The boys get ready for the regular season by examining the pathology report on the Green Bay Packers roster, looking ahead to the season opener at Seattle, and venturing some predictions about what the upcoming season might hold by reopening The Packers Therapy Hotel and Casino betting lines.
Posting its first show in 2005, Packers Therapy is the longest-running Packers podcast on the Internet. Hosts Chris and Dave began the show as a way of capturing the spirited chats the two co-workers had about the team around the office. The two have no pretense about being experts: they are just two opinionated shareholders who love the team, follow it closely, but don’t always see the Packers fortunes eye to eye.
The guys encourage comments and questions via their Twitter feed @PackersTherapy and read and respond to as many as they can during each show.
Packers Therapy is a part of the Packers Talk Radio Network, serving up enough weekly podcasts to satisfy the most fervent of Packer fans. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe over at iTunes.
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3 responses to “Packers Therapy Episode 233: Chris and Dave Gaze Into Their Balls of Crystal”
Hi guys!
It’s a pleasure to hear the podcast again, and glad to see you join such a worthy organization, the Packers Talk Radio Network. I’ve listened to each show this season, and while I’m more than happy to while away the hours with your show, I’m beginning to suspect something’s wrong. Dave is in mid-season form already, a joy to behold. But there’s something that bothers me about Chris… or is it Chris?
I’m beginning to wonder if he’s has been abducted and replaced by an uncanny impersonation by C.D. Angeli? (Oh, the show is going rather swimmingly with CD Angeli playing the part of Chris, so I can’t complain.) But I have to ask you, Chris, if you indeed really are Chris…why haven’t you found anything to criticize for being rather…soft? Certainly, the Packers are performing well so far, but is there not anything at all which looks…droopy? Wasn’t Chase Rettig’s arm limp? Or Khyri Thornton’s camp performance lifeless?
I’m just looking for a sign. Just to let us know that Chris is okay, if not a little fl…fl…floppy. Anyway, as always, thanks for the fine show. I especially liked it when Chris referred to himself as “a schmoe with a podcast”. It made me think that it might really be Chris. Till next time, guys.
Go,Pack, go.
P.S. I used CD as the impersonator because if I even made up a name, it wouldn’t sound as good as “CD Angeli”.
After last night’s debacle, I followed my usual Packers loss routine. Depression, with a touch of unfocused anger, avoiding SportsCenter, resigning to going to work with Vikings fans, and finally, analysis. Meaning, more than a reasonable amount of analysis from an unqualified analyst, namely me. I used to force my findings on unwilling acquaintances, but thankfully, I’m able to force them here now.
I think it’s well documented that the Packers defensive problems started immediately after their Super Bowl victory in 2010. Cullen Jenkins departed and B.J. Raji was shifted outside instead of the nose. Nick
Barnett was allowed to go free also, and before long, the Packers permanently lost the services of Nick Collins and Desmond Bishop. This meant that the only remnants of the middle of the Packers defense were the constantly maligned A.J. Hawk and the middling Charlie Peprah.
Of course, Ted Thompson got right on that, right? No, not so much. The nose tackle was adequately played by Ryan Pickett, but only adequately. Safety was never adequate with the likes of Morgan Burnett, M.D. Jennings, Jerron McMillian, and even Charles Woodson failing to reach even average play. While A.J. Hawk remains steady, but not great, no one adequate, much less a true playmaker, has risen from the rotating door of inside linebackers supplied by the GM. Thus, the Packers defense “up the middle” has been truly putrid.
But this year, Mike McCarthy promised improvement. Thompson, who was criticized for totally ignoring the safety position in the offseason of 2013, drafted Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in the first round. The coaches switched a talented Micah Hyde from corner to safety, and with hopes for Burnett’s rise to form still anticipated, it would seem that the safeties are headed in the right direction. Nose tackle was “fixed”, with the heroic return of B.J. Raji to the position where he previously flourished. But…
In reality, injury snuffed out Raji, so the nose is now the weakest position on the entire team. The safeties only show promise. And Ted Thompson has already endured the same criticism for ignoring a weakness in the offseason by standing pat at inside linebacker. Now he can expect that criticism to increase ten-fold, because Hawk was underwhelming, and Brad Jones! Jones was embarrassingly belittled by local announcers, NBC announcers, Packers writers, Twitter, me, my wife and my cat.
So I hate to say this to coach McCarthy, should he happen to read the Packers Therapy comments, but the defense hasn’t improved. At least not in big letters, perhaps little letters in the safety area and pass rush, but not big ones. Nor are the tools present to fix the worst of the problems. They could replace Guion with Pennel, and Jones with Lattimore or Barrington, but they’d only be incremental improvements.
That’s where I landed; soft up the middle with little hope. Naturally, I fully expect the Packers to make the playoffs and perhaps get a rematch with the Seahawks. But I also have an urge to start some more unhealthy analysis, by researching next year’s draft for linebackers and nose tackles.
After last night’s debacle, I followed my usual Packers loss routine. Depression, with a touch of unfocused anger, avoiding SportsCenter, resigning to going to work with Vikings fans, and finally, analysis. Meaning, more than a reasonable amount of analysis from an unqualified analyst, namely me. I used to force my findings on unwilling acquaintances, but thankfully, I’m able to force them here now.
I think it’s well documented that the Packers defensive problems started immediately after their Super Bowl victory in 2010. Cullen Jenkins departed and B.J. Raji was shifted outside instead of the nose. Nick
Barnett was allowed to go free also, and before long, the Packers permanently lost the services of Nick Collins and Desmond Bishop. This meant that the only remnants of the middle of the Packers defense were the constantly maligned A.J. Hawk and the middling Charlie Peprah.
Of course, Ted Thompson got right on that, right? No, not so much. The nose tackle was adequately played by Ryan Pickett, but only adequately. Safety was never adequate with the likes of Morgan Burnett, M.D. Jennings, Jerron McMillian, and even Charles Woodson failing to reach even average play. While A.J. Hawk remains steady, but not great, no one adequate, much less a true playmaker, has risen from the rotating door of inside linebackers supplied by the GM. Thus, the Packers defense “up the middle” has been truly putrid.
But this year, Mike McCarthy promised improvement. Thompson, who was criticized for totally ignoring the safety position in the offseason of 2013, drafted Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in the first round. The coaches switched a talented Micah Hyde from corner to safety, and with hopes for Burnett’s rise to form still anticipated, it would seem that the safeties are headed in the right direction. Nose tackle was “fixed”, with the heroic return of B.J. Raji to the position where he previously flourished. But…
In reality, injury snuffed out Raji, so the nose is now the weakest position on the entire team. The safeties only show promise. And Ted Thompson has already endured the same criticism for ignoring a weakness in the offseason by standing pat at inside linebacker. Now he can expect that criticism to increase ten-fold, because Hawk was underwhelming, and Brad Jones! Jones was embarrassingly belittled by local announcers, NBC announcers, Packers writers, Twitter, me, my wife and my cat.
So I hate to say this to coach McCarthy, should he happen to read the Packers Therapy comments, but the defense hasn’t improved. At least not in big letters, perhaps little letters in the safety area and pass rush, but not big ones. Nor are the tools present to fix the worst of the problems. They could replace Guion with Pennel, and Jones with Lattimore or Barrington, but they’d only be incremental improvements.
That’s where I landed; soft up the middle with little hope. Naturally, I fully expect the Packers to make the playoffs and perhaps get a rematch with the Seahawks. But I also have an urge to start some more unhealthy analysis, by researching next year’s draft for linebackers and nose tackles.