Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show!!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: Training camp Kool-aide tastes like shit… It comes down to this: every beat writer attending training camp practices this summer sang in chorus how the Defense was elite (“Top Ten, maybe Top Five by all accounts!”), and the Offense was “slightly behind” the Defense in training camp because of the teeming talent and experience on the other side of the ball. To the naked eye of the Packers / Com / Report / Acme / Cheesehead / Wire / Central / Total / Dairyland / News correspondents, the Offensive and Defensive starters were head and shoulders above the scrubs LaFleur trotted out for preseason games. Boy oh boy, just wait for the regular season! Sure, the wide receivers need a little time to gel with Rodgers, but that Defense will stem the tide until the Offense is playoff-ready! The only thing left in question was the Special Teams but, hey, now there’s a fired head coach out there running things who swears at Amari Rodgers and calls Special Teams the Wefense! Ain’t no stoppin’ us now! Fast forward to 7pm CDT on Sunday. As it turns out, the Special Teams appears to have taken a step in the right direction (maybe from 32nd place to ~29th ish?), the Defense is mediocre and the Offense sucks. We can’t rely on local beat writers to give us an objective assessment of Packers talent because they are at worst shills for Mark Murphy and at best homers who believe Murphy’s 3 deputies can do no wrong. Too bad nobody else in the media is any better. …at least, in Coach’s humble opinion. Create A Seam Here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme Remember this one from last week? Well now he has lost three in a row … so in the famous words of Vince Lombardi, “what this hell is going on out there”? Whadda a disappointing Opening Game … we had it in our hands and dropped it … oops, too soon? It’s not fair to put the whole loss on Christian Watson, the guy we traded up for in the 2nd Rnd of the Draft. But he did drop the ball, something he was known for (hey somebody had to replace MVS). LF/AR said after the game that they cooked up the opening play on Friday … but couldn’t they have thrown it to Romeo Doubs, they guy who killed it all through Camp and Pre-Season? You want a summary for the game? The ViQueens were ready, and we were not. Coach can think of no better play to summarize the whole game … Rodgers threw a half-assed block at Zilarious Smith and got pummeled into the ground. Oh, you want more? You got it. We have the number one D! You heard it all summer and so did Coach! And what is the key to playing good Defense? Throughout his legendary coaching career, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has historically taken away the opposing teams' best player on offense. That plan has been replicated, tweaked and continuously evolved going back 34 years, when he first took over as defensive coordinator of the New York Giants in 1985. And who is the ViQueens best player? Justin Jefferson. And how do you do that? One thought might be to shut him down by using the guy that we paid $30 million in guaranteed money to deny him the ball. Alas, no. D Coordinator Chuck Berry played zone D the whole game and Jaire Alexander was only on JJ for a few plays (Jaire held him to zero yards and drew an O-Pass Interference penalty). Coach, what do you mean by zone? Well Jimmy, it’s where we have Linebackers like Quay Walker (above) and Lineman like Preston Smith (below) try to cover Jefferson. Coach, is that a smart way to cover Jefferson? Well Jimmy, no, it is a fucking dumb idea. JJ is among the best receivers in the League and Jaire said before and after the game that he wanted to cover him … so the ViQueens just ran JJ away from Jaire. Wow… Coach, please, please tell me more about this mysterious Zone Defense. Jimmy, Zone D is something you probably learned in 4th Grade Co-Ed P.E. It’s where you stand there and let girls dribble into you. Sort of like Square Dancing. Apparently, Coach Chuck Berry needs more than just Training Camp to teach Zone Defense. Even Adrian Amos, our best Safety, was completely confused. Criminey. On to Run Defense. It also doesn’t help when Jarran Reed, your big free agent signing of the offseason, decides not to play on about 50% of the snaps he’s on the field. The situation is 7-0 ViQueens and this play is just after we got stuffed on 4th & Goal. We need a 3-&-out to get back in the game; Reed is #90, hand on the ground in the pic above. Reed is blown out of the hole so fast it’s hard to see him in the clip above. If you watch him carefully, you’ll see ends up being pushed to the ground about 10-yards away from the hole. Simply disgusting. Fat and lazy is no way to go through life son, and it certainly doesn’t help the D-Fence. We have plenty of better D-lineman behind him (see also: Heflin, Jack … trash-can-full-of-dirt). This guy either needs to start playing or get cut. Moving on to our lack of Offense. Coach can neither confirm nor deny the rumors that Melissa McCarthy flew in last week for a special coaching session. However, we all saw the reversion back to “Bad Erin”, the run-around-and-buy-time-before-making-a-long-throw-down-field-guy, that got Melissa fired. Erin Rodgers clearly does not trust LaFleur and his 2022 Teammates. Time and time again he held the ball too long and took sacks. One for a fumble above and another for a sack below. What is particularly irritating is that the Vikings run more-or-less the same Offense and made extensive use of pre-snap motion to confuse the D. You may remember we did this very well in 2019 & 2020 … Erin actually said during the last off-season that he doesn’t like it … oh for F’s sake … he keeps saying things that make you want to trade him. If he would just shut up and run LaFleur’s system … OK Coach, let’s get back on track here. Using your best Seinfeld raised voice, say “Newman!” with Coach. Not having Bakhtiari and Eglington Jenkins was a real problem, particularly when RT Newman (top of clip) was a sieve and Rodgers is holding the ball for too long. Running Offense Analysis On the road? Hostile environment? Rookie Receivers? No. 1 Receiver injured and out for the game? Defense not holding up very well and you want to control the tempo? Two premier running backs? You run, right? Un-fricking believable. Just like Coach said we would, we had a very effective running game! WE AVERAGED 6.2 YARDS PER RUNNING PLAY! The problem was that Aaron Jones & AJ Dillon only had 15 carries in total ... with Jones only getting 5. Remember Coach also predicting: “You can bet that the Packers will run right at Zilarious …. A-LOT!”? Down 7-0 we finally got the Offense going on our 3rd Drive and we went 79 yards on 9 plays … and on the 10th we only we needed 6 more inches to tie the game. But we did not run at Zilarious! Instead of running at Zilarious we ran away from him, and Z was part of stopping Dillon. Compare the 4th-&-Goal stuff of AJ Dillon with the AJ Dillon TD clip below. Look at AJ’s first step, a little stutter to the right, and see how Z bites on it (he’s #55 lined up at right DE, outside Yosh Nijman on the left side). Because he crashes in toward the stutter step, he ends up getting washed inside and ends up on the on the left hashmark and out of the play. It’s the opposite side of the Deebo Samuel clip we looked at last week (from last January’s playoff loss), but exactly the same problem for Zilarious. Classic Zilarious piss-poor “contain” on the outside. Give AJ credit for smashing into the endzone, but if Zilarious does his job he would never have scored You want some positives out of the first game? No. 1 We no longer have the worst Special Teams in the NFL. We returned kicks, made an extra point new punter Pat O’Donnell had a great day (while dodging a couple of very-nearly-blocked-punts). So, we’re at least #29 or better. Yeah! No. 2 – OL Rookie Zach Tom came in for a concussed Jon Runyan and looked really, really good. And … LT Yosh Nijman and Center Josh Meyers were good. Assuming we get Bakhtiari and Jenkins back soon, we should have a damn good OL. No. 3 – Rookie ILB Quay Walker looked good and he’s only going to get better as the year wears on. No. 4 – Fourth Rnd Rookie WR Romeo Doubs had the most catches among that group (AJ Dillon had one more than Romeo’s 4). Yeah, we almost cudda won … it’s a process … it’s a learning curve … yadda, yadda… … all loser talk … we lost. Period. Time to get better against the Bears. WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up NFL Hoping 3rd Year Of 'End Racism' Painted In End Zone Will Do The Trick NEW YORK, NY — After two seasons of fighting the evils of racism through the act of painting words on fake grass, the NFL is hoping a third year of "End Racism" painted in the end zone will finally do the trick. Executives for the NFL voted unanimously this past Spring to fight racism with the powerful phrase spelled out in end zones for the third year in a row, confident that it will make a lasting difference. "This is the year that the NFL ends racism, once and for all. Third time's the charm!" said a smiling Commissioner Roger Goodell at a press conference while surrounded by a dozen other old, white members of the NFL executive committee. When asked by a female reporter "How, exactly, will painting 'End Racism' in the end zones end racism?" the commissioner responded by pointing at the young professional and screeching, "Racist!" The journalist was summarily pummeled by a mob of other sports journalists in the name of ending racism for good. Goodell then suggested the mob bring her to a livestock watering trough to test if she is a witch. Though the success of the NFL’s turf-PSA campaign cannot be denied, a spokesperson for the executive committee acknowledged that the board was still on the fence as to whether or not they would seek to help their star players next year by writing "Stop beating your girlfriends" on the 50-yard-line. The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof ‘Madden’ Glitch Lets Player Win Super Bowl With Bears REDWOOD CITY, CA—Following outcry over an issue that was negatively affecting gameplay, developers of Madden NFL 23 told reporters Thursday that they were working to fix a glitch in the game that lets players win the Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears. “We strive to make Madden as authentic as we can, so we’re naturally disappointed that we let something as obviously unrealistic as the Bears’ 2022-23 roster winning a championship slip through our playtesting process,” said EA Sports spokesperson Maya Woodruff, adding that the glitch first came to their attention when a Reddit user posted a screenshot of the Bears beating the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl with the caption “WTF is the wrong with this damn game??” “After looking into the problem, we saw that it affected many of our users, whose enjoyment of Madden was rudely interrupted when the game allowed something that, to put it mildly, would never happen in the real world. Unfortunately, addressing this glitch is taking longer than we’d like, as it is also present in the franchise mode, where it is still an issue because the Bears have no realistic chance of winning the Super Bowl at any time over the next several decades. With a roster led by guys like Equanimeous St. Brown, Lucas Patrick, and Jarred Field, it may be difficult to understand how an algorithm could glitch so badly as to let that team win a Super Bowl, but mistakes happen. At best, the Bears could conceivably win four or five games. We at Madden regret the error.” Madden developers also apologized for a separate glitch in the game that caused 49ers QB Trey Lance to be able to complete passes. Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground Bucky Vito’s the game--Wazzu wins and we got Coug’d From BUD (Badger Urban Dictionary), updated September 10, 2022: VITO (v)
Here at BU, we are wondering why young Vito had that far-away look in his eyes. It was almost as if he was doing a coupla two tree beer bongs and a one hitter at a frat on Breese Terrace before the game. We are perplexed how he nailed 55 yarders down the middle in warm-ups and then choked later. Vito, you are this week’s poster child of the ineptness of the entire Badger squad on Saturday, who seemed unprepared, need better game planning and more creative in-game adjustments. Let us explain. This is the 3rd "WTF is going on?" loss as a huge favorite in 5 years, i.e. >17-point favorite. Although we at BU think rankings are a crock, this game probably drops us out of the rankings for the entire season unless we win at OSU or MSU. In between drive-killing penalties and turnovers, the offense actually moved the ball relatively well and controlled the clock as well as you could ask for. But scoring some points woulda been nice. Bucky had 4 "good" ball controlling drives that resulted in zero points. Mertz had some great completions in tight windows, spread the ball around, and made a bunch of throws on third down. We were not hard to figure out, running basically the same play 60-70% of our running plays. Hand or toss the ball off to the left side of the line, pull both guards and look for a cut-back lane. Washington State loaded the box and all went right almost on the snap of the ball. They knew exactly what we were doing. We never countered this. (Hello Bobby and Paul!) We never snapped the ball with less than 12 seconds left on the play clock. No urgency. We were like, "We’re better than you and we can run the same play over and over again and you will eventually get tired." In an unsettling fashion similar to the end of the FIB game in Champaign a few years ago, we allowed Wazzu to gain three first downs and bleed the final 5:14 of the game without putting up much real resistance. Does this mean Wisconsin won’t win the national championship this season? For you remaining hold outs saying, “Ohhhhhh man! You guys are gonna look so stuuuuuupid when Mertz holds up the Quick Lane Bowl Trophy!”, we shall see what happens on the field in coming weeks. We suppose there is technically a chance. On the bright side, unless you were delusional enough to think the Badgers were going to playoffs, this loss is totally meaningless. But it pisses you off nonetheless. We still see this team as the heavy favorite to win the Big Ten West and a team that (if they can tighten up all 3 phases) can hang with any team on the schedule, other than OSU. Who knows? Maybe this will be like the 1999 squad that went in #9 to Cincinnati, lost disgustingly, lost to Tom Brady & Michigan at home the following week, then proceeded to spot Ohio State 14 points on the road and run off 35 straight points to win that game, beat Drew Brees & Purdue at Camp Randall, win the Big 10 title and win the Rose Bowl against the Cade McNown-led UCLA Bruins. In the meantime, on to the New Mexico State Game… We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game Only in Chicago can a Bears win over the Niners in Week 1 be the secondary story!! Coach assumes that the loyal reader knows this already, but Soldiers Field is the only NFL Stadium that is managed by the Chicago Parks & Rec Pickle Ball Department … not kidding here, this is actually true. https://media.giphy.com/media/suEPw98UTFAq34XBRw/giphy.gif Hey Bears!! The City of Chicago, Bears Fans everywhere and the entire NFL are laughing at you. There is no imminent threat to Mensa that the Soldiers Field ground crew will be petitioning for membership … they are still trying to figure out how to run the chalk machine and won’t have time to apply. As of this writing it is still unclear if it was raw sewage or sanitary napkins that plugged the field drains … https://giphy.com/clips/storyful-football-nfl-bears-dK3wdo2arwwNGuD1PC … all Coach knows is that he does not recommend playing in contaminated water. No wonder the Staleys are threatening to move out to the Dog Track in Arlington Heights. OK … so they beat the Niners last week … big deal, the Niners QB Trey Lance was so bad that he made Bears QB Jason Field look good. The Niners outgained the Bears 331 to 204 yards and averaged 4.8 yards per carry … but they had two turnovers and the Bears got lucky on a couple of long passes. Hey, one of the TD’s was to Equanimeious St. Brown … one of the guys we cut in the off-season. On to our game! This Sunday will be the 205th meeting of the Green Bay Packers and the Decatur Staleys, with the good guys ahead 103-95-6 and a staggering ½ pt. lead in the average score all-time. Coach started wandering about who has won the most games overall? It turns out the Staley’s are ahead by one win, but they have been in the NFL a year longer and they have played 24 more games than us (in the early years Halas cheated and scheduled more games each Season). Well, no matter, we’ll be tied in all-time wins at 783 after this Sunday and we will still be comfortably at the top of the NFL all-time win percentage rankings. As reported last year, the McCaskey’s sold the franchise to Aaron Rodgers and he has owned the Bears 24-5-0 during his tenure. Get ready for a nice and symmetric 25-5-0 after this weekend. Let’s get a bit more specific … why will we kill the Bears Sunday? They have no Run Defense. The Bears were giving up yards in big chunks… … like this big gainer for 16. Expect the Packers offense to do the right thing this week and had off the ball A Jones & A Dillion Great 29 yard run by Aaron Jones in the 3rd Quarter last week (including a great pancake block by Cobby on LB Jordan Hicks!) They have no QB or Offense. Chuck Berry and the D will get their heads out of their respective asses, and you are going to see … … a lot of why Jason Field will never be as good as Jordan Love. Let’s get ready for some fussball at Lambeau. Coach sees a big win on SNF! Packers 24 Bears 13 JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them Do you know who kicked the winning FG in the Packers first appearance on Monday Night Football (the big game of the week, prior to Sunday night football)? Yeah, Coach didn’t either. Dale Livingstone kicked the winning field goal in the team's first ever appearance on "Monday Night Football". His 14-yard FG with 3:39 left in the game gave the Packers a 22-20 victory over the San Diego Chargers on Oct. 12, 1970 at San Diego. He was signed by the Pack as the kicker for the 1970 season and led the team in scoring that season with 64 points. He made 15 of 28 field goal attempts was and 19 for 21 on extra points. He also punted six times for a 33.2 average. After football he was a teacher and coach in the Freedom Schools (near GB) … but unfortunately he was snatched away at the tender age of 63 with heart trouble in 2009. (RIP) Kicking the winning FG was quite a feat, but good ole Dale is much more interesting than that and he inspired a new feature that Coach is calling … “Didja know dat?” (DKD) … DKD … Dale attended Western Michigan University on a tennis scholarship? With no experience, Livingston was noticed at a kegger where he was seen kicking 70-yard punts in dress shoes. Former WMU Broncos head coach Bill Doolittle recalled "this guy walks into my office and he's kind of built like a pear. When I first looked at him, I was like, 'Holy mackerel, this guy will never be able to help our program”. Livingston immediately connected on a series of 30- and 40-yard field goals and 50-yard punts and became the Broncos all-time leading kicker and punter. Amazing right?!? Coach agrees with you, who the F wears dress shoes to a kegger? DKD … Livingstone has his own IMDb page? Pretty impressive … and a little weird … looks like his “filmography” are all self-posted YouseTube clip[s of him playing football … but what the hell, why not? DKD … Livingstone was the actual inspiration for George Carlin’s “Seven words you can’t say on television?” If you don’t understand the reference then go look up George Carlin … he was one of the funniest comedians and social commentators of the 20th Century.
Enawaze … after Dale kicked a win on MNF the Pack went to 3-1 on the 1970 Season. By Week 12 we had fallen back to 6-6 and headed off to Wrigley Field for a Week 13 game against the Bears. Wrigley, like Milwaukee County Stadium and other baseball stadiums hosting football, had both Team Benches on the same side of the field so there was plenty of interaction between opposing players during the game. Dale made his only FG attempt in the 1st Qtr., but unfortunately we were down 28-3 at the start of the fourth. After his 2nd successful extra point brought the Pack to within 17 – 35 of the Bears, a frustrated Mr. Livingstone crossed paths with Bears Middle Linebacker Dick Butkus on his way back to the bench. A smart-ass comment from Butkus prompted an inspired retort that included the full list of words that were forbidden on television … and George Carlin, who was in attendance that day, eventually captured them in his comedy routine: Feces Fornication Urine Vagina Rapscallion known for Maternal Fornication Fellatio … and … Tater Tots. And Tater Tots doesn’t even belong on the list. And now you know! We salute you Dale Livingstone for enriching our culture…
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Happy New Year and welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show!!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: Much more than football is back… As the avid Coach Clarahanson follower knows, Coach does not follow preseason football much at all. But with LeRoy Butler going into the Hall of Fame this Summer, Coach was curious to watch the pregame festivities for the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, OH. To my pleasant surprise I learned that not only is football back, Melissa Stark is back! Sweet Jesus you were right, there is a God and he is good. [Just confirming, God self-identifies as a male and prefers the pronouns he, him and his. Jesus, too. Mellissa Stark? She is ALL WOMAN. Thank you, God.] Now we get both Carrie Underwood before the kickoff and Melissa Stark during the SNF games! As you can probably tell by the excitement in my prose, I am absolutely giddy. From my observations during the HoF game, it appears Ms.Stark has defied the aging process. Also, her spunky, short-cut ’do has been replaced with a longer flowing version of her spectacular blond hair. Her ice-blue eyes still penetrate through Coach’s cornea and leave a direct imprint on the millions of light-sensitive rods and cones that make up the back of my retina. Coach will definitely be inside the stadium walls of 1265 Lombardi Avenue extra early next Sunday Night for the home opener against the Bears, roaming the sidelines in full-on Creepy Guy mode seeking an up-close glimpse of the world’s most talented sideline reporter (apologies to John Kuhn). So, welcome back, Melissa! And, please forgive us drooling fans ogling you with construction-worker cat calls as you glide along the backdrop of the end zone, gracefully floating from one sideline to the other. NFL football is much better to see in person when you’re there, too … at least, in Coach’s humble opinion. Create A Seam Here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme Let’s start with a quick review of the 2021 Regular Season … LaFleur achieved a milestone … … and now he has an even better Regular Season record than Marty Schottenheimer! (Although they remain tied for Super Bowl appearances at Zero.) With all the attention on LeFleur’s participation award, Coach would be remiss if he overlooked an extremely important moment for our Complicated Fella. His pharmacological research into the combined benefits to the nervous and immune systems of compounding ayahuasca with ivermectin in a suppository proved pivotal in the fight against Monkey Pox. This breakthrough work led to his being awarded his 4th Most-Valuable-Pharmacological-Insight-By-A-Talk-Show-Hostess. Well done Erin! It turns out we also had a playoff game last year. While the Offense survived many injuries during the 2021 Regular Season and the Defense improved tremendously, the Special Teams only accomplishment was the spectacular variety of incompetence. No stone was left unturned in search for new ways to try to lose games … The chain finally came off the Season during our second consecutive loss in the playoffs … at home … as the No.1 seed. With 4:41 left in the 4th Qtr and the Pack leading the Niners 10-3 … Special Teams took over the game. On the ensuing Packers’ drive, tied at 10-10, with 4:41 on the clock … and plenty of time to use the whole playbook … and after a penalty and 2 passes, we faced 3rd down with 3:40 left … … and Erin decided to emulate #4. In an eerily similar reprise of Brent’s last ever pass at Lambeau (2007 NFC Championship game killing interception)… … immediately from the snap Lazard and Cobby were open, but #12 was only looking at #17. Fortunately, Davante Adams turned DB and prevented the interception … well done Davante … save Erin again. Good luck in Vegas Mr. Adams … glad we got a decent haul of Draft Picks for you. Hopefully #12 will start looking at other receivers, as he has during the seven games we won while you were injured. WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up Washington Commanders 1st Team To Have Make-A-Wish Kid Announce Pick, Become Team President, and Take Fall for Team’s Financial Irregularities LAS VEGAS—Saying that they wanted to help fulfill the dreams of an 8-year-old boy stricken with terminal cancer, the Washington Commanders let a Make-A-Wish Foundation child announce the team’s 2nd round 2022 draft pick, become the new team president, and take the fall for the team’s financial irregularities. “Bryson is a great little kid going through something no child should have to go through, and we wanted to help him feel special by letting him announce our second-round pick as part of his new role as team president, for which he’ll be perfectly positioned should the federal investigation into our franchise result in jail time,” said Commanders owner Dan Snyder, adding that the team was thrilled to partner with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to fulfill the lifelong dreams of the boy to be fired for his role in sweeping sexual assault allegations under the rug in a football team’s ploy to clean up its public image. “Getting to stand onstage with the newest member of the Washington Commanders and then getting thrown under the bus by everyone in our organization who the House Oversight Committee speaks to was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we couldn’t be happier for giving Bryson that experience. Not only did he receive a signed Terry McLaurin jersey and tickets to our first home game of the season, Bryson will also be the likely recipient of a five- to seven-year prison sentence for his role in falsely reporting sales revenue and keeping money meant for the league. The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof Embarrassed Man Frantically Clears Search History After Googling Bears’ Playoff Chances Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground Bucky checked most of the boxes vs the Illinois State Redbirds: 1. Beat the spread, which has not been a given in recent non-conference mismatches. 2. Fluff up stats for meaningless analysis beginning three weeks from now. 3. Show some life on offense and cut loose the seemingly forgotten forward pass, preferably different looks than the 4-5 plays that once-innovative Paul Chryst ran over and over last year in the same down & distance situations. 4. Avoid season-ending injuries. Several new players got snaps on defense and though they bent a lot, they didn’t break. It was possibly the most underwhelming shutout we have seen since Barry arrived. Starting safety Hunter Wohler will be out several weeks, most likely missing the Ohio State game. The secondary has some things to clean up. Offensively, the receivers looked good--except for Markus Allen’s two drops preventing Graham Mertz from completing all of his passes and pitching a perfect game. Braelon Allen got his yards and a highlight reel TD run. Chez Mellusi has made an Adrian Peterson-like recovery from a torn ACL, shedding some pounds and showing more burst than we saw last year. On to hosting Washington State, where we are favored by 15 points. We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game On to Minneapolis, we have been kicking ass up there Minneapolis since we started playing them in the 1961. Minneapolis ViQueens longtime Head Coach and Wisconsin native Bud Grant had some pretty good teams wit dem. And he was also the first NFL Coach to achieve 4 Super Bowl Losses! So they have that going for them. All-Time we are tied with the Queens at 30 wins apiece for games played in Minneapolis and Bloomington, MN. In the Rogers era we are 7-7-0 and, in the Rogers/LaFleur era we 1-2 in the Humpty-Dump. The betting line favors the Packers by 2 and the Over/Under is floating around 48 points, which is pretty close to that average total of 51 points over Rodgers caree. During the LaFleur/Rodgers era the median point difference is 3, somewhat less than the median of 5 over Rodgers total career. Meaning? The record may be tied, but we’re ahead on points and the line “Zounds ‘bout right”. Why will we win? Oh my goodness gracious, just listen to the pundits. We lost Davante, no wide receivers, Special Teams was a mess in 2021, we lost guys in Free Agency … yada yada yada! No way the Packers win right? Wrong – we will win Our D was good last year and steadily improving toward the end of the year. You may recall Coach harping on poor Defensive contain and tackling since, well, since 2010 … but last year we started to turn the corner. Rashan Gary did an outstanding job in 2021 … great example here of staying home, fighting off the block and making the tackle. Coach is really, really excited to see our D in action this year. It turns out we also have a pretty decent running game … … here was a nice little pop for 28 yards on the Packers 2nd drive last year. You are going to see a ton of play action passes and a lot more of 28 & 33 on Sunday. And all that running and super Defense will be great … but Coach is even more excited watch the Queens Defense! Have a look at who is running the Defense in St. Paul! It’s a clown car full of fired Packers Defensive Coaches. Add in the Zilarious Smith, our 2019 star who turned into the 2021 semi-injured malcontent, and you have a formula for success! (It’s even better, he’s being coached by Mike Smith, the outside linebackers coach that the Packers also fired along with Poutine.) But Coach, isn’t Zilarious an aggressive pass rusher who really, really wants to sack Aaron Rodgers on National TV? Exactly Jimmy, exactly. In 2019 he was one of the best pass rushers in the NFL and was Coached by Poutine and Mike Smith to always charge up field and disrupt plays. Let’s have a look at a typical Zilarious play. Tied at 10-10, after the “Davante-Forced-Pass” in our playoff loss last January, the Niners faced 3rd and 7 at the Packers 38 with 1:03 left in the game. At the 38 yard-line it would be a 55 (56?) yard field goal attempt for the win, probably outside of Robbie Gould’s range given the weather. The still shot and the clip below are from the same play, with Deebo Samuel RUNNING for nine yards and a 1st Down on 3rd & 7. Two subsequent dive plays for two additional yards and Gould kicked a walk-off 45-yarder to win the game. Shit. OK, back to the play. Have a look at the clip below and then come back to the picture above. At the snap Z. Smith crashes into the middle and completely abondons his gap. Give Samuel credit for the jab-step-fake, a basic move taught to Middle School running backs in Wisconsin. When Samuel bounces out to his right there is no one there … no one in the spot that Zilarious is supposed to occupy. After the game, Jaire Alexander took responsibility for not wrapping up on his tackle attempt, but frankly it should not have gotten to him. Stand-up guy that Jaire, nothing like the Zilarious. You can bet that the Packers will run right at Zilarious …. A-LOT! Coach sees a slug fest coming … but a strong Packers season opening win nonetheless. Packers 21 ViQueens 17 JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them In 1904, former Packer player and coach Tom Hearden was born in Appleton, Wisconsin. Hearden moved to Green Bay as a boy and followed his brothers Len and Les to East High School, where he played in the backfield from 1920-22. Like previous East backfield stars Curly Lambeau and Sleepy Jim Crowley, Tom next played under Knute Rockne at Notre Dame. As a sophomore, he was a member of the 1924 National Championship team that featured the Four Horsemen backfield (including Crowley). That team defeated Stanford, led by Ernie Nevers and coached by Pop Warner, in the 1925 Rose Bowl, although Hearden did not appear in that game. After Tom captained the 9-1 1926 Fighting Irish team as a senior, he then signed with Green Bay where he appeared in six games from 1927-28 as a blocking back. Injuries limited his playing time, and he finished his playing career with one game for the Bears in 1929 when he worked briefly as a lawyer in Chicago. He began his coaching career at Racine’s St. Catherine High School in 1930 and moved over to Racine’s Washington Park High in 1934. After compiling a 34-8-6 record at those two schools, Hearden returned to his high school alma mater in 1936 and achieved an impeccable 51-3-2 mark through 1942. East won 32 straight games at one point and won or shared six conference titles in that seven-year stretch. Tom then joined the navy and was assigned to Iowa Pre-Flight where he coached the backfield of that service team under Missouri coach Don Faurot in 1943 and Auburn’s Jack Meagher in 1944. He was named the squad’s head coach for 1945, but the base cancelled its schedule that season. After mustering out of the service, Hearden signed to coach at St. Norbert in 1946. Over the next seven years, he led the Green Knights to a 41-13 record that included undefeated seasons in 1946, 1950 and 1952. Tom returned to the Packers in 1954 as Liz Blackbourn’s defensive backfield coach, also in charge of the whole defense. Two seasons later, he took an assistant’s position at Wisconsin, but then rejoined Blackbourn’s staff in 1957. Unfortunately that May, well before training camp, Hearden suffered a stroke and was forced to retire. It was doubly unfortunate in that a Packer Board member had told reporter Lee Remmell that Tom was a sure thing to be hired as the team’s head coach in 1958. The implication is that if Hearden were more successful than Scooter McLean in ’58, then Lombardi stays in New York and perhaps takes over the Giants in 1961, altering NFL history quite a bit. As it was, Hearden was a celebrated local football figure who has a plaque commemorating his life and career placed by the football field at East, also the site of City Stadium where the Packers played for decades. Tom, whose brother Les played halfback for the Packers in 2 games (caught 1 pass caught from Curly Lambeau) 98 years ago, attained a rare trifecta of playing under three Hall of Fame coaches in Rockne, Lambeau and George Halas. He never got the opportunity to coach at the highest level himself, though, and died in 1964 at the age of 60.
So as we kick off the 2022 season, we salute you Tom Hearden, and your brother Les, as all-time Packer greats! Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show!!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: “Would you rather” is a game for punks… …Coach got a little perturbed during the bye week when, on occasion, he heard this thoughtless question murmured: “Who would you rather have the Packers face in the playoffs?” Like statistics, that is a forum for losers. The best team in the NFL should be able to beat any other team, right? So BRING IT ON! My question is “Who else can we play to prove we’re the best team in the NFL?” Let’s start with “the most DANGEROUS team in the playoffs” … ooooooo … so scary, those 49ers. “You don’t wanna face those guys.” Really? I do. And when we’re done with them, we’ll take apart whoever is next. That’s what Champions do (not whatever it was that the Lions head coach said after the meaningless Week 18 game). Do you think Vince Lombardi’s players worried about having to play Dallas, or do you think they cherished the opportunity to beat them and prove that the Packers were worthy of being called “Champions”? We’re down to the final 8 teams now … this is big boy football. Everybody is good and if you’re not on your “A” game, you might get beat. But if you’re worried about who you have to play, then you shouldn’t be in the playoffs competing for a championship in the first place. If we show up at the coin toss with our chin straps buckled tight to our helmets, we’ll be just fine. …at least, in Coach’s humble opinion. Create A Seam Here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme The 2021 Regular Season is in the Bank Let’s review the key accomplishments: 1. #12 did not break a clavicle against Detroit (Bears 2013 – Vikings 2017 – Lions 2021?) 2. We finished 13-3 8 – 0 @ Lambeau (more below) 5 – 3 on the road 3. We went 0-4 in the Pre-Season – but we don’t care about the Pre-Season 4. We had middle-of-the-road stats… But, but … … we are #1 in turnover margin at home (#3 overall) … and we have committed the fewest penalties of any team (home and away) We spilled a lot of electrons this year explaining how the 13-3 Packers have done a tremendous job of overcoming a ton of injuries, although the injuries did hamper Offensive and Defensive performance and we finished in the Top-Third in most statistical categories. That effort, however, does not explain how we got the #1 Seed in the NFL Lombardi Trophy Tournament. What does explain it is not beating ourselves with penalties and turn-overs and that is how we will continue to win in the Playoffs. Since last week was a Pre-Season game, we’ll skip that and look in the archives and take a quick peak at the ‘96 Divisional Round against the Niners. The Packers were on the rise in ’96. After beating the Niners in an upset in the ’95 Playoffs at Candlestick Park … we had the better record during the 1996 Season and were the #1 Seed. The weather had been typical for a WI Winter until just a few days before the game when it got very warm (‘40’s) … and just like this week, the fans were nervous about it being too warm, eroding our cold-weather-advantage. That fear only grew as light rain fell on game day instead of the desired snowstorm. The field was a complete mess that day! A problem? Hell no, it was perfect, perfect real-man-real-football weather. Edgar Bennett (#34) sealed his reputation as a “Mudder” (thank you, John Madden) that day with 80 yards rushing and 2 TDs on 17 carries. The Packers dominated in every phase of the game --- time of possession (34 min), turnovers (+4) and yards. As great as Favre and Edgar were, the star of the game was Desmond Howard! He returned the first punt of the game for 71 yards and a TD and the rout was on! (Coach was in the SE EZ and saw the blocking on the punt return open-up a path like Moses parting the Red Sea.) Legend has it that Maurice Drayton was on vacation that day. Click on this link to see Desmond’s TD Punt Return. The TD was great … but Dez went in too fast and landed low … the judges only gave him a 6.5 on the Lambeau Leap. The rain and mud were fantastic, but the field was destroyed! In a landscaping miracle not seen since Carl Spackler was minding Bushwood, the Grounds crew at Lambeau re-sodded the middle 2/3rd’s of Lambeau … in the middle of January! Or course, that created a buncha “leftovers” … which the Packers marketing department quickly turned into a sales opportunity! Coach jumped on that and bought a dozen boxes! As you already know, the Pack went on to win Super Bowl XXXI, cementing 1996 as one of the best years in Packers’ history. However … the 90’s were not all sunshine and lolly pops. You probably have read that the Packers and Niners are 4-4 against each other in the Playoffs (Pack 2-1 @ Lambeau, 2-3 in SF). After the Pack had three consecutive playoff wins over the Niners, in the 1998 Playoffs we were back at the Stick in the Wild Card Round. We were winning 27-23 until we got jobbed by the Ref’s on the Niners last drive. Early in the drive Jerry Rice fumbled but was ruled down by contact (this was during the “no replay” drought, so no chance to challenge the obvious fumble). A few plays later we had a defensive breakdown and Steve Young hit Terrell Owens on a deep pass down the middle … and we lost 30-27. Another heart breaker… The moral of the story? Kill the Niners early on Saturday Night and don’t let the Zebras decide the outcome! WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up Frustrated Dak Prescott Tries To Draw Foul By Planting Gun On Defender DALLAS—Having none of it, referees officiating the Cowboys loss to San Francisco on Sunday failed to call a penalty on 49ers defensive tackle Charles Omenihu at a crucial point in the 4th quarter after Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott apparently planted a Glock 9mm pistol on the defender. With only 18 seconds left, the Cowboys QB sealed the fate of America’s Team by running with the ball in the middle of the field until time expired, and then haplessly tried to negotiate getting an additional offensive play claiming a personal foul was committed by Omenihu. According to the NFL rulebook, defensive players are not allowed to brandish firearms on the field during a game, and violating this rule would have resulted in a 15-yard penalty and an automatic 1st down. Moreover, the game cannot end on a defensive penalty, so Prescott and the Cowboys would have been given another shot at the end zone. As the referees left the field, Dallas fans pelted them with rocks and garbage. Dak Prescott was disappointed when learning of fans throwing bottles at Cowboys players, but when he was told they were aiming at the refs, Dak responded: “Credit to them.” At press time, Prescott also announced he will be boycotting the Walter Payton Man of the Year award presented on the eve of the Super Bowl, which recognizes an NFL player for outstanding community service activities off the field The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof Just for fun, Coach decided to Google (the verb) Chicago Bears headlines from this year’s gridiron campaign. What follows, in no particular order, are actual headlines. Enjoy…
You’re welcome. Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground BU – Postseason Thursday was Bralen Allen’s 18th birthday. You will never have to hear ‘he’s only 17’ again. With some gaps to fill on next season’s roster, the Badgers have been pursuing receivers and cornerbacks on the transfer portal. Inspired by our lack of talent at receiver vs. Arizona State, the Badgers earned a commitment from 6’-3” UCLA wide receiver Keontez Lewis. Paul Chryst is already salivating at Lewis’ potential for gap-filling downfield run-blocking with the graduation of Jack Dunn. Twenty-four hours earlier, Bucky landed UCLA cornerback Jay Shaw. Congratulations NCAA Champion Georgia Bulldogs! Maybe next year for the Crimson Tide. We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game Packer Nation is pretty smart! A poll placed last week showed that youse has a purty good idea of what’s going on out there … you predicted the Niners, and we got the Niners! All-time the Packers have a slight lead in the series and the average score is almost tied at 21.5 to 21.2 In the playoffs the records are even closer, we are 4-4 against the Niners. During the Favre era we went 4-1: ’95 Win ’96 Win ’97 Win ’98 Loss ’02 Win Unfortunately, we are 0-3 during the Rodgers Era (come on, Law Of Averages!): Let’s not get too hung up on this … or the fact that Rodgers has had several choke moments in the playoffs against the 49ers in the Playoffs (just look at his 95.5 passer rating vs. his career rate of 104.5) … we gonna focus on the positive! First: The Packers are 24-12 all time vs. the Forty-Whiners at Lambeau and have won by an average score of 23-19. Second: Let’s compare the 6-3 Road Niner’s with the 8-0 Home Packers: The Packers have 5th best Home Offense vs. the Niner’s 12th best Road Offense (almost 6-point Packers’ advantage)! The Packers have the 2nd Best Home Defense, allowing 16.8 pts/game …vs. the Niner’s at 21.1 on the Road. Net/net the Packers have a 10.0 Point Differential advantage. Throw in 2 or 3 points for Home Field and the Pack should win by 12 points. Mid-week the betting line favored the Pack by 6, reflecting Rodger’s 0-3 record. Third: We have beaten them the last two times we played … which were both at Corduroy Stadium. Fourth: Garoppolo is still their QB. ‘Nuf said. Jimmy G is a “nice” QB … he will probably be in the League for another decade and make a ton of money as a capable backup … but he ain't gonna do squat to win the game. Fifth: San Francisco is worried about the cold. On last week Thursday’s Get Up (seriously … that’s the name of the show), host Dianna Russini revealed that Bills QB Josh Allen doesn’t like playing in the cold due to poor circulation. ESPN talking head and former Ravens and Jets linebacker Bart “Can’t wait!” Scott offered some performance enhancing advice on how to battle the cold ... Viagra. NFL sources have revealed that the 49ers organization has ordered several cases of Viagra and Cialis to prepare for this weekend’s game at Lambeau. Unconfirmed reports from the SF Bay area suggest that the 49ers are working on a new “third leg” silent count. ESPN’s Rob Dipshitsky travelled to the Uranian haven this week to assess the reaction of 49’er fans to the Viagra-Plan. Coach doesn’t care how much sildenafil they ingest, in a tribute to Joe Brown … we are gonna beat the tar out of ‘em. There’s gonna be a lot of this, a lot of that and you’re gonna hear all week about their Front-7 and the Niners running game, blah, blah, blah, blah. (Coach is ready to pop a Zofran because if he hears another question regarding how the Packers can't stop the talented Deebo Samuel, he is going to puke.) Coach doesn’t care, we have a great Offense that now has Cobb, Bakhtiari and Myers back from injury. We have a great Defense (at home) that now has J. Alexander, Z. Smith, and W. Merciless back from injury. We’re gonna limit them to less than 90-yards rushing, we’re gonna pound them with AJ Dillion and A Jones … and #17 will have over 100-yards receiving. The D will hold the Niner’s to the historical 17 points at Lambeau and Rodgers will break his skunk-streak… Packers: 31 40-Whiners: 17 JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them As Coach reflects on the great Packers DB play this year (with few notable exceptions), it is also important to not forget and heed the past – particularly the late 70’s when the Packers struggled … REALLY struggled. …Mightily. Few Packers struggled more than perennial WR chaser Estus “Asbestos” Hood, affectionately referred to by deer hunters as Special Golden Estus, and nicknamed “TOAST” (as in frequently burned) by his teammates. In Coach’s high school, if you were playing DB and got torched by a receiver, we called you Estus – and this was long after Hood retired. Back in the day, Monday Night Football was the big game of the week and the Packers were rarely good enough to make an appearance on that venue. However, there are many memories of Howard Cosell’s half time narration of the previous day’s highlights. Inevitably, there would be a kickoff return for a touchdown, or a goal line stand to seal a victory, and always a flashy 80-yard bomb down the sideline to a galloping wide out. When the Packers made that highlight reel, you’d see an opposing receiver prance into the end zone, followed 3 seconds later by good ole Estus. About Hood, Cosell quipped, “Estus has an uncanny instinct for sensing when not to make the move, when not to make the cut. He can be killed with a head fake, killed with the swiftness of his opponents, and the ability to be going the wrong direction at any single second. He is also faked out with any variation of speed.” The Packers’ 3rd round draft choice from Illinois State (Normal, IL) in 1977, Estus Hood went on to log 11 INT’s and one pick-six over his career. Passes-defended data are a little sketchy, but Coach’s steel-trap mind recalls that TD’s given up far exceeded this figure. Honestly, it is shocking Estus Hood continually made the Packers roster for 7 straight years, and played in every game. Mike McCarthy would definitely check the availability box for Estus, but accountability … notsomuch. Even though he made Kevin King look like Deion Sanders, Hood was never cut. He was actually voted "Worst Packer of All Time" by those who were cursed to have witnessed his play. Estus Hood kindly credits his father, Clay, for his longevity and fortitude to not give up despite being the worst athlete on the field each and every week.
Fast forwarding to 2022, with the successful drafting of quick-study Eric Stokes and acquisition of snubbed probowler Rasul Douglas, which has relegated the aforementioned Kevin King to kickoff coverage duties and Gatorade bottles replenishment, we salute you Estus Hood for helping us remember how good we have it today! Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show!!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: you play, to play the game... Much ado has be debated as to whether or not the starters should be rested in Week 18 because home field advantage is already wrapped. “Poppycock!” I say. It’s not a question of injury risk. Sure, guys could get hurt, and if they aren’t 90+% I wouldn’t play them. …especially if they play defense (you know, having to initiate contact and all that). Recall Bakhtiari tore his ACL in practice last year. Not a game. Not a game. We’re talking about practice. Right, Alan? Can’t risk Rodgers breaking his clavicle or spraining his knee during a sack? Fine … he can chuck the ball out of bounds or intentionally ground it, and then we punt it. Who cares? He wants to play, let him play. And the same goes for Adams, and, and, and, …. I think they should play for 2 main reasons (and, no, not for the integrity of the game … see also, replacement ref’s, Thursday night matchups, playing on soccer fields in England, but I digress…):
Create A seam here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme Coach doesn’t care if Frank Mannion (a supposedly famous film producer that Coach never heard of), Charles Manson or Sean Mannion lined-up at QB for the Queens … we killed them … … Coach doesn’t care if we got off to another slow start … we killed them … … and we clinched home field advantage in the NFC post-season tournament … … whadda week of accomplishments! Aina? 1. Matt LaFleur is now the winningest Coach in NFL history, winning 39 Regular Season Games in his first 3 Seasons* (And no “*” needed for a 17 Game Season.) 2. Erin Rodgers so vexed the Bears Fan Base that Herb Arkush self-immolates In one of the most comical episodes in the 101 years of the rivalry … Associated Press MVP Voter and long-time Bears Fan, Bears announcer, commentator and pundit, Herb Arkush, revealed Monday what everyone knows: Voting for MVP is exactly the same process as voting for Prom Queen. No surprise, Herb’s girlfriend is the ugly-one-that-looks-like-a-Bear-and-has-no-chance-of-being-queen … soes, whatsat Herb did? He says he’s going to “show the world” by not voting for the pretty and popular girl, Erin Rogers. After a complete shit storm dropped on Herb for exposing the sausage making process of determining an MVP, he “apologized” … So, in case you haven’t heard, I’ve spent the better part of the last 24 hours laughing at a pretty nasty mess. This was very clever on my part and completely entertaining. Some think that I made a terrible mistake, but I don’t. It was completely my intent. There is no one else that can take credit, and I am here to take credit. I own this and I couldn’t be happier. I expect some clarity on exactly what people think I should be apologizing for might be relevant and welcome… There was more, but Coach fell asleep while reading it. Aside from Coach’s shock at the barely grammatical “apology” from a supposed “journalist” … Coach observes that Herb’s rant just goes to further prove that the Arlington Heights Staleys, much like Kazakhstan, are a failed organization. While Coach is heartened that: … Erin Rodgers is pissed off (and therefore will play extremely well to prove Herb wrong) … - and – … that the Packers fan base is P.O.’d and is fueling the rivalry fires … … Coach doesn’t really care. Wanna stoke the rivalry? Bring out Charles Martin as an Honorary Captain for Opening Coin Toss at the next Staley’s game. 3. We set up a 2nd NFC Central Coach for firing this year (Zimmer and Nagy) and eliminated the Minneapolis ViQueens from the Super Bowl Tournament. We denied the Queens the chance to get to 0.500, something they have not been above in more than 700 days. Zimmer has not yet been officially fired, but after he is, Coach will be campaigning for him to Coach Defense and Special Teams for us next year. All- ‘n-all, a pretty damn good week for the Pack! Ah, yes, we did, by the way, also play a football game. You know we won … but what can we take away as we get ready for the 2021 End-of-Season NFL Tournament? Offense Coach could easily spend the whole blog here, there were several tremendous plays that convince Coach we have the best, most creative, Offense going into the Post-Season. Through the course of 2021, Aaron Jones and AJ Dillion lined up together for 18 snaps. On Sunday night they lined up together on 7-snaps and they averaged over 7 yard/play on those snaps! MLF just handed opposing Defenses a lot to prep for. Aaron Jones looks like he is coming back from his MCL strain. AJ had 76 rushing yards with an average of 9.5 yards/carry and he looked damn good doing it. That complemented AJ Dillion who had two TD’s and 63 yards rushing and overall, we averaged 5.4 yards/carry. Not to be outdone, the Erin-to-Davante connection continues to amaze. Adams had one TD and 136 yards on 11 receptions, several times demonstrating the technique developed by Chris Carter of the Vikings in the 90’s: “don’t look, don’t show your hands” until the ball arrives. (Note: Adams doesn’t have the Jumbotron at Field level to help him “cheat on the DB” as Carter did at the Humpty-Dump-I.) Oh, BTW, the O-Line gave up zero sacks … not the least of which because Erin is getting the ball out of his hands in record time. Naturally all was not perfect. 2020 3rd Rnd pick, “Brick-hands-Josie-Deguara” demonstrated one of the major reasons we have started so slowly in the first Qtr. all year. This pass could not have been much better located, but Josie decided he would leave an opening for mid-Season-addition at TE, Tyler Davis to shine in the Post-Season (more in the Spartans section further below). Signs of life on Special Teams? For the 2nd week in a row, ST were “OK”. As Coach said last week: “On the robust data set of one game, let’s call them “not a liability”, and cross your fingers that they can continue.” Let’s call it two-weeks-in-a-row now. Hang onto your hats kids, Mason Crosby has not missed an Extra Point in 11 games and is 48-49 on XP’s for the year. Even more exciting, he is 6 for 6 on 3-pointers over the last four games. What a weird year for him on FG’s: GM 1-4 100% 6-6 GM 5-12 57% 12-21 GM 13-16 100% 6-6 The Pack have obviously worked on the kicking unit, and they also have obviously worked on making Crosby “less sensitive to shitty holds”. Granted Borky bobbled the hold at first (and he shanked a punt), but he was just off the Covid list and playing in his coldest-ever game, but he did recover on the hold. Maybe even more importantly, Crosby held up a bit to give him time. In other news... HALLELUIAH! WE ACTUALLY RETURNED A FRICKING PUNT! Once again proving that Gutey should be GM-of-the-Year, he signed a guy off the couch who can actually return punts with confidence and contribute to The Team! Why it took this long Coach doesn’t know but give Gutey credit that he is actively trying to improve the roster every day. Run Defense Improves Ok, so Charley Manson was at QB and Thielen is hurt, I don’t recall the Packers getting any love-or-asterisks when Rodgers was hurt, so Coach is not giving them any slack either. No matter, Queens running back Derwood Cook was supposed to run all over us, again. An aside here for a moment … let’s give the Queens some credit for entertainment value. They did have the Irrelevant Reception! It was probably the coolest play Coach has ever seen an opponent have at Lambeau. Not sure what it looked like on TV, but in the stands it was incredible to watch it unfold ... seemingly in slow motion. Awesome. Safety Adrian Amos drilled the receiver, the tipped ball went to center Garret Bradbury who had a fingertip catch and rumbled 21-yards for the Queens 2nd longest play. Comically he pointed for a 1st down when they were down 30-3 … but give the guy credit … he had 53 catches for 918 yards and 12 TD’s when he was in HS. Ok, back to Derwood, overall, we held him to the 2nd worst day of his 55-game career! (He had 13-yards on 9 carries, his worst game was when the Staleys held him to 12-yards on 9 carries in 2018.) Overall, they were pathetic rushing the ball … … and we had our best Defensive game of the year against the rush (chart below). But how did the run D improve Coach? Very simple Jimmy, people “stayed home” and “did their jobs” … (insert any/all Coaching clichés here) Kenny Clark has been a stud all-year and it’s obvious now that he has recovered from his earlier injury. There is no team in the NFL that’s going to move him around. Coach has been harping on outside-contain all year. What’s important here is that Gary stays on the outside-shoulder of the pulling guard so Cook won’t/can’t bounce outside. Once Cook commits to the hole, Gary sheds the block and makes the tackle…an outstanding play. Preston Smith has played the run fairly well this year, until the last few weeks where he reverted back to his old bad habits of chasing the QB and not containing the outside. In Coach’s favorite play of the game, P Smith plays his role perfectly stays where he should be and tackles Derwood for a 5-yard TFL. Perfect D? No … but damn good … good enough to take to the Playoffs. WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up Lions Fan Displays Supernatural Ability To Determine Every Draft Pick A Bust NOVI, MI—Stunning friends and family with his inexplicable ability to divine the future, local Lions fan Barry Porter once again displayed his supernatural ability this year to determine every draft pick would be a bust with his prediction for offensive tackle Penei Sewell. “Within minutes, he was saying, ‘This is [Laken] Tomlinson all over again,’ and telling us Sewell is going nowhere and he’s gonna wash out of the league before his first contract is up,” said friend Devin Nelson, who marveled that Porter seemingly fell into a trance state as he finished his sixth beer and began peering through the fabric of time itself. “Going back 20 years and he’s basically never been wrong. I don’t know what kind of special connection he was born with that he can tell a Lions draft pick is going to suck. It’s both a gift and a curse, I guess. He sees the future, but knows he is destined to suffer forever.” At press time, Porter had once again been vindicated after Sewell stumbled and allowed a sack of quarterback Tim Boyle on the sixth snap of the game against the Seahawks, who the Lions lost to 51-29. The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof Nagy Provides Bears Players With Printouts Of Inspiring Halftime Speech CHICAGO—As the Chicago Bears entered the locker room Sunday following the first half of their game against the New York Giants, head coach Matt Nagy reportedly provided every player with a three-page printout of an inspiring halftime speech. “Everyone, please step forward and take one,” Nagy told players as he handed out copies of a 1,400-word, single-spaced motivational locker-room address, titled “Halftime Speech 01/02/22,” which had various words and phrases bolded or underlined for emphasis. “You have approximately 12 minutes to read it before the third quarter starts. You may begin.” After he made sure that everyone on the team had a copy, Nagy stood quietly at the front of the locker room while the entire team read in complete silence. Team sources confirmed first round draft pick Justen Field was denied his request for a tutor when he looked up and noticed that most others had already completed reading the document. Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground Whiskey Prevails 20-13 in Las Vegas Bowl This bowl game was actually the perfect microcosm of the season. Everything that happened was something we had seen all year ... a bunch of guys sit out and we have no idea what's wrong with any of them, but the guys who replace them fill in admirably; the defense is great, but is susceptible to big plays; the offense is inconsistent, but does just enough; Braelon Allen is our reliable stud; Mertz is generally fine with one glaring mistake; Chryst makes some head-scratching decisions. Offensively, we were off to the races until Mertz threw the ball behind Pryor over the middle for a pick. That was about the point that it dawned upon Herm Edwards that all he needed to do defensively was swarm to Braelon Allen and dare Mertz and the passing game to beat ASU. As he has done too often, Paul Chryst went conservative offensively and left it up to the defense to win the game. 9 wins against a top 10 schedule isn’t terrible, but three of our four losses were in games where we self-destructed after leading in the third quarter. We won’t have offensive line coach Joe Rudolph to kick around anymore, following his lateral move to Virginia Tech. We hope Paul Chryst will take this opportunity to bring in more creative minds for OL coach, QB coach and play-calling. For an offensive line that consistently produced mid-round NFL picks, the dropoff over the last few years has been noticeable. After indicating that they would pass on the NFL draft, Leo Chenal, John Chenal and Faion Hicks flip-flopped and declared that they would be entering draft. We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game “Perfect eyebrows Le Fleur” said this week … “the message to our team is that we’re going to Detroit to win a football game”. Damn right Coach. While there is talk of Rodgers and Adams playing, no doubt they will exit soon after Adams picks-up the 23-yards he needs to break Jordy’s “most-yards-in-a-season” Packers Franchise Record. I hope going to Detroit to win a football game means LF and Rodgers will remember: 2013 – Bears 1st Game– broken clavicle 2017- Vikings 1st Game – broken clavicle 2021- Detroit 1st Game – no injury 2021 – Detroit 2nd game – injured by splinters from bench Coach thinks we can all agree that the Portsmouth Spartans are the best 2-13-1 Team in the entire NFL, and we need to take them seriously!!! (OK, that’s the message LF had to try to sell to the locker room as they fall down laughing). After all, they have a tremendous heritage of almost doing well. And, they have one of the finest facilities in the NFL. And they made the Playoffs and won the whole darn thing in 1957 (parenthetical note, both Lambeau Field and Coach, Sr. got their starts in that very fine year). And now they have a Coach who has “set the tone”. Although Campbell is recognized for having his team “play hard” … the Season is taking his toll on him. With the No. 1 Seed locked up, it’s questionable who will play and for how long, but let’s look at the Stats anyway! Based on Season-To-Date stats, the Packers have a total advantage of 14.7 points/game. Give the Spartans a couple/tree points for being in the Ford Pinto Dome and the Packer advantage is 12 or 13 points. But who’s playing QB? It looks like Jared Goff will be activated for the game, but if not then it would be Packers 2020 QB2 (Boyle) vs. Packers 2021 QB2 (Love). Wouldn’t that be tasty? Well, maybe it's not Dallas Cowboys with McCarthy at Lambeau with LaFleur for the right to go to the Super Bowl, but a succulent appetizer nonetheless. Naturally Vegas has taken that into account the Love vs. Boyle matchup and the Line is now between 2.5 and 3.5. Who knows who’s gonna play, who’s gonna be held out and who’s gonna have Covid? Coach doesn’t know, Coach doesn’t care … but keep an eye out for the Packers to use the new Secret Weapon: Tyler Davis. ...for Love and Tuna, it doesn’t matter if we only line up with the Practice Squad, we’re gonna knock the chocolate pudding out of the Spartans. Look for the score to be along the lines of the Packers historical average of a 21-18 win. Packers: 21 Spartans: 17 JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them As we approach the possibility of Aaron Rodgers playing his final regular season game in a Packers uniform, Coach got to wondering “Who was the starting quarterback in the first Packers game?” It’s something we all should know, right? Well, then why don’t we? While he was an elusive man and quite an enigma, Adolf E. Kliebhan has a special place in Packer lore. Yes, he was the first starting QB for the Packers in the NFL. He did not last the whole game and never played again, being replaced in the 3rd quarter by none other than Curly Lambeau. Curly got the credit for pulling out the win over the Minneapolis Marines even though he did not start due to injury. The Minneapolis Marines joined the league in 1921, but folded after a 0-6 finish in 1924. They reorganized as the Minneapolis Red Jackets for the 1929 and '30 seasons, but folded again. The Twin Cities went without professional football for more than 30 years until the Vikings started in 1961 (if we’re being generous, calling them “professional”). After 50 years (or 100 years), they still have never won a championship. In fact, they didn’t even make the playoffs this year. Green Bay owns the Twin Cities, and Detroit, just like Chicago. But I digress… The first mention of Kliebhan was his attending an early practice held in downtown Green Bay on Aug. 10, 1921, which attracted roughly 400 fans (we now call them “rail birds”). That was almost two weeks before the Packers were even admitted to the APFA (renamed NFL soon after). Also, before that first league game on Oct. 23, the Packers played four non-league opponents and Adolph appeared as a sub in the first three against the Chicago Boosters, Rockford Olympics, and the Chicago Cornell-Hamburgs. In those games, he played quarterback, fullback, and right halfback. Not too shabby! After his cup of coffee in Green Bay, Kliebhan left for Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan with little-known 3rd string Scrum Blocker and volunteer towel boy Jerald Soswalla to bootleg liquor down to Superior by boat. Recall that the USA was mired in a government-controlled prohibition stranglehold, so a fella could make a bigger buck bootlegging booze than being a Back playing ball. To shield his escapades and whereabouts from the law, Kliebhan made sure to cover any tracks he may have left behind, be them photos or football scouting reports or whatever, and went off the 1920’s technology grid. No one has officially seen or heard of him since, and there’s no official record of him existing before that. Pretty cool. On the other hand, the much less gifted and, by all accounts, mildly retarded Soswalla ended up in a Canadian jail for exposing himself to the animals at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo. His sentence was extended for "uncommon indecency" by the judge during his hearing. He died from a gunshot wound to the back that was administered by a Canadian Mounty as Soswalla tried to escape the prison walls in 1926.
Anyways, today, 100 years later, we salute you, Adolph Kliebhan, the first quarterback to start for the Packers in the NFL. Then again, maybe not. Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show!!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: there are only a handful of guys that the NFL owes its longevity to... The Jumbo Perch bite is amazing in Green Bay this week so Coach doesn’t have too much free time to opine ad nauseum on the computer, but I would like to pay my respects posthumously to John Madden. When I think of guys who’ve passed, leaving a legacy of a truly rare, lasting impact on the NFL, only a few names come to mind: long time commissioner Pete Rozelle (creator of the Super Bowl), Papa Bear Halas (Bears founder and coach, financed the League during the lean years prior to television -- including keeping the Packers afloat), Vince Lombardi (creator of the first true NFL dynasty, and broke down racial stereotypes to a degree none before him was willing to do), and John Madden. Coach doesn’t play Madden NFL video games, but I realize how impactful they are to Gen Y & Z. Coach barely remembers the rotund figure marching up and down the Raiders sidelines, but I recall vividly that I realized as a young boy John Madden was a larger than life icon. True fact: I have a grill that John Madden grilled brats on! In the early 80’s when CBS did NFC games, and John Madden did TV analysis with Pat Summerall, they covered a Packers game at Lambeau and the pregame CBS show was sponsored by Weber grills. It was the first year/model that Weber (famous for their iconic charcoal kettle) ever made a gas grill, and so they had John and Pat fry some brats in front of the TV at a tailgate party in the parking lot before the game. Long story short, that grill got auctioned off and it was handed down to me. But I digress… It is obvious to everyone that John Madden’s players loved playing for him, NFL fans loved to watch Madden manage games, and the TV audience loved to hear him being himself talking about the game he was covering. He was kinda like Knute Rockne, John Candy, and Ozzy Osbourne all rolled into one. Rest in peace, John. You are an NFL legend. …at least, in Coach’s humble opinion. Create A Seam Here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme OK, let’s get all the happy stuff out of the way first: 1. We beat the winningest Division in the NFC 2. We beat the presumptive best Division in the AFC 3. We held serve for the No. 1 Seed in the NFC post-season tournament. 4. Davante Adams and Aaron Rodgers set the Packers Franchise Record for QB-Receiver Passing TD’s (67 and counting, passing Rodgers & Jordy Nelson’s 65) 5. Matt LaFleur tied George Siefert at 38 Wins in his first 3-years coaching, and the first ever to win 12 games in each of his first 3 Seasons. (Siefert went 14-2, 14-2 & 10-6 in the 1990-92 Seasons. He inherited a loaded roster and a Super Bowl winning team from Bill Walsh that was QB’d by Joe Montana in ’90 and then Steve Young ’91 & ’92; not exactly the disaster that LaFleur inherited. LaFleur is also a best-ever 21-2 at home.) 6. Aaron Rodgers broke Brett Favre’s Packers record of 442 Passing TD’s. As the scoreboard showed “443” chants of MVP rang through the Stadium as Rodger’s acknowledged assembled throng. Later he expressed joy that the pass pattern was a stick-route, a staple of the Joe-Walsh-Hotel-California-Offense that he learned as a rookie. Congratulations poured in from around Inter-Web. Brett Favre filmed a short message for Rodgers, which played at Lambeau following the touchdown pass. “Hey 12. Congratulations, man, on passing my touchdown record,” Favre said. “I have one request: Go get us another Super Bowl. Congrats.” Favre was of course a much better football player than Rodgers, albeit not as good a thrower-of-the-ball as Erin. What made Coach happy is that Favre has obviously come all the way back home, he wants “US” to get another Lombardi Trophy. Most of the usual suspects supplicated Rodgers with sycophantic dribble, but Coach really got a kick out of the Tweet from Tramon Williams. Williams was of course a teammate of Sam Shields, who famously … well just read this: Ok, now that all the sunshine and lollipops are out of the way, “What the hell is going on out there?” For the first time in many weeks, we don’t have to complain about Special Teams. While not perfect, there were no egregious errors. On the robust data set of one game, let’s call them “not a liability”, and cross your fingers that they can continue. Coach will get to the Defense in a minute, but what is going on with the Offense? As your eyeballs have already told you, we start slowly in the 1st Quarter (likely due to “No Practice Covid Toe” making mistakes) and then we explode in the 2nd Quarter. The 3rd Quarter isn’t bad and then in the 4th Quarter we experience George Costanza type “shrinkage” (I was in the pool, Jerry!). The Browns game mirrored the Ravens game last week, we had a 21-12 Halftime lead and seemed poised to bury them in a blowout. Head-banging ensued, and we were outscored 10-3 in the 2nd-Half and barely hung-on for the 24-22 Win. While 24 points is not great, it’s close to our 25.5 average for the year and only a few points below what we have averaged in the Playoffs in the Rogers Era. The big concern is what happened to the Defense over the last few games? We have slipped from a Top-5 scoring Defense to 12th best, and only rank 11th in Point Differential and all of the stats are heading in the wrong direction. The Brownies game turned-on interceptions. We had four in total, and a plus-4 overall Turnover-Differential. Savage and Sullivan each had one pick and Rasul Douglas had two, with his second snuffing out the Brownies chance at a game-winning FG. (Note, at plus-4, the NFL average outcome is a 17-point victory.) The interceptions were great, but we should have had five. Mayfield threw a bit behind Stokes, or he surely would have caught this one. Mayfield had The Covid and flew into GB on Christmas morning. The interceptions were fantastic, but that’s not to say that we played all that well on Pass Defense. The third Browns TD that pulled them to within 22-24 was a disaster of confusion. LaFleur had this to say: “I thought about calling timeout in that situation. I was hoping that we would communicate a little bit better, a little quicker and get the call in a get our guys aligned because you never want to see that. They didn’t throw it to the guy that was uncovered, which I was a little bit shocked at, but those are very frustrating because those are self-inflicted wounds that tend to get you beat.” W and T and F … Really? What has Coach even more worried is that the run Defense has all but disappeared. We have regressed to No. 31 in yards allowed per rush attempt at 4.8 yards/attempt for the year and the trend is in the wrong direction. Stiff Chub penetrates slippery perimeter Chubby did quite a number on our Defense, particularly on the outside zone runs, and he average 7.4 yards/carry on the day. You know, the part of the Defense that Pettine encourages to run inside and sack the QB!?! The Browns overall averaged 8.8 yards per rush (vs. our 4.5) and 4.6 yards per pass (vs. our 5.9). WTF is going on with the Defense? It’s obvious that we have reverted to the Poutine Defensive philosophy of trying to sack the QB on every play, whether the other team is passing our not. Rashan Gary is now up to 8.5 sacks this year. The Browns game was the 2nd time he had two sacks in a game. Getting sacks is great, except when the play is a draw and not a pass. The situation was 3rd & 10 in the 4th Qtr, with the Browns down 24-15. Normally a passing down, but not an excuse to break outside contain. Rashan Gary is lined up at Left OLB (yellow box, #52). At the snap he jumps inside of Kenny Clark trying to make his way to Mayfield for the sack, only it’s a draw to D’Ernest Johnson, who picks up 30 yards on the draw play and sets-up the Browns 3rd TD. There were plenty examples throughout the game of us not playing disciplined for outside contain. One humorous/painful example is of Preston Smith … cheating inside only to be outrun by Anthony Schwartz for 13 yards … while being blocked by Mayfield. Humiliating. How it's supposed to look is how Cleveland's "91" (Joe Jackson) played outside contain. He shut our down our reverse attempt for a 10-yard loss. According to LaFleur: “We’ve got to get back to playing everybody do their 1/11th and not trying to make a play and press. I think a lot of times when we do that, we get ourselves out of position.” So, is there a root cause for the melt down on run D? Perhaps... Preston Smith at 8 sacks now after the Browns game. He was initially scheduled to make $12 million in 2021, but his contract was significantly restructured and includes the following 2021 Regular Season incentives: 6 Sacks $500k 8 Sacks Additional $750k 10 Sacks Additional $750k 12 Sacks Additional $1.2 million 14 Sacks Additional $1.2 million A problem in any business are the unintended consequences of bonus and incentive programs. A problem in GB? You decide. For cripes sake, can we just play old fashioned D and get a stop on 3rd Down? We can’t survive in the Playoffs on a diet of interceptions. WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up Star High School Quarterback Blissfully Unaware He’ll Be Jets Starter 4 Years From Now BEND, OR—As he excitedly slapped a teammate on the back after delivering a pinpoint 30-yard throw in practice, sources confirmed Wednesday that local star quarterback Cole Rabuck was blissfully unaware he would be the New York Jets’ starter four years from now. “He goes out there every day, he’s got a great arm, and he just loves the game so much,” coach Ron Sever said of the 17-year-old who will be drafted fourth overall to a 3-13 Jets team and whose fans will immediately revile him and blame him for every failure. “He’s got a great head on his shoulders and a bright future [of being drafted by the Jets and repeatedly humiliated on a national stage] ahead of him. He’s a generational talent, honestly, and if he keeps it up, he could be the next Aaron Rodgers, [Mark Sanchez, Sam Darnold,] or Peyton Manning.” At press time, Rabuck, who will reportedly express relief when he is out of the NFL by the age of 27, was telling teammates he wants to play football for the rest of his life. The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof Matt Nagy Boasts He'll Be Bears Coach For Two More Games CHICAGO—No shock to anyone, the Chicago Bears were one of the first among eight teams that have already been mathematically eliminated from any chance of a playoff appearance. Amid swirling rumors about his job security, Bears head coach Matt Nagy declared Monday he believes that he will coach the team's final two games of the regular season. Not because he is a good coach, but because the Bears have a long-standing policy of never firing a head coach during the regular season. Nagy has come as close as anyone, though, and Bears brass have publicly lauded a new NFL rule that allows teams to begin interviewing candidates during the final two weeks of the regular season if he won't be returning to the team in 2022. Earlier, Nagy told the players he was aware of no changes to the timing of the Bears' annual evaluation process for coaches, which typically concludes after the regular season. “I told the guys ‘That’s a win for us!’ They deserve to have some sort of feeling of what a win would be like. For me personally, I'm just really happy for the players that I haven’t been fired yet because I’m sure they would feel responsible. They’ll all be outta here when it happens a week from Monday. It will be good to start the new year this way, on a positive note." Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground Wisconsin Wins 2021 NCAA Championship! (for real) Yes, the UW Women won their first NCAA volleyball championship the other day downing a formidable (not to mention, laden with hotties) Nebraska team. Dana Rettke is quite the phenom in the middle. Check out this Championship match winning spike! (click on link) And in other news, Bucky won the Las Vegas Bowl as predicted. It was a bit more of a grinder than expected with the Badgers nursing their lead the whole second half. Our true freshman Braelon Allen galloped for 159 yards and the D was stifling, just as we hoped and expected. They opened up with a Herbig sack followed by an INT on the Sun Worshipers’ opening drive. A decent Mertz pass and a Chenal TD got things off to a nice start. The second drive yielded another TD which capitalized on the ASU depleted secondary. After that, it was pretty much a parade with the D clamping down for the final 46 minutes of game time. Not pretty, but we won. Other than Khakipants's Wolverines getting shellac'd by the Georgia Bulldogs in the Orange Bowl, the Big Ten went undefeated in bowl games leading into New Year's Day. Not too shabby, but "Whoopdeefriggindoo!" because Bucky shoulda played Michigan in Indy. We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game Under normal circumstances, Coach would point out that we are about even on Offense with the Queens, we have a slight advantage with our D and we’re playing at home, so throw on a few more points and we “should” win by 5.1, which is driving the Vegas line to 6.5 points in favor of the Pack. “But” …. as we looked at above, our Run Defense is now at 31 (4.8 yds/attempt) and the Queens have the #17 Rush Offense (4.3 yds/attempt) “And” … throw out all that stuff in the days of The Covid, what is the Injured Reserve and Covid situation? We will be missing a total of 20 players for the game with the Queens, 10 on the Covid List and 10 in Injured Reserve. The lists for both are damn impressive (pretty damn depressing), including three 2020 Pro-Bowlers and a number of key starters. Reserve Covid List = 10 Injured Reserve = 10 “And” … we gave up about 4 yds/attempt to Dalvin Cook in our 34-31 loss to the Queens 34-31 Loss on Nov 17th, and he is averaging 4.7 yards/carry in 2021 (1067 on 226 carries). “But” …. the Queens also have a buncha guys out for the game (13 on IR and 5 on the Covid list, 18 total vs. our 19 with MVS coming back), so arguably we are even on missing players. Where does that leave us for this weekend? Well, for sure Rodgers is not worried about idiot ViQueens fans who have to hold their buddies back from trying to sucker-punch him… … what he is thinking about is how we lost our last two games to the Queens and we are only 3-2 against them in the Rogers/LaFleur era … including losing the last two at the Humpty-Dump-Deux. In the first game between the Vikings and Packers this season, Minnesota came out on top by a score of 34-31 after running back Dalvin Cook and receivers Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen combined for over 300 yards against the green and gold. Now QB Kirk "Kissin" Cousins is recently ruled out with COVID, so with Thielen also being out … … and Minneapolis essentially being out of the playoff race after their loss to the Rams last week … … expect this one to be another tough Divisional game, but it will break the Packers’ way and pretty much match the long-term average score. Packers: 28 ViQueens: 24 JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them With Borky out this week, Coach feels compelled to remind you, the astute reader, that our hot-and-cold punter also manages the holding duties for place kicking on Special Teams. So now the Packers are scrambling for a fill-in punter and place-kick holder. There has been considerable speculation regarding who will be holding for kicks (perhaps Randall Cobb?) and handling the punting duties (bring back JK Scott?) this weekend. All this got Coach to thinking about the 1975 Packers great, Dave Pureifory. When Chester “the Molester” Marcol went down after twisting his knee tackling a kick returner, Coach Starr had nowhere to turn in the middle of the game, so he asked the team if anyone had kicking experience. Packers DT, Dave Puriefory raised his hand and explained he kicked in high school in Ecorse, Michigan. With no other options, Starr sent Puriefory in to kick. He handled kickoffs okay (as any of us could, except Mason Crosby) and made 2 of 4 extra points (Huh, also similar to Mason Crosby!). He was already a Special Teams regular, so having an extra tackler on the field was a plus. There were no field goal attempts, as the Packers just went for it on 4th downs (see also, LaFleur game strategy with Mason Crosby).
Dave was known as the Tasmanian Devil on the field for his reckless abandon pursing ball carriers, but also known to be a very mild mannered sort off the field. After 6 years as a Packers DT with Dave Roller (and part of the self-titled “Gang Green” defense), he moved on to play for the Lions as a defensive end. He ended his career as a Birmingham Stallion in the USFL where he was a DE opposite Reggie White. How ‘bout them apples? So, summarizing, Corey Bojorquez, will eventually be playing defense next to Aaron Donald in the CFL after a brief stint with the Lions. Any questions? |
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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