Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show!!! Congratulations to Al Masty from Pembine, last week’s “Who’s hotter?” contest winner. Allen cleverly submitted an epic battle between sporting journalists Olivia Reiner and Abby Hornacek. A classic matchup pitting a bouncy brunette versus a blond bombshell. That’s a tough call, Al. Coach had a tough time deciding – but gave it to Hornacek in the end (figuratively, of course). For his winning entry, Al receives a Yeti insulated thermos and an official NFL Team Design Tool Box with Tool Tray from the recent Shopko going out of business blowout sale. Good on you, Al! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: Bart Starr was worth the risk The home opener this year will honor the (possibly) greatest Packer of all time, Bart Starr. On the plus side, it will be awesome to be there and be a part of the celebration of a wonderful man and competitor. On the “Oh, crap” side, the Packers in recent years have let their emotions get the best of them in these types of player-tribute games, which resulted in them falling short of victory – even to inferior, deplorable teams like the Bears (Favre’s number retirement game), Cowboys (Favre’s HOF ring ceremony game), and Vikings (Jerry Kramer’s HOF ring ceremony game). To be fair, these losses were under the direction of, quite possibly, the worst game manager in American Football history, Mike McCarthy. Maybe with a new kid in town, basic football principles will find their way on the sidelines and win the day … and the game, for the Packers. So it is right and just, and worth the risk – even against a division opponent, to give special recognition to our pal, Bart, on Sunday, who was always there for us, through thick and thin. At least, in my humble opinion. Fingers crossed. Create A Seam Here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme Jeepers chriminey, what a game der, eh? We kickt der flippin’ patooties, hey? Hundert-en-ninety-nine games and weeze up by tree games, yoo’s gize! For the 21st time in 199 games, the Pack held the Bigger Cubs to 3 points or less. More fun-facts to rub into the face of your misguided Bear-fan-work-mates(?)… We’ve done it 11 times in Chicago, 10 times in Green Bay, and the this is the 2nd time during the Rodgers Era. So, the evidence proves that the Bears suck even worse at home than at Lambeau. Pin that baby up in Halas Hall! You already know that the game summary is:
…thankfully kind and astute readers have been feeding Coach clues all week: …no, I don’t think it was the milk they drank this week… …I doubt it was the cough drops, I don’t think anyone was sick… …do they even eat meat anymore? Everybody seems to be on the Tom Brady vegan thing…so I don’t think that’s the clue… …finally Coach got the clue! Obviously, the clue was in Port Washington, home of the venerable Vern Biever, official photographer of the Packers from 1946 until 2006... …and of course, Port Washington is home to the World Famous Smith Brothers Fish Shanty!! Best perch on the Lake (well it was when there were enough perch in Lake Michigan to support commercial fishing, but now the classic restaurant is no more … dey sells Duluth underwear der – go figyer). So, yeah, the difference was the Smith’s, Preston and Za’Darius. One game does not a Season make, but the start was fantastic. They generated half as many sacks (2.5) in one game than our 2018 starting outside LB’s, Nicked Perry and Claymation Matthews, did in the whole season last year (5.0). In addition to the sacks, the Smith Bros. had a combined eight tackles, three QB knockdowns and a pass break-up. Add to that the Packers led all NFL teams in QB pressures for week one, recording 31 on 47 called pass plays (45 pass attempts and two scrambles). That is a ridiculous 66% pressure rate. That consistent pressure generated five sacks and 11 quarterback hits, great numbers compared to any single game in 2018. Well done Gutey for gettin’ the right guys and well done Poutine for calling up the right defense. In the spirit of taking our readers back a few years (and to recognize what Hoodie, Lombardi and Bear Bryant all know/knew), there is very little “new” in football. Mainly just creatively applying old lessons, and then executing the hell out of them. In beating the Bears, the Smiths perfectly executed one of Dick’s key concepts for defensive linemen, the “switch” or “stunt” or “twist” (diagram above is from Dick Butkus’ Inside Defensive Football book). Preston Smith executes a perfect twist with Za’Darius Smith to sack Jay Cutler Jr. late in the game last Thursday. Not that the Packers failed to attempt this last year (running a stunt is no secret at any level above PeeWee football), we just didn’t have the horses to get it done. It’s mind-boggling to recall that we let two potential interceptions drop to the ground, and got jobbed on a handful of calls; this really should have been a no-hitter against the Bears, something we have done 15 times previously (see table above). Bears QB Jay Turdbrewsky was the subject of much post-game discussion… … is the Packers 2019 Defense that good? … or Mitch Cutler that bad? Only time will tell, but Tramon Williams in a moment of innocent truth, responded to a reporter’s question about the Defensive Game Plan when he said "We wanted to make Mitch play quarterback. We knew they had a lot of weapons; we knew they were dangerous; we knew all of those things. But we knew if we could make Mitch play quarterback, that we’d have a chance." Burn. Coach chortled and immediately harkened back to what Packers’ DB Chuck Woodson had to say about the game plan after a 2012 match against the Bears: “It’s the same old Jay. We just need to be in position, Jay will throw us the ball.” Still, everyone in Bears Country remains elated that they were able to trade up from the No. 3 spot with San Fran to the No. 2 spot in the 2017 draft so that they could steal Turdbisquit away from the KC Chiefs. FWIW, the Chiefs selected QB Patrick Mahomes at the No. 10 spot, and he was league MVP last year. Just sayin. WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up NFL In Shock After Rodgers Outed As White Supremacist GREEN BAY—Nationwide fury erupted Wednesday after Aaron Rodgers was outed as a raging white supremacist, when progressive activists uncovered years-old video footage of the Packers field general clearly using the “white power” hand signal during a game. “What fresh [expletive] is this!!!!???” activist Sheryl Dunn wrote on Twitter, attaching a screen shot of Rodgers holding his hand in such a manner that the tips of his index finger and thumb were touching, with his middle finger, ring finger, and pinkie pointed upward, positively signaling allegiance to the ideals of white supremacy. “Take away his MVP awards and remove him from the history books!!!” she added. “Rodgers literally tried to bring white supremacy to the NFL. What a national outrage and a disgrace to the game,” one influential Twitter user wrote, with yet another declaring, “So, I just tried this myself, to give him the benefit of the doubt – could be an unconscious ‘football maneuver?’ It’s not. Very hard to make this configuration without putting some thought and effort,” further solidifying the unfortunate fact about the number 8 rated player in the National Football League. And it’s no coincidence to neo-Nazis that he positioned himself there in the 2018 season no less, with “H” being the 8th letter of the alphabet. Obviously, those 2 H’s together are a reference to “Heil Hitler!” A stretch? Hardly. Note that Rodgers also sat out of the 1st preseason game on August 8th (8/8), which was clearly another homage to the Aryan-obsessed ruler. How prevalent is this disgusting call for allegiance to the white race? Shockingly, it’s even pervasive in the left-leaning highly-populated cities of Rodgers’ home state, California. Green Bay apologists suggest that Rodgers was perhaps influenced by Hollywood moguls when he’s visited there for charity golf events and cameo appearances in films. Horrified progressive activists have combed through hours of video and discovered that actor/director Ron Howard, performer Beyoncé, quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and even former president Barack Obama are, indeed, also avowed white supremacists. The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof Cautious Bears Fan Not Expecting Team To Do Better Than 13-3 CHICAGO—Taking a “wait-and-see” approach before becoming too emotionally invested in this year’s team, cautious Bears fan Warren Safoney told reporters Tuesday that he wasn’t expecting the franchise to finish better than 13-3 this regular season. “I know some of my friends expect the Bears to have a great year, but we have been burned so many times in the past that I can’t set my expectations any higher than home-field advantage throughout the playoffs,” said Safoney, 35, revealing he will consider the season a success even if the team loses the NFC Championship Game. “Is this defense exciting? Yeah. Could Mitch Trubisky throw for 5,000 yards? Sure. But I’m trying to stay grounded. I don’t want to be heartbroken at the end of the year when we’ve only won 12 games, so I would just say I’m cautiously optimistic.” Safoney added that even with their current talent he felt like the Bears were still a year or two away from a five Super Bowl dynasty. Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground As we all know, Bucky dispatched the trash talking Chippewa’s of Central Michigan with alacrity on Saturday 61-zip bringing the total points scored by Badger opponents so far this season to ZERO. We did a little research and found that “chippewa” is the Ojibwa word for “We’re not worthy.” We do have to give the Chippies some credit for trying in vain to hang around all game. Can you name these two 2007 Chippewa Freshmen Receivers? (Click For Answer) Is Jimmy Leonard’s defense back on track? Well, that appears to be the case, though it is hard to tell. We caught two programs coming off bad seasons and who are early in their transition to new offensive schemes. We do know that execution has been excellent, with minimal blown coverages and generally good tackling. Both were issues last season. Last year’s defense also had difficulty setting the edge, allowing opposing runners to get outside and up the sideline for significant yardage. We’ve seen none of that so far against lesser competition. The question does remain whether or not we have enough pass rush speed from the OLB position, aside from Baun. We appear to be physical enough along the front seven, with a good rotation of defensive linemen. Frosh Keanu Reeves Benton from Janesville is a key to minimizing drop-off when the second string is on the field. Chris Orr’s statement sums up what we’ve seen so far. “We wanted to show the whole nation that when you come to Camp Randall, this is what you’re going to get. You’re going to get a physical game. You’re going to get physically worn down. You’re going to get beaten.” Whoa Yeah! Still, Buzz Killian offers that “It’s tough to assess the impact of losing safety Scott Nelson for the season.” He was a 2nd year starter, but his pass coverage has been highly suspect on big pass plays last year and was trailing open receivers in the season opener. We are starting to retract our doubts about QB Jackie Coan. If he does well for another game or two (especially against the Weasels), we see our hero of the future, Graham Mertz redshirting. Recall that the rules have relaxed on redshirting and he can play in up to 4 games and still redshirt (flippin’ sweet!)… Jackie has put up a gaudy 363 yards passing and 3 TD’s with no INT’s thus far this year. This is a very pleasant surprise. He is connecting well with all receivers and the re-addition of Quintez Cephus helps spread things out (2 TD’s, 139 yards on Saturday!). Speaking of Q, he is now looking like the numero uno go-to WR. He is playing with a fire in his belly and is motivating the whole team. The defenders are double teaming Quintez, leaving others WAO. Defenses last year had no reason to respect our deep passing game. Hornibrook could not make tight throws and receivers could not get separation. Considering the running game we have, opportunities should be abundant downfield. We obviously need to see how Bucky does against real opponents. Michigan will be the first test after this weekend's bye. More on that next week. In the meantime, try to stay active... We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game The Packers hold the lone distinction as the team with the most ties (5) since the overtime rule was instituted. The very first game under the sudden death overtime rules ended with an even score as the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos tied 35-35 on Sept. 22, 1974. The Packers and Vikings account for three of those games (1978, 2013 and 2018) including the crushing meltdown / “roughing-the-QB” debacle at the end of the game 2 last year that ended in a 29-29 tie. All-time the Packers lead the series 60-54-3, but since 2016 we are 1-4-1. No doubt this was another straw on the back of self-proclaimed “great coach” Mike McCarthy. The Vikings had a tremendous Week 1 with a blowout 28-12 win over the Falcons. They looked like badasses on Defense and the Offense was so efficient that Kurt Kissing Cousins only had to throw 10 passes… …but fear not, we are in the midst of a real improvement with the 2019 Packers team and Coach is gonna ’splain you why we gonna win… As Coach outlined above, the Defense is hugely improved over 2018 and basically won the game in Chicago. Expect them to come out on fire at home. We ain’t gonna need no foghorns or other Murphy-driven nonsense, the crowd will be plenty loud. Give us a real game and it will be deafening in Lambeau when we are on D (unless, of course, it is a Milwaukee / Gold Package game). The story for Week 2 will be the D, a positive turnover ratio, very good Special Teams and incremental improvement on Offense…so let’s break it down. Punter JK Scott could easily be named the MVP of Week One. He had 9 punts, average 47.6 yards and put 5 inside the 20, but none was bigger than his last. With under 2 minutes on the clock, Scott boomed a 63 yarder which forced Bears returner Tarik Cohen to back pedal to the 10…good coverage and a Bears penalty pinned them back to essentially end the game (the Smith Brothers sack was the final Wayne Larrivee “Dagger”). The punt itself is tremendous, but watch the video below closely. Note that the Bears move their cover guys into the middle, before the snap. JK must assume the Bears are in a “max punt block” scheme (although they end up dropping into blocking after the snap) and he gets the 63 yarder away anyway. In addition to punting, Mason Crosby had a strong game kicking off and more importantly, made his only field goal attempt. Mason had an off year in 2018, but Hunter Bradley and JK Scott were rookies and the FG unit was shakey as a result. Coach had a chance to watch a few of the practices this Summer and it looks like ST Coach Shawn Mennenga has much more structured practices than his predecessors. Let’s count on the strong Pre-Season performance of the FG team to continue. That leaves the Offense. Yes, it goes without saying that it basically sucked, except for one exciting drive. But that drive highlighted two things that we can look forward to in the coming weeks. First – play action passes. The biggest highlight throw of the night was from AR to MVS. While the throw and catch isn’t all that unusual for Rodgers, the play itself was very different and will be a staple of the La Fleur Offense. The spectacular part of the play is the play-action, note Rodgers actually fakes two handoffs, the dive play and the reverse. The result is that the LB’s and Safety’s are frozen in run support and Prince Amukamara is left 1:1 with MVS. Rodgers recognizes the situation and Prince is toast. While that was only one play, it was against the 2018 No. 1 Defense and it’s a nice teaser of what is to come. The other really, really encouraging sign is that we actually used our TE’s. Melissa McCarthy always said he wanted to use the TE’s, but the stat’s never supported that contention. We have the same 3 TE’s this year (minus Lance Kendricks) so it’s easy to compare. Granted there’s only one game in the books, but we almost a 60% increase in catches and yards to the TE’s. All three of them were involved, all had catches, all looked good…even or maybe especially Marcedes Lewis. Packer Fans, this is really good news. Make no mistake, this will be a really tough game against another really good Defense. But the Packers will continue to improve on Offense …. And we gonna win! Pack 21 Vikings 17 Chevon McNuggets - G.O.A.T. facts to chew on JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them This week we pay tribute to a Wisconsin athlete who took his talents to the highest stage, Lambeau Field. That’s right, a big round of applause for former Central State Teachers College (now UW-Stevens Point) star, Ted Fritsch! Fritsch actually didn't play high school football because they didn't have enough kids to field a team. He played college ball for a for coach who used to play for the Packers, and in 1942 his coach put in a good word for him as an undrafted available prospect to Curly Lambeau (back then, NFL teams didn't send scouts on the road and used college football preview magazines to make their draft picks). Although he played offense and defense for the Packers, Ted was an all-pro running back in 1944, ’45 and ’46. In 1944, he led the Packers in rushing during the regular season, then scored both touchdowns in the NFL title game victory over the New York football Giants. As a linebacker, he had 6 of his 10 career interceptions that year, too. He was also their kicker, and led league in scoring in 1946 and was the first Packer to make a field goal over 50-yards (52, to be exact, against the Bears at Wrigley). He played out his 9-year NFL career with the Packers, although he briefly flirted with the Cleveland Browns of the newly formed All-America Football Conference in 1946 for 1-week until his regret overcame him and returned to the Packers. A pretty good athlete, eh? You betcha. Get a load of this: he also played two seasons for the Oshkosh All-Stars of the National Basketball League, and he played outfielder for the Portsmouth Cubs, Nashville Vols, and Los Angeles Angels minor league baseball teams. Not too shabby. Ted grew up in Spencer, Wisconsin, where his local high school named their football field after him. Similarly, the Notre Dame Academy high school (a.k.a. Premontre, Abbot Pennings, and St. Joseph’s) in Green Bay also named their football stadium “Fritsch Field” after him, as he was Premontre's head football coach for 15 years. For good measure, there is also a nice wooded park on the west side of Green Bay bearing his name. Similarly, Fritsch Park in Appleton is also named after Ted (BTW, Coach had some legendary pick-up football game performances there as both a passer and receiver). Clearly, Fritsch had a big impact on community organizations that needed to name things. Anyhoo, Ted Fritsch retired in the small Wisconsin community of Alverno, he bought the Hilltop Tavern and converted it to 3T’s bowling alley where his son Ted Jr, and grandson Theodore Joseph, both also gifted athletes in their own right (Ted Jr played football at St Norbert College and then in the NFL; Theodore’s favorite class in high school was Phys Ed and he placed Honorable Mention in the 1991 Valders Open Dartball Tournament at Bruce’s Bar & Bowl), took over as subsequent proprietors. Ted Fritsch passed away at the too young age of 58; a surprise to many at the time, considering how strong and agile of a man he was in his prime. So, Ted , as a multi-talented athlete from Wisconsin that somehow managed to play football for the Packers instead of serving in WWII, we salute you (figuratively, of course).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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
Categories |