There’s no sugarcoating the start to the Packers season. Disastrous, terrible, choose your adjective for awful. There’s plenty of blame to go around too. Love hasn’t played well, the running backs have been nonexistent, and the defense completely fell apart against Atlanta. All of these issues have been secondary however to the abject failure that is the offensive line.
What was obvious from the end of the Minnesota game until the end of Thursday night football finally became obvious to the front office as well. Over the last week this is what Green Bay did:
While the Tomlinson and Becton signings could certainly be helpful – Zeitler is the real prize. Just to give a slight perspective on how much better he was last year compared to the Packers current starting guards:
Matthew Golden and Christian Watson have been very good to start the season. Tucker Kraft is still there. If you give Love time the offense will bounce back. And it needs to to keep Matt LaFleur off the hot seat.
Matt LaFleur’s Greatest Weakness May Cost Him His Job
Matt LaFleur is a good football coach. Like any coach though he does have his share of weaknesses. His teams tend to be a little more sloppy then you’d like, and he doesn’t seem to respond well to shifts in a games momentum. But his biggest weakness isn’t on the field, not directly anyway. It’s loyalty. Matt LaFleur clearly seems like a guy that is loyal to the coaches he brings in, even as it costs this team games and puts his own job at risk.
The Packers offensive line problems are as much a coaching issue as a talent one, if not more so. So why doe Luke Butkus still have a job? What exactly does Adam Stenovich do? Stenovich was promoted to OC primarily due to his work with the offensive line. Since being promoted, the line quality has plummeted, and their pick to replace him doesn’t seem to have any answers.
Green Bay seems to continually make mistakes not only about the quality of their lineman, but at what positions to play them at. It’s small wonder that no one on the line seems comfortable when their positions have constantly been shuffled or they’re constantly playing the wrong spot. The Packers have two centers playing guard, two guards playing tackle, and nobody seems to know what they’re doing.
This has been the case going back to the start of his tenure – he was too slow to get rid of Mike Pettine and Joe Barry, he was too slow to get rid of Rich Bisaccia (and might not have done it this season possibly if not for Bisaccia seemingly quitting on his own.
If this season continues to go the way it has, I wouldn’t be surprised if this ended up being LaFleur’s final season in Green Bay. But it’s not over yet, and he has to hope that the recent infusion of line talent is enough to get the Packers back on track.
Final Prediction
This a true must win game for the Packers against Tampa Bay. The Bucs haven’t won a game, Baker Mayfield isn’t playing with a dislocated thumb, and it’s at home. A loss on Sunday means the end of the season, from a historical standpoint, a record standpoint, and a fan morale standpoint. Losing is not an option, and the reinforcements on the offensive line give the Packers enough to get their season back on track.
Packers 24 – Bucs 14
