Tuesday Coffee Time
2009 October 6
From what I saw, it looked pretty much like what I had expected. At some point, Ted Thompson’s going to have to spend some money on some players. Why do the Packers always have to be the youngest team in the league? The Packers’ line played like they were very young and inexperienced. Another thing, how do you turn around this perception by the officials that everything the Packers do is because they must be committing a penalty? I see the Vikings line holding and stuffing their paws in the face of on-rushing linemen and there are no calls, but let the Packers whisper incorrectly and the officials throw a flag. End of the first half: Packers 6 penalties, Vikings 0. Therefore the Vikings must have played perfectly, right?
- The rest of this week is a series of 7:00 a.m. starts at work, so I don’t know when, or if, I’ll be posting much. Things are winding down here at the Chronicle.
- Mayor Larry cuts a ribbon here and a ribbon there. Let’s give him a 16% raise in his next term.
- Pewaukee’s mayor finds himself suddenly under siege. A recall petition has been started and the police are complaining about him. Are the two issues connected?
- Vandals strike Alderman Paul Ybarra’s neighborhood.
- Vandals should be warned that there seem to be armed people about. It’s only a matter of time before the two intersect.
- A very good column by Victor Davis Hanson today.
- The weekend police blotter.
- Tuesday Sound Off.
I know Packer fans like to complain about the refs but they did take pity on Rodgers and did not call some really obvious holding penalties. Rule of thumb: if you can’t read the defensive lineman’s number on his jersey because it’s balled up in the offensive llineman’s fist, it’s holding.
Officiating last night was awful, both ways … and in the end, had absolutely no impact on the outcome of the game. The call I have heard the most complaints about (Woodson’s PI in the end zone on his interception) still makes no difference. There was also an offsides on the Packers on the same play … either way, that Interception is getting called back. This game was lost where every Packer game has been lost the last 2 seasons … at the line of scrimmage. Until they start protecting the QB and generating a pass rush, they are a .500 team, at best.
Complaining about the refs is not and never has been exclusive to Packer fans.
Until Rogers learns the short passing game to change the game dynamic, he’s going to keep getting sacked. He hangs on to the ball to long. The was a lot of face masking yesterday on both sides. Check out the J/S photo.
Not exclusive, but they are good at it.
One of the problems with Rodgers holding onto the ball is the fact that typically a TE and a RB are kept “in” to chip other linemen and help block. This reduces the number of open receivers.
Rodgers started doing this “hold onto the ball” thing in the Cowboys game last year, then seemed to move on from it. Wonder why he’s reverted to this behavior (sophomore slump, anyone?).
Playcalling (slants and screens) would certainly help – not sure why they keep trying to go deep when they know the line can’t protect well for 5 and 7-step drops…