look to the upper echelon and how they manage their personnel. Nobody does it better.
To that point, Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, penned a piece this weekend laying the Packers downward spiral clearly on the backs of head coach Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson.
Click on that link above and read, from start to end, McGinn’s assessment of this 2015 team. It’s a great read with so many truths. In other words, he nails its.
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Not only does he take Thompson to task for his inability to make any sort of in-season moves to improve the team, but he chastises McCarthy for his inability to make needed adjustments on the field to give the team a boost.
He also uses statistics to back up his argument: The fact that the Packers finished 25th in passing yards – the lowest rank for the team since the strike season of 1987.
How about the fact that Green Bay finished 23rd in total yards … the worst ranking since 1991 when the late Lindy Infante was the head coach.
How about the fact that the team finished 28th on third downs and that the team recorded 58 penalties on offense … the most by a McCarthy-coached team.
In a word, that’s pathetic … statistics to which only us old-timers can relate.
And then there were the dropped passes. Randall Cobb alone had 14 …
According to sportingcharts.com, the Green Bay Packers had 23 drops in 565 targets – a 4.1 percentage rate. That placed them with a 15th team rank.
According to Teamrankings.com, the Packers weren’t any better in Red Zone touchdown efficiency.
| Rank | Team | 2015 | Last 3 | Last 1 | Home | Away | 2014 |
|---|
| 17 | Green Bay | 55.00% | 50.00% | 33.33% | 53.85% | 55.88% | 57.14% |
As you can see, the Packers were once again just average.
The same can be said for team points per-game.
According to teamrankings.com, The Packers scored six points fewer per game in 2015 than they did in 2014. That’s a touchdown’s difference … a difference that would have turned the tables for the team in the wins and losses columns.
| Rank | Team | 2015 | Last 3 | Last 1 | Home | Away | 2014 |
|---|
| 15 | Green Bay | 23.5 | 22.7 | 20.0 | 23.2 | 23.7 | 29.7 |
I have to agree with McGinn on many points he makes in his story mentioned above.
Ted Thompson has to get off his high horse and grow a pair, while McCarthy has to do a better job of managing the on-field personnel he’s given in 2016 if this team is going to have any chance at appearing in Super Bowl 51.
Until then, we’ve got an entire offseason to go endure before we can evaluate if they’ve been listening and looking in the mirror.
In the meantime, enjoy the championship games today and the forthcoming Super Bowl.
Yes, the Packers should be playing today …
Hopefully, Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy are saying the same thing.