by W. H.

After Monday night's Beatdown in the Big Easy I'm certain that no fewer than a thousand fish wraps, blogmouths, and network “experts” will proclaim Green Bay the loser in the great Favre fiasco of summer '08. Favre's Jets are in first place in the AFC East, they blemished the Titans perfect record, they're in command of their playoff destiny, and Wrangler jeans are the fast becoming a New York fashion statement. Meanwhile the sputtering Packers are 5-6, Aaron Rodgers threw three picks in an over-exuberant attempt to match New Orleans' lightning scoring attack, and manly Packers fans are being forced to compliment their Hunting apparel with Al Harris dreads and dockers.


"These just don't work with Wranglers!"

Since most “experts” simplify the game of football to the quality of quarterback play as part of the NFL's plan to destroy the game for everyone who's not a casual fan with expendable income. And those same novice fans fuel the fire by calling for quarterback changes after every poor performance. It is to be expected that the talking heads and hands will miss the mark like a fraternity pledge ten Natural Lights deep into a beer pong tournament and much bandwidth and airtime will cover up the real off season move that is killing The Packers.

Let's face it, the Pack hasn't won anything since this guy left

To the uninformed, the announcers of Monday Night Football construed an image that the Packers defense was still as skilled as last season's dominating 13-3 team. They focused on the lack of passing yards by opponents, physical man-coverage corners, league leading interceptions, and touchdowns after picks. A 5-5 team with the best defense in the league and a quarterback who's near the top of the conference in yards and touchdowns? How is that even possible? Because they never mentioned how porous the 26^th ranked rushing defense was. Teams don't throw for a lot of yards against the Packers because there's no need to. Just run up the middle and the holes are as vacant as Jacksonville's upper deck.

One of these guys couldn't wait to go to a team with a defense

Trading Corey Williams, the best defensive tackle on last year's stout defense, to Cleveland for a 2^nd round pick was the definitive off-season move that crippled a championship caliber team. Even worse was using the first two of three 2^nd round picks on Jordy Nelson and Brian Brohm, which is equivalent to ordering from Domino's instead of your quality neighborhood non-franchise pizza joint in order to save a few bucks, waiting 45 minutes for the pie to show up, then dropping your pants and leaking hot mud butt on it before your family can get a taste.

It's tragic enough that by trading out of the first round for the Nelson pick they passed on Kenny Phillips and Brandon Flowers. Plus it's insulting to their fans that if they were still going to waste a pick on a wide receiver, Limas Sweed, Eddie Royal, and DeShawn “goal-line” Jackson were still on the board. Not only did they reach for Nelson, but then they wasted the Williams pick on a green quarterback who was probably more focused on the NFL's lack of Erin Andrews' sideline interviews than learning from Aaron Rodgers' seven quarters of pro experience. The bottom line is that at least one of those picks was completely unnecessary and while the trade of Williams may have freed up some long-term cash it devastated the stellar defense of a 13-3 team already headed towards a transition period with the loss of their hall of fame quarterback.

At least there's some hope in Green Bay

Ron Jaworski of ESPN was correct when he criticized the frequent comparisons between Favre's Jets and Rodgers' Packers in the media. Favre is a competitor and was inspired by Packers management to ravage the small town of Green Bay like John Rambo in First Blood. However, even Favre, he of the multiple three interception performances, would admit Rodgers has played solidly if not spectacularly in his first full season. It is brutally obvious that Thompson's draft decisions and not his quarterback are handicapping a team that should be more competitive after last years run.

 

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