Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show!!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: …LaFleur doesn’t realize he’s a head coach. Somewhere along the line, somebody told Matt LaFleur he was a good play caller. …especially when he uses motion to confuse defenses, which results in a completed pass. The problem with that praise, however, is that it now negatively affects him as a head coach. Case in point: 3rd & 8 in field goal range, up by a touchdown, with 10 minutes left in the game. The Belichicks (or even lowly armchair coaches) of the world recognize / appreciate the unlikelihood of converting this down and distance, and value the opportunity to go up by 2 scores at this late phase of the contest. Rather than call a safe run play to take the easy 3-points, LaFleur commits the cardinal sin and calls a pass play that ends up in a sack – out of field goal range. It’s not like our run game wasn’t working (nor was it like our pass blocking was working). Shoot, our RB’s averaged almost 5 yards/carry against the Giants! To make matters worse, following the ensuing punt, the defense gave up a 91-yard scoring drive to the Giants – tying the game, and our defense was gassed / jet lagged / on their heels – you name it. So the head coach of an NFL football team should know to negotiate some ball control at that point in the game. But that’s exactly when LaFluer again ignored his head coaching responsibilities and became a subservient play caller. Point numero B: three consecutive “chuck it, Aaron” pass plays resulting in an immediate 3 & Out. When challenged by reporters this week about those head-scratching pass play calls, LaFleur said they were good plays and he would be praised if they would have worked. Huh? He then explained he was taking what the defense was giving him, “They were daring us to pass.” Again, he did not act like a head coach with strategic means to an end (victory). He acted like a pass play caller with no regard for how tired his defense was, or how effective the run game had been all game long, which is what the head coach should be focused on. LaFeur went on to say he wished the RB’s would have gotten more touches, and that was on him. No shit, Sherlock. Running the ball won’t ever get you praise as a play caller. So what’s really more important to you, Matt? Time to decide. You’re not a bad play caller, but it comes at the expense of making good, “higher level” head coaching in-game decisions. If you want to be known as a genius play caller, that’s a fine goal – but you’re in the wrong role … at least, in Coach’s humble opinion. Create A Seam Here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme As Coach famously wrote in the opening of his classic novel: The Tale of Two Games (Think hard, you probably read it in H.S.) It was the best of times As you know, the “London Game” was a home game for the Pack; with Packer’s paint in the EZ and very familiar opening ceremonies. The U.S. Military Honor Guards were joined by their British Counterparts and both the Star-Spangled Banner and God Save the Queen King were lustily sung by all. Coach was also very pleased and impressed that the standard Go-Pack-Go prompt was played throughout the game with a loud and enthusiastic crowd response each time. (Albeit the first time was when we were on Offense, which somebody corrected immediately. Man, why the hell don’t they play it at Lambeau anymore??) The crowd included enough Lambeau regulars to quiet the crowd when folks wanted to cheer while we were on Offense … a very disciplined and impressive display by the crowd of ~70% Packer fans!! Plenty of beer was consumed and the Packer fans were gracious and friendly hosts to the Giants fans, pretty much like Lambeau! Oh yeah, there was also a football game. The first half felt a bit choppy and uneven, but when we went up 17-3 with 7:25 left in the 1st-Half it felt like “game over”. With a lead of 20-10 at the Half it looked like we would cruise to victory. It was the worst of times The NFL wants Europe and the rest of the World to embrace NFL football. For all that was done properly to make it feel like Lambeau, they could not help themselves… T-Shirt Cannons? Yeah sure, at a Minor League baseball park to get families to come out and enjoy an affordable night at the ballpark and get the kids a cool souvenir. Kiss Cams? Arghhh, yes, just like at an NBA game between two 3-12 teams. Sponsored by the Tourist Association of Kissimmee, Florida with prompts to “come visit”?!?!? For the sake of Vince, I sure hope he had already rolled on his side and couldn’t see the game from his perch up there in Football Heaven. Another feature during very TV-time-out were live, in-game-analysis by Brit TV Hottie Sam Quek. Primarily the interviews were with “NFL Legend” Maurice Jones-Drew (not kidding, that’s how she introduced him). The insightful analysis was along the lines of “Maurice, was that a cool touchdown?” and “will scoring a TD have an impact on the game?” Coach can only guess that these “explanations” the game were to help explain the game to the “dumb Euros”. Honestly, Coach does not understand for one second who the NFL thinks they are attracting. The stadium was full and the scalped ticket prices high-enough that it was clear they could have filled the stadium several times over. The Euro-Packer-Fans that Coach met understood the game at least as well, if not better, than the average schmoe at Lambeau. Sitting right behind Coach was a German family that went to the Packers-Bucs game two weeks ago, then went to Disney and then travelled onward to England for the Packer game. The whole experience was a very, very cool opportunity to meet Packer fans from around the World, too bad the morons at the NFL think they need to “manufacture fun” to attract fans. Summary learning children? Euro-NFL-Fans = Cool NLF Marketing = Inane Morons Oh yeah, back to the bad news, we also had to play the 2nd-Half. The Packers obviously thought the game was over at the Half. It could not have been more painful … 4 drives, 10:25 TOP, 25 plays, 88 yds and ZERO POINTS in the 2nd Half. Last episode Coach predicted pretty closely the Offensive output (blue below); but the D continued to be a sieve against the run game … which has gotta stop!! The Packers D and Special Teams will again be the difference as the Offense continues to play Preseason Ball and is trying to figure itself out! Coach sees a foreign exhibition of American Football at Tottenham Stadium. Packers predicted 24 actual 22 G-Men predicted 17 actual 27 Ironically, the Special Teams did in fact do their job, but the “Top 5 Defense” has yet to appear. We need the Offense to sustain drives to keep the team in the game, we led time-of-possession at the half, but only kept the ball for 10:25 in the 2nd. So, back to the future, we need to Offense to keep the D off the field until Petite Fleur grows a pair and fires D Coordinator Chuck Berry. As pathetic as 2nd-Half performance was, there was still a chance to tie the game at the end. Late in the 4th Quarter the Pack drove 69 yards down to the Giants 6-yd line with 1:11 left in the game. With 1:05 left in the game and the score 20-27, we made it to the Giants 6-yd-line with 1-yd needed for a first down. On both 3rd and 4th downs Rogers checked out of run plays into passes, both of which were batted down. The well-coached Giants D put in 8-in-the-box and Rodgers took the bait; runs would have worked extremely well both times. The shot above shows the hole that “didn’t exist” on 4th and 1 … clearly Dillon would have gotten the 1st if not a TD. Coach went looking for answers and direction, so he contacted his old buddy! Former Packers Guard and Pro-Bowler, TL Jang. When asked for his analysis of the game, he said: “it’s simple, fun the rucking ball!” Coach thinks that ole TL Jang may be onto something. Rodgers’ EPA-per-drop-back is at a level like his 2015-2018 late-McCarthy-era period. Rodgers average depth of target has moved up from lowest to fourth lowest and he leads the league in the percentage of his attempts going behind the line of scrimmage (26.2%). Despite the modest efficiency on these pre-dominantly RPO/designed passes, the real problem is when Rodgers tries to throw down the field. Rodgers ranks 23rd in adjusted completion percentage (which counts drops as completions) and 26th in yards per attempt. Rodgers said after the game: “We wanted to come here and put on a show and win a football game, the crowd was outstanding. This was a fantastic experience for all of us. Very clearly Fraudgers is not focusing on winning football games, he wants to “put on a show” … which explains the psychology of checking out run plays to weak pass plays. The confusing thing is that Fraudgers is just missing passes downfield, what the hell is going on out there? Coach did some undercover work and discovered that Rodgers skipped all team practices this week and was interviewing for the prestigious job of Manager of the famed soccer club Richmond AFC. So, the MVP quarterback is not playing like an MVP and is skipping practices and missing throws during games? The MVP quarterback who talks all off season about being “all-in” is interviewing for other jobs? Maybe it’s time to shake things up a bit, time to rattle #12’s cage? Maybe time for a little bit of Jordan Love? Coach recommends giving Love a spin around the block, give him the 2nd quarter against the Jets. Sure, it will piss-off Rodgers … but does Coach care about that? No! Coach doesn’t care about “putting on a show” … Coach cares about winning the f’ng game. On the defensive side, it is clear to see how poorly coached this team is. D Coordinator Chuck Berry had zero track record of being able to put together quality defenses. Berry is a prime example of someone who has failed up through ‘who he knows’ rather than earning the promotions he’s given, a reality we are paying for. Green Bay continues, week after week, to post bad rush defense performances and week after week the team continues to operate within the same structure with the same errors and the same breakdowns. If you’re a coach who can’t adapt scheme to personnel, you’re a bad coach, and have no business at the highest levels of football. The Packers are not only getting beaten in the run game, but their structure is handing offenses easy yards. The Packers have given up the 2nd-fewest passing yards in the NFL through 5 weeks (885), yet somehow, we've allowed the most yards of any defense on crossing routes by FAR in 2022 (327). Time for Petite Fleur to prove the NFL Coaching Ranks are not just a fraternity, not just a revolving door of re-treads. Time for Petite Fleur to prove that DC Joe Barry is not the 2022 version of 2021’s ST Coordinator Mo Drayton … that is the Coach who is simultaneously incompetent and untouchable. Mike Zimmer is out there … just saying … WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up Rams Yell At Cooper Kupp From Sidelines As He Sits In Endzone Playing With Ladybug He Found INGLEWOOD, CA—Shaking their heads in frustration as the team lined up to take a first-down snap, members of the Los Angeles Rams were overheard yelling at wide receiver Cooper Kupp from the sidelines Sunday as he sat in the endzone playing with a ladybug he found. “Hey, Cooper! Cooper! Eyes up, we’ve got a game to play,” shouted head coach Sean McVay, waving his arms in an attempt to get the attention of the 28-year-old who was plucking individual blades of turf from the field and shouted back that he was busy building a home for his new best friend. “We talked about this in practice, bud, you need to stay alert. Until the whistle blows, the play is still going on—stand up! Put your friend down and get in the game, please—if you do, there’s a Capri Sun with your name on it. Oh, great, now [Cam] Akers is skipping over to join him.” At press time, Kupp was reportedly inconsolable after the ladybug’s house was carelessly crushed by an opposing player. The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof Bears Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory MINNEAPOLIS—The Bears played one of the worst halves in the history of sports that use halves, and they lost a game they could have won if not for another knuckleheaded play late in the 4th quarter that proves they just suck. It’s hard to understand how Chicago could have come out so flat, especially against a team that played in London 7 days before. The Bears started with a delay of game penalty on their first offensive play, as they only had 10 men on the field (doh!). Teams rehearse their first 15 plays or so in the days leading up to a game, like a Broadway cast going over its lines. You English majors will appreciate that reference, and also recognize this as foreshadowing. What followed was a mess, a mess that would lead to a 21-3 hole. That’s when the Vikings let up, got hit by jet lag, took pity, or maybe a little of all of those, and the Bears slowly crawled their way back to within the point spread as the clock ticked closer and closer toward zero. But this is the Bears we’re talking about. Down 29-22, the Bears had every reason to think they could score on the Vikings again, grab a two-point conversion and sneak out of Minneapolis with a victory. Then Bears receiver (and former Viking) Ihmir Smith-Marsette, after a 15-yard reception, inexplicably tried to get more yards rather than get out of bounds to stop the clock with about a minute left. Minnesota’s Cameron Dantzler pulled the ball out of Smith-Marsette’s hands and – BOOM, game over. Justin Field, Matt Eberflus or not, the Bears still suck. Some things will never change. Thank God we play them twice each year. Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground “Air Wisconsin” goes 1-0! Bucky put out a dominating performance with 6 touchdown passes, 299 yards passing, a career day for Chimre Dike and some serious injury bullets dodged. This was a good start to the Jimmy Leonhard era. Do note that this Northwestern team is so bad that the refs didn’t even bother with phantom holding and pass interference calls. “We have to play off our passing game,” said Leonhard. “Teams are going to stop the run. They are going to load the box and dedicate a lot of attention to our running backs and o-line. We have to be able to balance that a little bit.” Ya think? Here at BU, we welcome this obvious piece of insight. Our title is tongue in cheek, but with hope opposing teams see a lot more of our Dairy Air! i.e. chasing derriere’s into end zones. Fans like us have been screaming for more first down passing. We got it during the first half as WI built its lead. Same goes for play-action passing and RPO. Mertz was 7/10 on play-action on Saturday, and that previously he'd been 6/9 FOR THE YEAR. You may ask, is there a reason that an offense predicated on being able to run the ball would not run play-action a lot every game? Answer: bad offensive line. Play action takes a bit longer to develop. It is a ton easier and a ton less risky to pass on first down when the defense like Northwestern’s has zero pass rush. In contrast, the OL was not good against Illinois and Mertz was under siege all day. Against Northwestern, nobody was putting any pressure on Mertz. Compounding matters for Northwestern, nobody could cover in the secondary with or without 8 men in the box. Who knows what the final score would have been if Chryst were coaching, but likely it would have been a win. It's safe to say that Chryst would have run a RB into the 8-man box for little-to-no gain 10 more times, and then put our QB in must pass situations 10 more times, and then made it much easier for the NW defense to make a big play 10 more times. It was refreshing to watch an offense that for a change did not look like a constipated old man attempting to drop a deuce. We think Jimmy may have left the O Game Plan to OC Bobby Engram who finally released the pent-up hounds. We can’t wait to see how this continues with more formidable foes. Mertz seems to relish it with just one guy whispering in his ear. Jimmy Leonhard in some ways is the anti-Chryst. His press conferences are insightful. He tells it like it is. One tidbit of note was a comment that players had fallen into a pattern of folding as soon as anything went wrong. This began taking shape as far back as the 2018 season when the defense collapsed following turnovers by Jonathan Taylor and Jack Coan after blowing a big lead. The defense similarly collapsed in the 2019 Rose Bowl vs. Oregon following a Danny Davis fumble. This weekend’s tilt in East Lansing has the Badgers favored by 7.5 points. Fortunately for Bucky, Michigan State is in the midst of their own tailspin. Rushing totals for the last four games were 42, 38, 100, and 7 yards for an average of 66.8 yards per game. Not surprisingly, the Spartans are riding a four-game losing streak. The line play hasn’t been great. With a strong rushing attack as an ally last season, quarterback Payton Thorne passed for 248.7 yards per game, with 27 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. His numbers this season: 205.7 yards per game, with nine touchdowns and seven interceptions. Defensively, they are allowing 292.0 passing yards per game, the worst mark in the Big Ten and 445.5 total yards per game, the No. 13 mark in the league. Their scoring defense (27.0 ppg) is 11th in the Big Ten. Twelve times in 26 games, the Spartans have allowed at least 300 yards passing. This season the Spartans have intercepted one pass and have allowed 14 touchdown passes. Too bad the Badgers are not a good enough passing team to take full advantage of this. Michigan State might get star senior safety Xavier Henderson and defensive tackle Jacob Slade back from injury this week, but there still are significant issues on the back-end UW might exploit. This game likely comes down to how well the Badgers can limit MSU's passing game. Thorne will test the Badgers cornerbacks deep, and the Spartans can put up points in a hurry if they don't hold up. Pressure up front and smart play outside will be crucial for UW. MSU likely won't be able to stop UW on the ground without committing extra bodies, but that will stress an already struggling secondary. We expect Graham Mertz to have another strong day and the Badgers win a tight one 31-26 Bucky. We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game J – E – T – S ... Jets, Jets, Jets As explained in X&O’s above, the NFL Coaching Ranks is not a revolving door fraternity of buddies getting jobs cuz they know somebody. As of this writing, Coach cannot confirm that Petite LaFleur will have a sleep over with his brother and best buddy when they come to town this weekend. After a nice plate of warm pancakes together on Sunday morning … Coach is sure that they will do everything possible to “go to war” against each other and then have a nice BBQ over at the LaFleur’s afterwards. The Packers and Jets have only played 13 times and the Jets are one of the few teams that have a winning record vs. the Pack. We are 5-8 against the Jets and lose by an average of 5 points. However, during the Rodgers era, we are 3-0, including the memorable 9-0 slug fest at the Meadowlands during the 2010 SB Season and the 2018 44-38 OT thriller. With Rodgers we average a 28-21 win. Vegas must be looking at the historical margin as the betting line is Packers by 7.5 points. However, during the Rodgers era, we are 3-0, including the memorable 9-0 slug fest at the Meadowlands during the 2010 SB Season and the 2018 44-38 OT thriller. With Rodgers we average a 28-21 win. Vegas must be looking at the historical margin as the betting line is Packers by 7.5 points. It turns out that we are evenly matched. Looking at Avg yards gained vs. avg yards given up on D, the two teams are also evenly matched, with a slight advantage to us. Looking the same numbers from a ranking standpoint, you see the same thing, but with a slight advantage to the Jets.
Assuming the standard:
This one will boil down Erin Rodgers finally having a good game in 2022 and the D starting to round into form. Coach bets we will, finally. Packers 24 Jets 17 JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them Carlos Alan Autry was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on July 31, 1952. When he was two, his family moved to the San Joaquin (Joe-a-kwin) Valley in California where they picked cotton to make a living. His parents divorced, and Carlos grew up with his mother’s name, Brown. At 6’3″ 210 pounds, he earned a football scholarship to Fresno State and became the first person in his family to attend college. In 1975, the Packers picked him in the 12th round of the draft, and he made the team as a third-string quarterback. Carlos wore #19 and barely played in his rookie year, but when starter Lynn Dickey went down to injury in 1976, Brown started three games late in the season and proved he was overmatched in the NFL. He completed 26 of 74 passes for two touchdowns and six interceptions in those three games, all losses. He was cut in 1977 and later played a year in the Canadian Football League. Through some Hollywood people he had met, he started acting in movies in the late 1970s. He appeared in North Dallas Forty, Popeye and Southern Comfort as Carlos Brown. However, in 1981 Carlos met his father for the first time as an adult and went back to Autry, Alan Autry. He continued acting in movies like Brewster’s Millions and Amazing Grace and Chuck before hitting it big on television. In 1988, he landed the role of Captain Bubba Skinner on the new television series “In the Heat of the Night” and stayed for seven years. From there he starred on another series, “Grace Under Fire,” for two seasons and then formed his own production company. In 2000, he followed in the footsteps of fellow actor/mayor Clint Eastwood by being elected mayor of a California city, in Autry’s case Fresno. He was then reelected in 2004, but term limits ended his political career in 2009. He still makes occasional film and television appearances. From growing up as the son of divorced farm workers to the NFL to Movies and Television to Politics, Carlos Brown aka Alan Autry has lived the American Dream through hard work and dedication and, for that, we salute you Carlos / Alan!
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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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