Did you know that the Cardinals have changed their location name 5 times! That’s a true. If you’re not surprised by that, you might be surprised to learn that the Cardinals were forced to change their 1st location name from “Racine” (named for the street that their home field park was located at – Normal Field) to “Chicago” because of a 1922 league expansion team that hailed from Racine, Wisconsin (Racine Legion). Even more cool, both of these teams played against the Green Bay Packers in 1924. The Cardinals are sorta Coach’s 2nd favorite team (if there is such a moronic thing). Not only because they started as the cool town-name Racine Cardinals, but also because they were founded in 1898 and hold the distinction of being the oldest continuously run professional football franchise in the nation; plus, Coach used to live in northwestern Arizona and the Cards had nearly zero fans anywhere in that state outside of Phoenix – so SOMEONE had to cheer for them or the local "Big John's" sports bar would close and there would be no place to watch the Packers on Sunday mornings (back then, there was no internet or NFL Sunday Ticket…just REALLY BIG satellite dishes at taverns).
Create a seam here - X's & O's about the game or a scheme Ho hum. In the playoffs again. What is it now, seven years straight? Boy, the preseason seems to get longer every year. Now’s a good time to dust off the playbook and start trying. Last week was clearly the “week 4 preseason game” where we played our scrubs and stayed painfully vanilla on offense and defense. This isn’t a winner take all game coming up Sunday against the Fartinals, but we need to beat them and then have Seattle give a crap in a meaningless game for the Seahoax against AZ the following week (and we beat the Vikings) for us to get a bye. Rewinding the tape against Oakland, it’s really pretty simple. When Kuhn was on the field, our plays were productive and we moved the chains. When we pulled him out, we punted or settled for field goals. Taking Kuhn off the field was an instant drive killer. Taking Kuhn out when in shotgun formation was just plain stupid. MM, if you wanna win, keep Kuhn in. If you wanna lose, go shotgun on 3rd & 2’s. Boom. Oh yeah, and where the hell was the screen pass? That’s been working really well for us as of late – especially in the rainy slop weather. So what does Eminem do? He abandons it. This brain fart almost made Coach’s WTF column, but that section (not surprisingly) is already full this week. What should we expect to see called in Arizona? Well, I hope it’s not that completely worthless, consistently unsuccessful Eddie Lacy or John Kuhn split wide pass to the other side of the field that NEVER works. I have seen them run that play more often than screen passes this year, and at least three times against Oakland. It has never worked. Why do we keep running it? Anyone? Anyone? Buehler? But, we won. It wasn’t pretty, and remember we lost a similar “trap game” to Buffalo in December last year. “This ain’t about style points, the style points, you can flush that.” said Mike McCarthy. “I’m sick of the negativity that goes on here, we’re right where we want to be, we’re right where we need to be. We’ve won 10 games. We lost 3 games on the last play. Denver beat us. That’s the overview of the season.” Coach agrees, we now have won three in a row, and as it stands we have a 3rd Seed. So what’s not to like? The Packers are clearly in playoff mode now, but even though we have qualified and would still be in the playoffs with losses to the Cardinals and Vikings in weeks 16 & 17 – all of Packer Nation is in “Super Bowl Ring or Bust” mode and everyone is fearful of another meltdown in the playoffs. It would be “nice” to win out and possibly get a 2nd seed, which would happen if we win out and AZ “loses out”, but more importantly we want to demonstrate that we can be a dominant team. In Oakland it was a gritty win, but as T.J. Lang said “Offensively, we’ve definitely got some work to do, wish we wouldn’t have to talk about it in Week 15.” Added Bakhtiari “everyone is accustomed to last year’s offense. We’ve got a hell of a defense and our special teams continue day in, day out to step up. When we have all three phases of the game clicking, I’ll take that.…” Offensively the biggest issue has been the passing game, and AR continues to muddle along at a mere “average” 12th ranking in passer rating and alarmingly he has slipped a bit further to 28th in yards per attempt. Certainly much of the cause (blame) goes to the receivers , but AR is continuing to hold the ball too long and on many of his throws he is not following through, so the ball isn’t as accurate (see the yips discussion a few weeks back). We want our Aaron back, and maybe now that his much-publicized relationship with HBO-tart Olivia Munn has ended, he'll soon be back to form. Notice how accurate he has become only a couple of days after the breakup: Aaron Rodgers Dude Perfect Trick Throws Thankfully on the Defensive side, Julius Peppers made a surprise appearance for 2 ½ sacks in Oakland. The guy looks like a beast and if he decides to actually play like he’s capable of every game from here on out we’ll be in good shape. Our Defense is ranked 5th in Points/game --- the most important category --- but we gave up 372 yards and continue to be ranked 17th in yards / game…a meaningless statistic unless you can’t get critical stops. The Caper’s Nickel -- playing 2DL, 4LB’s with LB’s deep, and press man on the outside with deep cover-2 Safeties -- is good for stopping teams that have to pass when they are down by two or more scores late in games, but simply does not have enough beef at the Line-of-Scrimmage. Because of that it is very susceptible to the play-action because the LB’s and the Safeties have to start running toward the line to support the lonely DL. The Dime version of this Defense (2-3-6 and 1-4-6) are what Kaepernick and the 49’ers gashed in the 2012 playoffs for record run yardage. WTF - The Coach's take on a bad ref call or a bad play call or the like 2:36 left on the clock in the 4th, up by 10, and in field goal range. 3rd and several to go, what do you do? Well, there are a few debatable options, but passing the ball (not to mention into double coverage) is NOT one of them. WTF? Why the hell did Aaron Rodgers run a pass play, and why did he choose to throw the ball ‘toward’ Jeff Janis (or, more truthfully, 5 yards short of Jeff Janis)? In terms of football decisions, that could have been the worst idea in the long, sad history of bad ideas (next to maybe sitting down on an interception when you could easily run it into scoring range in the NFC Championship game when you’re up by 12 points with 5 minutes left on the clock … but I digress). When I saw CM3 trotting back out onto the field to play defense after that idiotic play/throw, I thought to myself… “If Clay gets hurt now because Olivia-whipped ARod thought he could be cool like Favre, I will be cross.” (See also, Michael Strahan record-breaking sack) Next WTF: My favorite target, the Ref’s. OK, so Aaron Rodgers famously throws a 65-yard Hail Mary pass in Detroit a couple of weeks ago on a nationally televised Thursday night game. If you’re at all associated with the NFL or a fan of it, surely you viewed or heard about the Hail Mary or had seen the replay (over and over and over again). C’mon refs. You know that the Packers have every intention of attempting another one as the clock is ticking down before halftime. ARod clearly calls time out with 2 seconds left on the clock, but no ref’s granted it or were watching him or whatever / who knows. What the hell were the ref’s doing – they know we’ve got timeouts left and there are a few ticks left on the clock! WTF? The only thing I can figure is that they were the same Ref’s that called the Badgers / ASU game 2 years ago. Stave Kneel Down Finally for WTF this week: Pro Bowl selections. To be honest, Coach doesn’t really care about players making the Pro Bowl, because it’s ALL about the Lombardi Trophy. You know that. See also, 2010 Pro Bowl selections and recall who won Super Bowl 45. That said… It's hard to imagine (sigh) that the Dallas Cowboys -- the 1st team in the worst division in football to be ousted from playoff contention (you might recall the Packers recently beat them by 3 touchdowns), have 4 ProBowlers!!! The Packers were already in the playoffs before kickoff in Week 15 and are likely to win their division ahead of another playoff team, yet only have 3 ProBowlers this year, 2 of which have had their personal-worst years on the field (Aaron Rodgers and Josh Sitton), and the 3rd, the Claymaker, has had a pretty good year with regards to his presence making everyone else on his side of the ball more effective (save Julius Peppers). Other teams with 3 ProBowlers this year: Oakland Raiders, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, and St. Louis Rams – pretty mediocre company. Teams with more ProBowlers than the Packers (not including Cowboys): Cardinals (7, uh oh), Panthers (10, I get it), Bengals (5, don’t care about AFC), Broncos (4), Chiefs (5 – but they always have an inflated quantity due to interweb-happy voters in the KC area, see also KC-Royals 8 starters in MLB All-Star game), Patriots (7), Seahawks (7). Should we be upset? Not really. I mean, who is best player at their position this year other than Clay? John Kuhn SHOULD be in the Pro Bowl as the best NFL fullback, but the Clements/McCarthy playcalling debacle refuses to properly exploit that precious resource in the manner deserved – so we will likely remain luke warm Offensively until that switch gets flipped. The Bears Still Suck - the Coach has proof Speaking of ProBowl selections... Too easy. The Chicago Bears … hmmmm … let’s see, are there any selections over there? No? None? Zero? Really? Huh. That’s a shocker. If you noticed on the 2010 Pro Bowl roster – the season da Bears HOSTED the NFC Championship game, they only had 1 player selected (Ha!). I guess it’s just more proof that the Bears still suck. This is the easiest and most truthful article to write each week. Thank you, Bears, and your FIB fans that suck, too. Have fun in Los Angeles next year you douche bag pricks. Udder stuff - commentary from the Badger Underground Coach is taking this opportunity to announce the impending “Jim Bakken award for exemplary play” (or JBAFEP) in Cardinals-Packers games. You probably remember that in 1959, the Badgers won the Big 10 Conference where Jim shared QB duties with Dale Hackbart. Besides his QB duties, Jim, a Madison native and Madison West HS alum, also did the punting and shared the kicking duties for Bucky. Against Northwestern his senior year, Co-Captain Jim kicked a 90-yard punt, a 47-yard field goal and intercepted a pass for a touchdown as the Badgers upset a strong Wildcat team. After his playing days at Wisconsin, the St. Louis Cardinals claimed Jim as a kicker/defensive back where he played 17 years in St. Louis from 1962-78. During his career, Jim set several Cardinal scoring records as well as an NFL record 7 field goals in one game (of 9 attempts) – a record that stood for a LOOOONG time and has only been tied. Jim was voted to play in four Pro Bowls -- 1965, 1967, 1975, 1976. He was voted as the kicker of the decade of the 60's. He stands third all-time on the list of consecutive games playing in the NFL -- 230. He scored 1,380 points which ranked second only to George Blanda when he retired in 1978. Most importantly, though, Jim has a smoking-hot daughter who is also a Sconnie grad (at least that was the case back in the day when she went to UW). Let’s hope a Packer wins this year’s prestigious JBAFEP on Sunday from Coach Clarahanson! As mentioned in prior weeks, this year’s Holiday bowl game at 9:30pm on Wednesday rejoins the teams of the 1963 national championship and Rose Bowl: Wisconsin vs USC (click on link). This video of the 37-42 contest is priceless for any Badger fan, except of course for the final outcome. Next week is payback time! So, how many former USC and Wisconsin players are in our Sunday NFL showdown? From Wisconsin!...
We're gonna kick your a$$ - predictions for the next game Before you look for the photo of Aaron getting face-masked in OT during the 2009 playoff matchup in Arizona, which resulted in the Cardinals getting an undeserved fumble-recovery-for-a-touchdown win and an appearance in SB 43, I’m not even gonna mention that (unless we meet up with them again in the playoffs). In a big blow to our team, Brett Goode – the Packers long snapper, was placed on IR this week. Never heard of Brett Goode? Good! It’s because he’s been that good… he’s been automatic at snapping for field goals and punts. Goode tore his ACL right before the trip to Oakland during an appearance on the “WLUK Fox 11 Christmas with the Packers” TV special where he baked holiday meatloaf with his kinda-hot-with-lots-of-makeup-on wife, Monica Cayce (of CBS “Amazing Race” fame). He tried to play through the injury for the Oakland game, but can't continue toughing it out anymore this year. Hopefully newly signed Rick “Demi” Lovato (Old Dominion College, no NFL playing experience) will be just as unnoticeable as Brett. Almost hate to say it, but I’m sorta glad Cardinals DB Tyrann “Honey Badger” Mathieu tore his ACL last week. After watching this 2016 highlights video of the Honey Badger, I think we woulda been in trouble against that guy. Tyrann Mathieu 2016 Highlights Then again, we’ve got a pretty intimidating defensive player of our own, Clay Matthews III. No question that opposing Offenses need to account for where Clay is on the field. And there’s little doubt they’re even a little scared of him. Did you notice at halftime that he was bullying the other players on the way into the tunnel? Beyond raw intimidation, though, the Packers will beat the Cardinals this weekend because:
Offensively, Coach is feeling a breakout game for Jared Abbrederis and our Tight Ends. Don’t bench Julio Jones for Abbrederis on your fantasy team just yet, tough, as Jared’s contributions to the victory will be more like death by a thousand cuts. Look for him to come through with the Christmas jewelry by repeatedly setting up shop in soft spots on the field … much like a TE. His route running effectiveness (and ability to actually “catch” balls that are thrown to him) on crucial downs and distance will open up occasional, more glamorous downfield pitches to Adams and Jones. This Abbrederis opportunity will look similar to, and be set up by, the return of one Andrew Quarless, who will to block well and line up in TE sets with RRod, which in turn will expose the AZ Safety who is currently playing as an undersized and averagely-productive ILB, Deone Bucannon -- and who is getting a disproportionate amount of media pundit accolades as being quick for a little guy (Coach likes run-on sentences with lots of commas). Who’s responsible for the idiotic football move of starting a Safety at Middle Linebacker? Jen Welter was hired by the Cardinals this year to coach their inside linebackers. Welter is the first woman to hold a coaching position of any kind in the NFL. She played running back and special teams in 2014 for the Texas Revolution of the Indoor Football League, becoming the first woman to hold a non-kicking position for a men's professional sports league. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but rest assured it is why the elite media is praising Bucannon's play. That reminds me, there's a big sale at Dalton Carpet Outlet on Holmgren Way. JB - Packer players you forgot about, but stories you'll remember about them At the beginning of this week’s blog Coach mentioned that the Cardinals were founded in 1898 and hold the distinction of being the oldest continuously run professional football franchise in the nation, but you might have noticed that the “Cardinals” name doesn’t appear until 1919. The Morgan Athletic Club began life in on the South Side of Chicago in 1898. Soon after founding the team they began playing at Normal Field on Racine Street in Chicago and became known as the “Normals”. In 1901 they purchased some used, faded, maroon jerseys from the University of Chicago which looked “cardinal” in color and they became known as the “Racine Cardinals”. The “oughts” and the “teens” were tough on football and it was hard to find competition. Add in WWI and a sever flu epidemic, and the team had to suspend operations twice. Beginning with the 1919 season, the Cardinals started operations a third time – then later updated their letterhead to the “Chicago Cardinals” in 1922 for reasons explained in the intro. The Green Bay area had contemporaneous pro football teams around that same turn-'o-the-century era, but sadly none can be directly connected to the Packers, so the Pack can ‘only’ claim 1919 as our beginning. In 1920 the Racine Cardinals became charter members of the American Professional Football Association (now NFL) along with 11 other teams including the Decatur Staleys (Chicago Bears). The rest, as they say, is history. The person keeping the minutes of the first league meeting recorded the Cardinals as from Racine, Wisconsin (which Coach has now adopted as the official history) so we can claim two NFL teams from the Badger State. The Packers and Cardinals have been playing since 1921 and the Packers lead the series 47-23-4, including the postseason series which is officially tied at 1-1 (even though the ref's blew that outcome in 2009). Green Bay joined the League in 1921. Coach points out that officially licensed Packer gear today is always inscribed “1921” if there is any reference to time, but that is the merely the year that the NFL says we joined the League (we were stripped of our 1st 2 years, but that's a story for another day), not the year we were founded. Coach chuckles at the “subversive” nature of the newly opened “1919” restaurant in the Lambeau Field Atrium. Take that in your cash register NFL!!! The 1925 season ended in perhaps the greatest controversy in professional football history. When the Pottsville Maroons were stripped of their 1925 Championship for having played an unauthorized exhibition game, the League offered the Championship to the Cardinals. Team owner, Chris O'Brien, refused to accept the championship title because his team did not deserve to take the title over a team which had beaten them fairly on the field. Another reason to like the Cardinals. But in 1933, Charles W. Bidwill, Sr., a vice president of the Chicago Bears, purchased the Cardinals and began to claim the 1925 title as its own (clearly this was due to his unethical training with Bears, who I remind you, still suck). The only other NFL Championship that the Cardinals can claim is in 1947 over the Eagles. Bidwell’s widow, Violet, moved the team to St. Louis in 1960. (Georgia Frontiere did a similar thing with the LA Rams in 1995. Why to rich widows keep moving their inherited NFL teams to St. Louis? Gold digger’s prerogative? When Jerry Jones is pushing up daisies -- hopefully sooner rather than later, will his twenty-something widow move the Cowboys to St. Louis? Just sayin.) Twenty-eight years of futility in St. Louis drove the Cardinals to relocate again, this time to Phoenix in the spring of 1988. After a dozen more years of frustration and inability to build a sizable fan base, the "Phoenix" Cardinals became known as the "Arizona" Cardinals in an attempt to become more inclusive to Arizonans circa 1994. One more thing on Cardinals history that you need to know… Curly Lambeau left the Packers in 1950 and joined the Chicago Cardinals as their head coach. Lambeau, one of the original founders of the Packers and their only head coach until that time, lost a power struggle to the executive committee of the Packers (in a classic “You can’t fire me, I quit!” move) and left to go south. The reaction in Green Bay to his joining the Cardinals was much like #4 going to the Vikings. In an eerie parallel to Brent Farv, Curly only lasted two years, and his teams went a combined 7-15. Lambeau then finished his coaching career in Washington, just as Vince Lombardi would almost twenty years later. Huh, that's wierd. OK, at this point I know what you’re thinking, “That’s a great history of the Cardinals, Coach, but who is the player we’re supposed to salute this week? My ass is getting red lines from the toilet seat and the Mrs keeps knocking at the bathroom door for me to get out.” Well, I'll tell ya who we're gonna salute -- he was one of the best to wear number 26 for the Packers. With all due respect to Eric Torkelson and Herb Adderley, CHUCK CECIL is probably one of my favorite Packers. (click on link)… Chuck Cecil Lays the Wood on Bears RB Chuck was a true bad ass, at a time when the Packers sorely needed a bad ass that could put the fear into opposing players à la Ronnie Lott. He became the hardest hitting safety in the NFL when the HOF Safety for the 49ers started to slide just past his prime. Cecil was selected by the Packers in the 4th round (89th overall) in 1988 and was known for leaving his feet and leading with his helmet, which was legal in those days. Chuck Cecil was featured on the October 11, 1993 issue of Sports Illustrated with the question: "Is Chuck Cecil Too Vicious for the NFL?” He was nicknamed “Scud” by the media because of his missile-like hits on Offensive targets (and, yes, he played while the Persian Gulf War was being fought). During much of his career, Cecil was forced to wear a "Gazoo” helmet, which is a thick padding that fits on a helmet's shell to reduce the risk of receiving a concussion and reducing the risk of injury to opponents due to helmet-first hits (for which Chuck Cecil was fined numerous times). Despite the additional protection, recurring concussions eventually forced Cecil into retirement. Prior to that, though, he made the Pro Bowl as a Packer in 1992. In 1993, Chucky was signed by the Arizona Cardinals as an unrestricted free agent, and he was the Safety in their “Desert Storm” defense. The move was sort of a home coming for Cecil, as the California native went to U of A in nearby Tucson where he had 9 interceptions in his senior season. The Packers could not afford to pay Cecil after his trip to Hawaii because they broke the bank on a different free agent signing that year, Reginald Howard White. So where is Chuck Cecil now? Well, he WAS the Defensive Coordinator for the Tennessee Titans under Jeff Fischer. Chuck ended his playing days in 1995 as a Houston Oiler, and stayed affiliated with that organization when they moved to Tennessee. But, consistent with his play as a Safety, on October 3, 2010, Cecil signaled his disagreement with a Ref's call by utilizing the international symbol of dissatisfaction (caught on TV), and he was fined once again (this time, 40 large) and then sent packing after 2 years as Titans DC. He’s now the DB coach for Fischer in St. Louis (or whatever city they’ll play for in 9 months from now). So Chuck “Scud” Cecil, as we get ready to clash in a physical matchup with the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, we all salute you as a one-of-a-kind, bad-ass Packer great! …and so?!
Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to flush.
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Author"Coach" is the insightful collective brain and funny bone of a few legendary Packer fans who provide everything you need to know (and what Packers beat writers often plagiarize) about the Green & Gold, plus a weekly guest appearance by The Badger Underground. Archives
November 2022
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