First of all, GET WELL GERRY! (and learn how to spell your name properly) What's the deal with all of Coach's best buds having bad tickers? At least you'll have something decent to read while you're on the mend (or do you just look at the pictures?)... Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show !!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: The Packers should take a QB in the 1st round every year… As a general rule Coach thinks it is too risky to draft for need over talent in the 1st round. The 1st round is truly the “Best Player Available” (BPA) round, regardless of a team’s needs – which should be addressed in the later rounds (because good teams don’t lose their mind trying to make their worst position into the team’s best position via a rookie). In a perfect world, the Packers would have the best player available in the 1st Round also be of a position of glaring need when it’s their turn to the draft, but there is only a 4.5% chance of that happening. Legit 1st round talent is just plain too hard to come by – as are good quarterbacks, which we all know are the most valued players on any team. That’s why the Packers should draft a 1st Round talent QB every year. Taking a QB 1st is in our control ... and doesn’t prevent occasional trade-ups (e.g. Savage & Longhair), but the key is having a “decent” QB on a rookie contract so you have enough money to afford a top team on D and a pretty good (decent) team on O. Core to this contention is spending at least 50% of salary cap on D (vs. our less than 45% today). Keep the coffers loaded to grab proven defensive talent when they hit free agency. Lots of average QB’s have won the Super Bowl (Trent Dilfer, Brad Johnson, Jeff Hostetler, Nick Foles, etc.), but it’s DEFENSE that wins championships. Keep firing our 1st round pick at QB’s every year in the hopes of having a top flight QB on his rookie contract – there’s a 73% chance of success for that, historically (or a winner 3 out of every 4 years), Brett Favre’s “1 out of 4” draft class notwithstanding. Recall there is a 5th year option on a 1st Rounder. Sure, there will be lots of “How fast does he develop, ready at year 2 or year 5, etc.?” questions, but you’ll always have a cleanup batter on deck and you can likely trade a well-performing QB at peak value (say after year 4 when the next team can have the cheap 5th year). The benefits of this are multiple, but most notably: little to no drop-off if the starter gets injured or traded, gaining additional accumulated draft picks or key player swaps via trade, plus LOTS OF CAP SPACE FOR DEFENSE (by my math, roughly a 17% or $32 million increase in 2020 funds available for the Packers to have acquired better talent on D, hypothetically, of course). Would this ever NOT work? No. Unless… ALL teams adopted this approach. In that case (if you don’t mind a little extrapolation), a new era in NFL drafting could result: the “QB-Round” of the draft in which all 32 teams must select a QB. Wouldn’t THAT be awesome!?! Yes, Coach, that WOULD be awesome. The 1st day of the NFL draft dedicated to each team selecting only a quarterback. (ESPN will be calling me shortly after this publication, no doubt.) Every team would have a legit shot at sifting through the QB bin, a bigger premium would be placed on “football players” and good coaching, and league parity would abound. (Roger Goodell will soon be calling me, too.) But I digress… In summary, if the Packers intend to consistently win Lombardi Trophies for the foreseeable future (and I sure hope they do), then Gootey should build a championship Defense by paradoxically drafting a QB in the 1st Round every year. …at least, in my humble opinion. Create A Seam Here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme 4 & 0h-baby and an Offense on pace to break all Team & NFL records for scoring! Knocking off the Dirty Birds 30-16 was a nice 14-point win and very far off of Coach’s prediction of a 16-point win. Let’s have a quick look at how we got here: GM 1 Summary – Vikings Takeaway the run (“only” 158 yards)? No problem! D Adams has 158 yds receiving, 2 TD’s GM 2 Summary – Lions Takeaway the pass (“only” 248 yds)? No problem! A Jones has 168 yds rushing, 2 TD’s GM 3 Summary – Saints Takeaway the run (“only” 98 yds)? Takeaway Davante Adams (injured)? No problem! A Lazard has 146 yds receiving, 1 TD Gm 4 Summary - Falcons No WR’s (Lazard & Adams injured)? Takeaway the run (“only” 88 yards)? No problem!
Bobby T just could not be stopped by the Dirty Birds. Even when they tackled him off the line of scrimmage, he simply somersaulted his way into the EZ. In a simply amazing show of flexibility on Offense, we had 327 total yards receiving, but only 86 of those yards were on passes to guys listed as Receivers. Each week the Offense has faced a different Defensive strategy (takeaway this guy, takeaway that guy) and we’ve had a ton of injuries already on Offense: WR’s Davante Adams Alan Lazard Equanimmeous St. Brown TE’s Marcedes Lewis Josiah Deguara OL Rick Wagner Lane Taylor Billy Turner Between LaFleur’s game plans and Rodgers execution it’s been a thing of beauty. After 5 weeks, 4 games and the Bye, we are still the No. 1 Offense in the NFL! We are also No. 2 in Point Differential, a key indicator for success in the Post-Season The “however” in all of this is the Defense. It’s ranked in the middle-of-the-NFL at No. 17. Give them credit that there was some improvement in the last game:
Finally! Above we have an example of how to play run D by Zilarious and the rest! This is 2nd & 6 at the ATL 29 on their 1st drive. Zilarious is lined up at Left DE/LOLB at the top of the screen. After the snap you see Jaire crash in on a run-blitz, but look more carefully at Z Smith. He actually stayed where he was supposed to be, which funneled RB Todd Girly right into baby-faced DT Tyler Lancaster. This led directly to the 3 & out on the 1st drive. Maybe there really is hope that the D can improve! Alas, there were still plenty of mistakes and we decided not to play D in the 3rd and let them score 2 TD’s right away. All-in-all the Packers look really strong and going into Game 5 / Week 6 of the NFL Season. Coach will argue that we are the best team in the NFC and we should not be afraid of any of the pretenders over in the AFL either. Granted, way too early to start making room in the trophy case at 1265 Lombardi Ave, but Coach is really pleased with where we are at the ¼-Pole of the 2020 Season. But seriously, do any of these teams scare you? WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up Tom Brady Not Sure How To Ask Coach For Tape Of Packers Practice TAMPA, FL—Expressing concerns that Tampa Bay had not yet undertaken the basic prep he used to do in New England, quarterback Tom Brady confessed Monday that he wasn’t sure how to ask Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians for tape of their opponent’s practice. “This is a new system, so I don’t know whether we go over tape of the Packers walkthrough as a team or if I need to study it myself,” said Brady, who conceded that Arians might be too busy working on a game plan and decided to schedule the normal step-by-step breakdown of Green Bay’s latest scrimmage and playbook. “I never even had to ask Bill [Belichick], he’d just send an intern my way to debrief me. Bruce hasn’t said anything about it yet, but I need to hunker down in the film room with the exact plays the defense is practicing against us and listening to the calls that they plan to make at the line. It takes a while to memorize all that, so hopefully coach sends some tape my way soon.” At press time, Brady decided to fly his own cameraman to film the Packer’s practice after a terse meeting with Arians. The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof Until a week ago Sunday when Nick Foles replaced him as the starting QB, Mitch Trubisky had made 44 regular season starts for the Bears. This was the 26th time in the last 29 seasons the Bears have started multiple quarterbacks. I know, you’re not surprised by that. Nobody is. That is just how it is in Chicago, which is further proof the Bears still suck. So, just for shits and giggles, let’s take a stroll down Memory Lane to review QB’s da Bears have had with tenures similar to that of the Turdbiscut. Mitch should expect his name to roll off the tongue of football aficionados in the years to come, much like the names of these guys – his Bears QB predecessors, do. Nice knowin’ ya, Mitch. Coach predicts you will be Teddy Bridgewater’s backup in 2021 for the Carolina Panthers. Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground Tension Builds as Bucky Gets Ready to Play Hello all loyal Badger Underground readers. The cardboard cut out fan cutting has started in earnest. The leading cardboard cutouts for display at Camp Randall next Friday night are: 1. Art the Window Washer: A campus staple in the 70’s and early 80’s. 2. Elroy Hirsch: Cripes, we used to wear Elroy masks back in the day. This is a no brainer! 3. Chris Farley: His motivational speech at the 1994 Rose Bowl pep rally will be remembered forever. Nobody yet knew the character that would become Matt Foley. 4. The Portage Plumber: He was the precursor to Jump Around. 5. Pink Flamingos: Thanks Leon Varjian and The Pail and Shovel Party! 6. Also Rans: Ron Dayne, Darrel Beveled, Cephus’s girlfriend, Tunnel Bob. Anyway, here is the big sports news around Madtown.
We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game The Buccaneers have always been a bit confused when it comes to their “identity” so it was no surprise when Tom Brady jumped at the chance of joining the Creamsicles: Similarly, with his focus locked on the priorities for the 2020 NFL Season, Buc’s Coach Bruce Aryan has become quite popular with the fairer sex. WTF, oh well, it is the Creamsicles. Is Florida part of California? OK, back to the other part of football. You know, the part where they actually play football. The Packers and the Bucs are sort of mirror images. We have the No. 1 Offense; they have the No. 8 Defense We have the No. 17 Defense; they have the No. 11 Offense. They will have hot and humid weather in Tampa this weekend, we will have… …the opportunity to go see if there’s deer tracks in the snow up by da cabin. Historically we are ahead 33-21-1 in the series with an average winning margin of 3.6 pts. Speaking of Packers-Buc’s history, do you remember this one? December 12, 1983:Packers 12, Buccaneers 9 (OT) Jan Stenerud provided all the Pack's scoring… Jan Stenerud kicked the winning field goal in overtime to improve the Packers' record to 8-7-0 and place them in a tie with the Detroit Lions for first place in the NFC Central. Stenerud kicked four field goals in the game to provide the Packers with all of their points. In this game, he passed George Blanda for first place in NFL history with 338 career field goals. The win was also Bart Starr's last as head coach of the Packers. One week later, the Packers lost to the Chicago Bears in their season finale and missed the playoffs. Starr was fired shortly after the game. Packers quarterback Lynn Dickey also made history during this game by passing the 4,000-yard mark for the season. That had only been done four times previously in NFL history (Joe Namath, Dan Fouts twice and Brian Sipe were the others). Dickey finished the season with a career-high 4,458 yards passing. This was also the last game Howard Cosell announced on Monday Night Football. He had been with the show since it started in 1970. But I digress… Looking to this week’s game, our net average point margin for 2020 is 7.4 pts better than the Bucs (see table above). Giving them 3 points for being home, we net out at 4.4 points better…and no surprise…we are favored by 2.5 in Vegas. The story line on most of sportstalk radio has been Packers running game vs. the TB run defense… can we beat them? The Buc’s have had the NFL’s best run defense for two years now, with their 2020 avg of 2.7 yards/rush being even better than modern era record held by the 2000 Raven’s rush defense (we’ll see if it holds up for the Season). They have very good linebackers, but we are damn good at running the ball (No. 5 overall at 5.1 yds/attempt) and they are missing their version of Kenny Clark (Vita Vea) due to injury. Tampa’s TE’s were threatened by VV’s obvious intent to become the starting TE, so they “accidentally” took him out with a cheap-shot. Before the cheap-shot, Vitamix anchored the line along with former Giants DE Jason Pierre-Paul. They probably will hold us to one of our lowest rushing games in 2020, but we will still gash them for more yards than any other team. A more interesting stat to Coach is how the apparently-washed-up Aaron Rodgers is doing compared to Brady. Both teams are balanced and more less the same, but we have Rodgers, they have Brady. It’s no secret in the NFL, the Pack is doing better this year than last. In 2019 we ranked 16th in yards/pass-attempt and now in 2020 we are No.2 (6.7-2019; 8.5-2020). Rodgers is well aware of the criticism he was getting after last year, basically washed-up! Packers draft a QB and Rodger’s career is finito! Rodgers, 36, has basically given a one-fingered-salute to all of those critics. Through 4 games, Rodgers has thrown 13 touchdowns against zero interceptions and over the Bye-week he delivered one of the best QB quotes of all-time: "I sometimes laugh when people talk about down years for me because a lot of times down years for me are career years for most quarterbacks." Rodger’s “down year”, last year, he had a Passer Rating of 95.4, which got Coach thinking about some “other” QB’s and how they did… Eli Manning’s won 2 Super Bowl MVP awards…and never had a year as good as Rodgers’ “off” year. In fact, in 2009 when his rating was 93.6, it was the only year he ever was above 90. Joe Flacco, Super Bowl MVP, never had a year as good as Rodgers’ “off” year. Jay Cutler, the Bears’ best QB ever, never had a year as good as Rodgers’ “off” year. So yes, Aaron, you are in fact correct. Your “down year” wasn’t so bad! If we look back at Brady’s last year with Billy B & the Pats, we see that he was behind Rodgers at 6.3 yds/attempt. This year Brady has improved and now playing at the level of Rodgers “down year”. Brady is getting very sensitive to AR passing him by, so in a juvenile test of ability, he challenged AR to “a duel” of sorts. Coach’s hidden mic picked up Brady challenging Rodgers to a counting duel, “OK, ‘A-Rod’ if you’re so great, I challenge you to beat me in a counting contest. You count TD’s-to-Bobby-Tonyan and I’ll count Downs-at-the-end-of-the-Bears-game. Whoever can keep the most accurate count will win a night with Giselle. Whoever loses has to keep her.” You see here Rodgers using his fingers so that he can be doubly-sure that Bobby Tonyan has caught 3 TD’s in the game. The referees verified that both the counting to three was correct and the AR used proper form. Tom Brady was so excited with the opportunity to come back from a 19-20 deficit and beat the Bears that he lost track of the down with 30 seconds left in the game. Tell me again, who's the GOAT? Yes, Tommy, we gonna KYA. Packers 34 Bucs 24 Chevon McNuggets - G.O.A.T. facts to chew on JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them Well, Fall is here. It’s getting cold and the leaves are blowing off the trees in violent fashion, which brings me to one of my favorite Packer players of year gone by, #86 Ed West. As a blocking Tight End, Ed caught less than 20 passes at Auburn and never scored a touchdown there, probably because they ran the wishbone featuring Bo Jackson. Clearing waivers after being the last roster cut made by Forrest Gregg, undrafted Ed West was signed to the team because of his hard work ethic noticed by the head coach during practices. Ed said "Green Bay reminded me of home. I flew into the airport and saw farm fields, not skyscrapers, and knew I'd fit right in." After Gregg’s tenure and two disappointing seasons under Lindy Infante, general manager Ron Wolf hired Mike Holmgren in 1992 as Green Bay's new head coach. Every player on the roster, including West, was evaluated. When asked how an old school player like Ed West was able to make the team as it transitioned to the west coast offense, Wolf said "Ed was a great blocker, a tough guy, who was a competitor and got the most out of his ability. He gave everything he had in practice; he gave everything he had on Sundays. You can't ask for anything more. He earned the respect of his teammates and guys admired him. It's a credit to him he had the success that he did - he earned it." Then Brett Favre showed up… Brett nicknamed Ed “The Toolbox” because, as Favre put it, “When he came to work he brought all the tools to get the job done." The nickname also referred to his work ethic, toughness and blue-collar approach to his profession. West missed less than 5 games due to injury in 11 seasons in Green Bay. However, being from the deep south, Ed never really acclimated well to the cold mid-Western weather. In one late October game against the Bears in Chicago, the temperature was barely above freezing, it was raining hard, and the wind was blowing fiercely. Favre later said it was the coldest game he could remember playing in. At one point in the huddle after Favre dialed up a pass play, Ed West actually replied to Favre, “Don’t throw me the ball.” Now that’s old school.
After retirement West said he enjoyed his football career in Green Bay, where he posted 202 receptions for 2,321 yards and 25 touchdowns, statistics worthy of consideration for the Packers Hall of Fame. "That would be a great honor," West said. "Hopefully, I don't have to kick the bucket before I'm in." Indeed, Ed, indeed.
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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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