Week 15 - Packers @ Jags - 12/14 - 12 PM

[Jollay]

BTW, Bust you are so wrong about this I cant even tell you. You want your young QB to get a game winning drive under his belt for the TD on the road about a thousand times more than slightly improving your draft position.

Unless of course the 8 pick as opposed to the 12 pick is the end all be all, and that pick can also play multiple positions and fill our multiple needs.

But, another game where stats wise, offensively--no difference at all from last year.

[Bernman]

I just think Rodgers is ill-equipped to run an offense in a small amount of time. He's a semi conservative quarterback who prefers checking down often and being forced into making throws down the field when the defense is expecting just that, puts him out of his comfort zone. On the drives with about 5 minutes to play, when he can run normal offense, he's fantastic. Most of our drives throughout a game take a while, and even when they don't, big plays come on play action, which isn't going to work in a 2-minute offense. So I don't think it's an unclutch issue. He needs to be complimented with a defense who can stop a 2-minute offense a decent portion of the time and then just rely on Rodgers to take knees and seal the game. The bend and then break late game defense is about the worst compliment for his style.

[LUKE23]

Good loss. We weren't making the playoffs. We are a lot better than our record, but need a playmaker badly in the front 7. The higher the pick, the better to try and accomplish that goal.

Could be as high as #8 after today.

[Mags FTW]

I like how last year's 2nd round pick who is averaging 5 and a half yards per rush has 1 carry in the last 2 games. Let's not try and develop him or anything...

[MadCityBucky]

Eh, don't really care that we lost.

But I don't want the Packers to lose to the Bears and Lions.

[MickeyDavis]

No playoffs 3 of the last 4 years. It's been 17 years since we had similar results.

[LUKE23]

It comes down to one playmaker in the front 7, health to the D, and more experience from Rodgers. All every easy obtainable this offseason.

I'm willing to bet this team will set a record for a # of games lost by 4 points or less. I guess I'm just not worried about this team at all, they are a top 5 offense, they just need improvement in the red zone, which will come with more experience, health to the D along with a new coordinator, and a guy in the draft that can get to the QB.

We're outscoring our opponents by 32 for the year and are 5-9. That shows we are not as bad as our record, but that we have been horrendous in close games.

I'm expecting us to be right back in it next season with just a few moves and health.

[El Duderino]

It's amazing how predictable this team is

Gag in the red zone

Gag in short yardage situations

Get a lead with around 3-5 minutes left

Defense gets shredded for a quick TD and gags the lead away

Rodgers comes in with a chance for a game winning drive and gags badly

Packers lose close game

At least this gag job didn't matter

[MickeyDavis]

I'm tired of the "bad luck" and injury excuse. Look how much talent the Giants have lost to injury/retirement/suspension. They didn't fall apart. We did.

[Kerb Hohl]

Agreed, I'm not buying the "bad luck" theories all the time anymore either. After the first 2 or 3, okay, but we are going on about #7 now.

However, I think you can say that we have yet to grab a fortuitous bounce in a tight game this year. Say it's more even and we are 7-7 right now. Still not a playoff team, but that is probably where we should be. I'm just using it as a point of reference to say about how we've played this year.

Point being, a 7-7 team is usually one like ours with role players all around but we are lacking that A+ talent at a few spots on the field. A team that is playing at a .500 level can be 11-5 next year if you factor in:
1. Hopefully less injuries to key spots. Bigby and Jenkins going down were huge. Barnett too. Not to say all teams don't have those injuries, but we seemed to get them at the wrong place, wrong time a lot.
2. Rodgers in his second year. Man, if he could just pull a damn comeback out I would be bursting with confidence. I think he can do it next year, and I think there is a time or two that he has done it this year but a penalty/crap defense/bad call has derailed that.
3. High draft pick and some fire under TT's ass to find some game-breaking talent.

With the core we have, add a freak DE or LB, a cornerstone tackle at the top of round 1 hopefully or via FA/trade, and a nice signing or two in FA and this team could easily be 11-5 and one of the best in the NFC again.

A lot of ifs, but I think we are close and a few gamebreakers and experience will put us over the top.

Oh yeah, no more Bob Sanders.

[mbucks22]

We'll be right back in the thick of things next year. I didn't expect to make the playoffs MM's first year so I really only consider this year his first bad year. As long as the bleeding doesn't leak into next season, which I do not expect.