http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/105623343.html
Perhaps because the Packers were the pre-season choice of many observers to make the Super Bowl, ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer has decided to take them down a notch or two. Or three.
After five games had been played, Dilfer offered a withering commentary about the Packers’ ineffectiveness in fourth quarters. He pointed out that when teams are called upon to offer their best at the ends of games, the Packers were producing the least.
He went so far as to call them chokers.
Dilfer has added to the arsenal of words to pound on his Preseason Pretenders.
In the second installment of a show this season called “Audibles,” which aired Thursday on ESPN, Dilfer took his hard count to the line again about Green Bay.
Dilfer, Steve Young and Herm Edwards were talking about the Vikings at Packers game on Sunday night.
Dilfer picked the Vikings to win.
“The Packers have some issues now,” Dilfer said. “I'm sick of people just talking about their injuries. Because before they were banged up, they had some issues. This is a team that can’t finish. . . . They don’t have a soul.”
Young argued Green Bay does not have a running game and that it has had too many key injuries on defense.
“Aaron Rodgers is really good, but he needs some help to get some points on the board,” Young said. “You can absorb as a defense, (New York Jets’) Kris Jenkins, for example – you can absorb one big injury in the middle of the season. A great defense does not even notice it. The Jets don’t even notice it. But you cannot absorb four.”
Dilfer said the Packers’ problem is not the lack of a reliable running back.
“Have you seen them block?” Dilfer said. “I don’t care if you put Walter Payton back there.
“What kind of football team are they to me?” Dilfer said. “They have some stars. “I believe Aaron is an excellent quarterback. Top of the list, up there. They have star power. They don’t have a soul. They don’t have substance. They don’t block people. They don’t do the little things. They don’t do the ugly stuff. And that stuff wins for you.”
Edwards said teams that don’t have a running game pay a price.
“When you play football and you don’t run the ball you become soft,” Edwards said. “You become soft in practice. Your defense becomes soft because there are not hard-headed runs. So guess what? Your defense becomes a catch defense in practice. So then when you play one of those teams – Miami Dolphins – who take the ball and really come at you, you haven’t seen that.”
