The Good, The Bad, The Ugly From Week 17

Hm. Well … that game certainly didn’t go as expected. On Sunday night, the Green Bay Packers fell to the Minnesota Vikings 20-13, losing the division title for the first time in four years and, more absurdly, got swept at home by their division opponents for the first time since 1991.

Not much worked until the fourth quarter, when the Packers abandoned schemes and went back into “school-yard” mode. However, a last-chance Hail Mary was batted down to seal their fate, sending them on the road to a playoff game against the Washington Redskins this Sunday.

Last week, I described the loss to Arizona as embarrassing, and it certainly was. But what happened on Sunday cemented a season that, while still successful (the team will still have a chance at a Super Bowl, no matter how slim), will go down as one filled with injuries, a myriad of coaching decision mysteries, and a very un-Packers-like offense.

Regardless, we have a job to do, and that’s to go through the good, the bad, and the ugly of this game. As it stands, this could be one of the last ones of the year, so let’s get on with it:

The Good: 

• Mason Crosby: Just by reading his name, you should gather that: 1.) Mason Crosby did something pretty incredible, and 2.) Not very many things were good in this game. You’d be right on both accounts should you have guessed them. While Crosby managed a fairly good game, hitting two field goals, his play of the game came during a kick returnAfter making it a 20-13 game, Cordarrelle Patterson broke off a kick return that looked destined to give Minnesota great field position. Instead, Crosby dove in, popped the ball free and gave the Packers another chance to tie (which they didn’t take).

• Micah Hyde: Not only did Hyde recover the fumble caused by Crosby, he also had an interception that could have certainly breathed some life into the Packers. Down 13-3, Teddy Bridgewater saw some heavy pressure and made a very ill-advised throw with his left hand to Mike Wallace.What followed was simply one of the best interceptions of the season, with Hyde backhanding the ball with his right hand and rolling over to secure it. While many fans might remember Hyde just barely missing an interception against San Francisco in the playoffs, he certainly had a day on Sunday, and has been much improved overall throughout the year.

• Clay Matthews: Coming into this game, a lot of time was spent in discussing how Matthews has been appearing less and less on the state sheet. The man himself acknowledged that he needed to perform better, and he backed that up with some big stops. While he was whistled once for unsportsmanlike conduct, he followed that up by sacking Bridgewater once and stifling Adrian Peterson on multiple rushes. If the team wants to make any noise in the playoffs, they’ll certainly need more performances like this one from their star defender.

The Bad: 

Mike McCarthy:

While he’s never appeared on this portion of the list, it’s high time he does. Whatever is wrong with this team, whether it be lack of scheme, dysfunction in the locker room, or poor play calling, it all leads back to one person: Coach McCarthy. After taking the play calling back, the Packers won two straight games and looked

sort of

like their old selves. However, what followed were back-to-back stinkers, and we’re once again left questioning just what’s wrong with this team (and the offense, especially).

Early on in the game, McCarthy seemed to have a good gameplan of using Eddie Lacy/James Starks extensively with multiple tight ends. This worked very well on the first drive of the game, and then afterwards was promptly scrapped and replaced with what we’re used to seeing: pass plays that never seem to work. Despite what we’re used to seeing in seasons past, there seems to be absolutely no coherent gameplan for the Packers, and they won’t be winning anything if they can’t at least decide how they want to play.

Most of that is up to McCarthy, and he’s failed so far.

: Let’s face it, this year hasn’t been the best for Green Bay’s star quarterback. Despite starting 6-0 without his favorite receiver, Rodgers has had bad performance after bad performance, and Sunday was no different. We’ll get into the five sacks he took in a moment, but for the second straight game he had multiple turnovers, one of which was a fumble recovered for a touchdown following the Hyde interception that put Minnesota up 20-3.I don’t want to come off as blaming Rodgers for the entire offenses performance, because the fact remans that without him, they would be much worse off.

However, it’s very clear now that he’s just having an uncharacteristically bad year; missed throws, turnovers, and a serious case of the jitters in the pocket are all adding up to the poor throws we see on Sundays. The team still needs him if they want to succeed, and that is especially true come next week, but if we’re going to be getting the Rodgers from weeks 7-17, the season might already be over.

Pass Protection:

It’s hard for me to put this group into the “bad” section, as they were missing starting left tackle

and were forced to move

over to replace him. However, that doesn’t excuse the rest of the group, as Rodgers was one again sacked more than five times in a game. What was once rated as one of the best offensive lines in the NFL (No. 1 in pass protection in 2014, according to Pro Football Focus) the unit has devolved into a turnstile for opposing defenders.

While I won’t deride Sitton for allowing some pressure (it was his first game at the position, after all), but if the team can’t keep Rodgers upright in the regular season, you have to question whether it’s possible to do so in the postseason. For the first time in a long time, teams are actively blitzing Green Bay, and they have absolutely no answer for it. They’ll have to step up this week if they want a chance to win against a fairly fierce Washington pass rush.

The Ugly: 

Everything:

I thought about what exactly I should put as the “ugly” part of the game, considering so much of it was. At he end of the day, the only thing I kept coming back to was this … everything. Almost everything in that game was ugly, and all for different reasons. This is clearly not the Packers team we’re used to seeing, and you’d have to wonder if we’ll see that team at all until next September. Offensively, there are so many problems to list, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s wrong.There seems to be no solid planning for anything, and when we do see a game plan that might work, it’s inexplicably thrown away in favor for what we know doesn’t. If you look at the season as a whole, you’d almost have to wonder how this team even managed to win 10 games, let alone make it into the playoffs.

For the first time in a long time, you can say that the defense of the Packers has brought them to the playoffs despite the poor play of the offense, and it’s a sad sight to behold. While the season isn’t over, and Green Bay might very well be favored over a Washington team that hasn’t won a single game against a winning team, it’s hard to see them coming back from Washington anything but losers.

I won’t write the team off yet so long as there is a pulse, but the pulse on the 2015 Packers is fading fast, and unless Rodgers/McCarthy can keep it going, the team may flatline next Sunday.