Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show !!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: ...there should be a “Sarcasm” emoji. Regular readers of this periodical might have picked up on Coach’s dry sense of humor and his proclivity toward sarcastic commentary. So it should be no surprise to you, the loyal reader, that Coach’s use of text messaging for personal correspondence if often peppered with sarcastic ditties as well. Now, if you know Coach, you know enough to not be offended; I kid because I care. If you don’t know Coach, you might wrongfully infer that I am an angry soul, unsatisfied with the hopeless human condition. To the contrary, I am quite optimistic (almost to a fault) -- I just like giving people shit. Hey, it’s funny! Perhaps, though, I have recently crossed a bridge too far. I actually complemented an acquaintance on his astute observation of a football matchup, and he took offense because he thought I was being sarcastic! His ardent reply immediately caught my attention so I was quick to say “Dude, I’m serious – that was great!” to which he replied, “You should let me know when you’re not being sarcastic.” Well I’ll be damned, he is on to something. It’s so simple, so obvious. Common courtesy and social discourse insists that I should follow any sarcastic comment with a Sarcasm emoji. But there isn’t one! Why TF not? There are like 20 different smiley / laughing emoji’s, even though one would suffice. There’s even gay couples holding hands (not that there’s anything wrong with it), and several emoji of blind people with a white cane (how would a blind person know how to find or use that emoji in the first place?), but no Sarcasm emoji. That’s F’d up. Just think about how many more friends I could have if a Sarcasm emoji existed! Sure, I can make friends, but KEEPING them is the tough part for a sarcastic creature like myself (and God help the poor sarcastic person with Asperger's). That’s one of the problems of not being a racist or biased in any way … I do not discriminate -- I will expose anyone who leaves the door open. So, whoever draws up those emoji face things up needs to get off their ass and make a Sarcasm emoji – pronto! It’s really important. …at least, in my humble opinion. Create A Seam Here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme Let’s start this week by acknowledging, celebrating and mourning… … two years in a row we beat the Charlotte Panthers at Lambeau 24-16 in a cold weather game with a big defense stop … … Rodgers is the only QB in NFL history to throw 40 or more touchdowns in a season three different seasons … … we’re 11-3, currently the No.1 Seed in the NFC and control our own destiny … … we have 7 players picked for the Pro Bowl and could (should?) have had more … … RIP Kevin Greene (Panthers OLB in ’96 NFC Championship at Lambeau, inspirational Coach in Packers 2010 SB win) … Not to minimize any of those sentiments, but you’ve read about them everywhere, so Coach won’t repeat it here. Rather, let’s start this week by summarizing just about every X&O’s since Coach started sharing his wisdom on the interweb … “The Defense sucked, and Rodgers saved the day” - or Alternate 1 – “The Defense sucked, and Rodgers almost saved the day” - or Alternate 2 – “Boy we suck, I wish Rodgers wasn’t hurt” - sprinkled with a dash of – “why can’t we find a Special Teams Coach?” Hard as it is to imagine, this week the Script-was-flipped!! Special Teams were “OK” (mediocre punting, great 51-yarder from Crosby) and the Defense actually played pretty well, but Rodgers was the problem, he was the barrier to this becoming the blowout that Coach predicted. Last week Coach said: It should be right around freezing, no snow and light winds for Saturday night at Lambeau. Teddy’s gonna toss us a couple this weekend, the D is gonna look “satisfying” and the Pack is gonna win in a “Brad Hoover be damned” blowout. Coach’s forecast for the weather and the Defense was right on! The Defense allowed 16 points vs. Coach’s prediction of 17, had three forced fumbles and pick (two wiped out by penalty and one fumble Charlotte recovered). The problem was we didn’t play situational football on Offense. … “It’s frustrating, but we’re 11-3, we won the game, that’s a good problem to have. We just know that type of football in the second half, not going to get it done in the payoffs.” - A. Rodgers Amen Aaron, amen. Offense The first 3 drives of the game we scored 21 points and gained 203 yards on 15 runs and 13 pass plays. The Panthers, a below average Defense, were totally geared to stopping the pass. Even though we completed 69% of the passes, we only gained 5.5 yds/attempt and had 7 non-impact plays out of 13 pass attempts (0-5 yds gains or penalty). The Panthers D usually lined up in a version of 3-3-5, with two of the DB’s “up”, meaning they looked kind of like a High School 3-5-3. There are “3-Bigs” on the L-O-S (Red Circle) and 3 LB (Red Circle) totaling 6 “legitimate” run stoppers in the middle. Joining them are a Safety and the two CB are lined-up in press-man coverage, meaning they have 9 in total at the Line, to help stop the run. They also have Davante Adams in what looks like single-man coverage, but the CB actually backs out into zone and the Safety comes up to cover Adams. (The Safety then slides over to the middle when he realizes it’s a run play.) This is a classic 1996 Fritz Shurmur Nickel Defense, nothing fancy. The “Bigs” tie-up the O-Line and the LB’s flow to the play. Coach really likes this formation as it solves many of the problems we have with Poutine’s D. Over the course of the game we ran really well and averaged 7.2 yds/attempt. During the first three drives we were unstoppable, averaging 8.7 yards per rushing attempt. Even more amazingly, we only had one non-impact play out of 15 rushing attempts (0-2 yd gain or penalty, see the Run/Pass chart below). For some unknown reason, after going up 21-3 on the first three drives, and with a chance to finish-the-kill in the 1st half with a 31-3 score, we went on a stretch that looked like Melissa McCarthy was back running the show. We went away from the run and for the next 7 drives we passed 57% of the time and ran 43%. Charlotte continued to focus on taking away Adams and we averaged 1.5 yds/pass-attempt, while completing 69% of the passes!! Which means, of course, we were completing meaningless passes. The result: 7-plays, 34 yds, punt 4-plays, 1 yd, Half 3-plays, -1 yd, punt 4-plays, 19 yds, punt 10-plays, 42 yds, FG 3-plays, -8 yds, punt 1-play, -1 yd, End-of-Game Helping multiply the bad news were dropped passes. Going into the game we had 24 drops for Season, 2nd to the 33 drops by the Steelers. We’ve picked on MVS all year for dropping passes, but in this game even some of our “reliable-regulars” were guilty. Rodgers followed the throw above with a deep shot to MVS … and mercifully MVS saved AR from a poorly thrown INT by knocking the ball away from the DB. In the clip above, Rodgers has the option to hand-off the ball or pass and he is expecting Lazard to be wide open in the right flat, but he isn’t there! Rodgers makes a play-action fake in the Run-Pass-Option (RPO), but Lazard goes downfield to block, and Rodgers has no one to pass to. Rodgers realizes in less than a second that the play is busted, so he runs and makes a positive-play out of a busted-play (yeah Rodgers, our 2nd leading rusher with 26 yards). LaFleur, in “Coach Speak”, blamed Rodgers for the Offensive performance. “Some of those, [pause] we weren’t necessarily having to throw those run alerts [that means checking from a run to a pass]. But if I’m looking at it critically, there’s so many more opportunities to continue to run the football. We’ve just got to be disciplined and be patient and take what the defense was giving us. Our ground game was very, very, very effective. I thought Aaron Jones was running really, really hard. Sometimes you’ve got to lean on the ground game. I wish we would’ve gone to it a little bit more.” said LaFleur after the game. Translation: “Rodgers, WTF, quit f’ng forcing the ball to Adams, I don’t give a damn about him extending his consecutive-game-TD-record.” A big factor was the absence of Jamaal Williams, who limped off after a thigh injury on a 2-yd run on the Packers 2nd TD drive. LaFleur added “We had stuff in the plan, he is such an important part of what we do, not just running the football, but in the screen game and the protection game, check down. We split him out wide at times, too.” Then the obvious question becomes, why was Dillon not used more when Williams went out? He only had three snaps and one carry. Rodgers danced around questions about Dillon all week, but basically Rodgers doesn’t trust him in the Offense. That begets the really concerning question of: “Does LaFleur have control of Rodgers during the game?” Perhaps not as much as needed. But LaFleur does control the personnel on the field. Time to get Dillon more involved and get Rodgers back running LaFleur’s running system. Defense The D has gotten marginally better over the course of the season is now ranked 14th in points allowed for the Season at 24.2 pts/gm. The black line in the chart below is the average and the line is trending down, good! (The label with the number is the Def ranking … which is on the right-side scale.) The thinner blue line shows the actual point allowed and we have now had 5 games this season where we allowed fewer than 20 points. Some of the players talked to Poutine a few weeks ago and he’s agreed to simplify the Defense. Coincidentally (or probably not), Poutine has also given the two rookies at ILB (Barnes and Martin) more playing time than Kirksey, and the D looks much better when those two are on the field. Yep, what hasn’t changed is that Christian Kirksey and Kevin King are having bad seasons and they both really sucked against the Panthers. The play above was a killer. We stopped Charlotte on 3rd & 9, only to give them a 1st down on the penalty(s) … which was on the opposite side of the field, away from the actual play. Two plays later Charlotte was in the EZ to make the score 21-10. The biggest disappointment on Defense this year is without-a-doubt the Oft-Injured, Oft-Out-Of-Position, and Oft-Missing-Tackles-Kirksey. Coincidentally (or probably not), the Cleveland Browns’ defense has gotten significantly better since Kirksey’s departure to Green Bay. Just sayin. As the play begins Kirksey (#58) is the Middle Linebacker, lined up on about the 12-yd line. The picture below captures a key moment from the clip above. At the snap Kirksey goes with the TE as you normally would in man-coverage, but as he gets downfield he seems to realize that everyone else is playing zone (he joins a group of 4 Packers downfield who are covering 2 Panthers). When he realizes his mistake he turns (too late) to go back and tackle Robby Anderson (#11 Panthers) who was wide-open in the zone that Kirksey had just vacated. Remember, Kirksey is the guy getting everyone else lined-up, he has the “green dot” (communication) helmet and is the one telling the rest of the D the play that Poutine called. When Kirksey’s phone rings, you can bet it’s not MENSA on the line. Kirksey’s role is to control the center of the field, and, in this instance, he lets the RB simply screen him out of the way and Kirksey easily scores. To be fair to Kirksey, he is alone. We are rushing four guys, six drop-back into deep coverage and Kirksey has a box 35 yds wide and 15 yards deep to cover by himself … that’s a scheme issue with Poutine. Maybe it’s unfair to pile on Kirksey, what with the recent celebration of the birth of God’s only begotten son and all (for the record, Coach has confirmed that Jesus did, in fact, prefer to be addressed with the he / him / his pronouns), but for goodness sake, man! At least in this instance there is some good news... Dean Lowry, previous poster-boy for bad D-Line play, actually makes a good play – tipping the ball and ultimately saving Kirksey from another exposure because he was out of position. But we have hope on D! Sullivan has been playing better and better with every game. In his 3rd year out of Georgia State, he’s a keeper. A nagging question remains, though, if either Chanukah or Hanukkah are valid spellings, then is it Chandon or Handdon Sullivan? Rookie 5th rounder Kamal Martin has been fantastic against the run. He fell to the 5th round because of knee injuries while playing for the Gophers, and he had a knee injury for a while this year, but when he’s out there he diagnoses the plays much faster than #58. Anyone paying attention this year knows about Barnes. He’s a UDFA this year out of UCLA and was originally cut coming out of Training Camp. He is our best ILB by far, and recently even Poutine seems to have realized that. When Barnes and Martin play inside together, usually in a 3-2 or sometimes 4-2 arrangement, the Defense is much, much better. In the clip above Barnes blows up the screen, but unfortunately got “stuff” in his eyes and was out for the rest of the game (and was replaced by Kirksey, leading to the Kirksey mistakes referenced above). So, in summary, the rookie ILB’s are keepers, and Kirksey should no longer be activated and/or cut with prejudice. ADVERTISEMENT – After a emptying the sack, it's the best way to recoup. Get Lucky! WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up Baker Mayfield’s Commercial Agent Furious He Continues to Risk Everything By Playing Football CLEVELAND—Chastising his biggest client’s immaturity and lack of concern for professional obligations, Baker Mayfield’s commercial agent Patrick Hayes told sources Wednesday that he is furious that the quarterback continues to risk his career by playing football. “He’s got millions of dollars on the line, and yet he continues to ignore the risk it poses to his job and spend all his free time playing football,” said Hayes, who warned Mayfield that if he continues to risk his body and mind playing football for fun, he may never set foot on a soundstage ever again. “He’s going to need his brain to memorize scripts. He came into Progressive filming one day after spending all Sunday playing football and could barely remember any of his lines. It’s a distraction, too. If he was really focused on this, we could have him doing Pepsi or Ford.” Hayes added that the talent agency was thinking about adding something in Mayfield’s next contract to ban him from engaging in extracurricular football activities. The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof ‘Bring Me Some Holiday Cheer, You Son Of A Bitch’ Says Bears Fan Slamming Christmas Tree Up Against Wall Elmhurst, IL–In a desperate effort to get out of her playoff doldrums and into the spirit of the season, local Chicago Bears fan Miranda Krall was reportedly demanding that a Christmas tree bring her some holiday cheer Tuesday while slamming it against a wall. With the Bears on the outside looking in at playoff teams again this year, Krall exclaimed “Come on, I know you’re holding out on me—you’ve got to have some Yuletide warmth in there somewhere, goddammit,” grabbing the decorated conifer by the trunk and shaking it violently in an effort to force the tree to dislodge some help from other teams for the Bears to make the playoffs (plus a few crumbs of goodwill towards men). “I swear to God, when can I expect the Bears to make the playoffs!? Tell me now or I’ll strangle you with your own string of lights, you sick bastard.” At press time, Krall was warning the sapling what happened to last year’s Christmas tree when the Bears missed the playoffs by tearing apart a wreath. Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground The Axe Stays Where It Belongs The Gophers suffered a well-deserved loss because of lots of mistakes. Even when the Badgers seemed intent on gift-wrapping the Axe to the Gophers with one of the most bizarre play-calls you'll ever see: a deep pass by No. 3 quarterback, Chase Wolf, which was easily intercepted in the end zone – instead of continuing with a very successful running attack to kill the clock with 2 minutes left, but Minnesota did nothing with it. Instead, the Goofs fumbled, played for overtime and then failed to execute again. Wisconsin avoided the unthinkable, losing to PJ Fleck twice in three years. It felt good to watch the players celebrate keeping the Axe. So it’s on to a bowl game! Who does Bucky get to play? With their awesome OT win, Wisconsin qualifies for the Grandaddy of all condiment bowls. Yes, they will be travelling to Charlotte, NC for the prestigious Duke’s Mayo Bowl. What? You never heard of Duke’s Mayo? It is a southeastern thing. BU sent an intrepid reporter down there and can confirm that Duke’s is real. We play the Demon Deacons of mighty Wake Forest who have a high-powered offense that averages 37 points and 435.3 yards per game, similar to what most ACC teams average per game. Wake Forest had an impressive stretch, including a win against then-ranked Virginia Tech. Perhaps their most impressive feat was taking a 45-24 lead at major bowl-bound North Carolina. Statistically it looks like their best skill player is wideout Jaquarii Roberson, who has several 100-yard receiving games. Their QB has only thrown one pick all year and does not seem to be a running threat. The Deacons have two backs with almost identical numbers of carries averaging 5 yards per rush. The Badgers, favored to win every game they played this year, open as 7-point favorites. With a bit of luck, their two top receivers and top running back return from medical issues. Put together a complete effort on both sides of the line of scrimmage and end the season on a high note. We say Bucky 42, Demon Deacons 12 We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game This is it, the beginning of the Playoffs…we are playing the Nashville Oilers at Lambeau! Perhaps a bit overdramatic, and for sure not technically accurate, but in the Tennessee Titans we are playing one of the top teams in the AFC and it’s only the third team we are playing that has a winning record (the Buc’s and Colts are the only teams that had a winning record at the time we played them). The more important thing is that numerous players were quoted this week as looking at this game as a playoff game. Several players also pointed to lack-of-energy as a contributor to the collapse against the Panthers last week, so it heartens Coach to hear that the players are getting locked-in on this game. This will be another with a limited crowd at Lambeau … family of players, employees and now First Responders … so this game is a really a good test of what a Playoff Game could be like at Lambeau with very few people there. See also, Milwaukee fans. OK, on to the Oilers! They are led by their superstar and NFL leading rusher, King Henry. There are three reasons for King Henry VIII’s persistent fame – the fascinating history of his reign, the artistic genius of Hans Holbein the Younger and the fact that he is leading the NFL in rushing. His domestic policies changed the course of English history. Determined to annul his first marriage, Henry eventually rejected papal authority in England and declared himself Supreme Head of a new English church; the Reformation had arrived in England. He proceeded to marry five more times and executed two of those wives (talk about your risk-reward situation!). When this ‘serene and invincible prince’ died in 1547, he bequeathed a bankrupt and bitterly-divided nation to his heirs, better known facetiously as Hermans Hermits. Dirk Henry is a really good running back with 1,679 rushing yards and 15 TD’s in 2020, so stopping him will be key to the game. With all of the focus on Henry, that’s allowed average-QB Ryan Tannehill to have two career years (117.5 – 2019, 110.4 – 2020, 14 gms). Nevertheless, stopping Henry first is the key to stopping the Oilers, we keep talking about our top-notch DB’s, it’s time to let them play on an island and stop the pass with 1:1 coverage schemes. He is a beast, but he can be stopped. Here’s a clip from 2019 of the Falcons stopping him. The keys? penetrations and swarming to the balls. See also, double entendre That got Coach ta tinkin’.. when have we stopped a good back? Naturally Coach thought of the 1994 Wild Card Round when we beat the Lions 16-12. Fritz Shurmur, the best DC we have ever had, knew we had to stop Barry Sanders to have a chance of winning the game. The Lions were actually a decent team back then … I know, hard to imagine now if you are under 40. In a surprise move, defensive coordinator moved Reggie White from DE to nose tackle so the Lions couldn’t run the ball away from “The Minister of Defense.” Holding the LOS and staying in your lane are key to stopping the run. None other Don Davey, High School Wisconsin state champion, UW Badger star, and childhood friend of Coach does a nice job of demonstrating the correct technique here. He strings out the play and holds up Sanders so that he can be tackled for no gain. Coach flagged 5-yards for name-dropping, loss of down. Wayne Simmons was one of our best-ever LB’s and he is immediate in his pursuit of Sanders (Krys Barnes is close to looking like this … Kirskey, not so much). Beating a tough physical team needs tough Defense to be sure, but ALL the leaders on need to be tough, too. Yeah, I’m talking to you, JK. The clip above is from back in the days when, in addition to passing, the QB’s actually played football, too. …None better than Brett Lorenzo Favre. The Defense was relentless that day, holding the future Hall of Fame running back and Lions phenom, Barry Sanders, to minus-one yard rushing on 13 carries in the game. We also set a new NFL playoff record by holding Detroit to a team-total of minus-four yards rushing. (We also wiped out the previous record of seven yards, set by the infamous ’85 Bears … just one more example that the Bears always have and always will suck.) And our 2020 leader? He’s looking relaxed, he’s having fun … and most importantly to Coach … “the belt” is back. As the play broke down Rodgers saw his chance to score and he took it. AR invented “The Belt” during the 2010 Season … later admitting that he thought they could win the SB. Breaking out the Belt is just one more sign that this team is focused on winning the SB this year. So can the Defense do it? Shut down Henry and the Oilers #1 Scoring Offense? Well, as explained in X&O’s Section above, we have been playing better. In fact, over the last 3 games we actually have the #6 Scoring Defense, allowing about 19 pts/gm. The weather should also be in our favor, around 20 deg F and light snow. Unfortunately there won’t be much of a crowd there to experience it, but the Packers have never lost at Lambeau when it’s snowing…and the crowd always has the place rocking... (Not sure the “never lost” statement will get past the Ron Burgundy podcast fact-checkers, but you get the point.) The Titans will be tough, but we are going to beat them. Notice Coach made no mention at all of the early morning bombing in Nashville on Christmas day. You’re welcome. Packers 34 Titans 30 Chevon McNuggets - G.O.A.T. facts to chew on JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them Coach knows that you know the Tennessee Titans used to be the Houston Oilers. One of the better players the Oilers ever had was Defensive End, #96 Sean Jones. …and then he came to Green Bay. In the mid-90’s when the Packers returned to glory, the Jamaican-born Jones was part of a formidable defensive front including Reggie White, Gilbert Brown, and Santana Dotson. Wow! What a lineup. Amazing as it may seem, none of these All Pro defenders went to Northwestern; although, Jones did play college football on the Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts) team. In the 1984 NFL draft, Jones was chosen in Round 2 by the Los Angeles Raiders. After 4 years there, he spent 5 years in Houston before finishing his career in Green Bay as a Super Bowl champion in 1996. He was a 2× All-Pro and went to 2 Pro Bowls, had 113 sacks and 1 interception! Not too shabby. As Brent Favor would say, he was a helluva player. When Coach went to the 1995 season divisional round playoff game in San Francisco, Jones was hanging out in the hotel lobby the night before the game chewing the fat with fans, exchanging laughs, and even signing autographs for pathetic grown men. He often made audio appearances on Green Bay area sports radio stations after he retired, and was always respectful to the Green Bay community. One of Coach’s favorite quotes of Jones was when he stated a good team should expect 3 losses for every rookie they start. I’ve found that assertion to be remarkably accurate, on average, over the years. In “retirement” he has also served as a financial adviser to former players, helping educate them on how to make their short-lived NFL paychecks extend into a lifelong support structure for their families. A rewarding and noble profession indeed (nevermind he was indicted in Houston for securities fraud). So today we honor you, Sean Jones, as a sharp cookie that used his wits for tremendous success on and off the field. You are welcome in Green Bay anytime. Sa-lute!
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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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