Brats & Beer

The House Cleaning Begins

First Monday of the New Year and the Packers make some big staff moves, mainly moving people out. Six — count ‘em — six assistants were fired this morning, including Bob Sanders and a good chunk of his defensive underlings. Secondary coach Kurt Schottenheimer was let go, which has been a long time coning, but Carl Hairston (defensive ends) and Lionel Washington (cornerbacks) also got caught by Mike McCarthy’s broom. Even strength coach Rock Gullickson is gone. Not fired was special teams coach Mike Stock, but he opted to retire instead.

It will be very interesting who McCarthy hires to remake his staff.

James Jones: Another Good Guy

At the end of a disappointing season, some “stars” in the NFL might be interested only in their own stats — or worse yet throw their teammates under the bus for not contributing enough. Not so with Packers wide reciever James Jones. After an injury-riddled year, his frustration is that he couldn’t make more plays for the team. Nice to know we have quality guys like that in Green Bay.

Do It For Donald

Lori Nickel of the Journal Sentinel has an excellent article about Donald Driver and his spectacular career in Green Bay. DD says he plans on playing for five more years and just wants to get to the Super Bowl. Obviously as fan I have my own selfish reasons for wanting the Packers to get to the title game, but now I hope DD gets to live out his dream.

Gene Chizik Has Left The Building

“At the end of the day, I’ve got to do what’s best for my family and myself.” Like get the heck out of Dodge (or rather Ames) while the getting is good.

Losers

It’s official: the 2008 Packers are doomed to a losing season. There’s really nothing left to play for except pride, and I’m not sure Green Bay has enough of that left to overcome a playoff-contending Bears team or a Lions club desperate to avoid an 0-16 record. At least now we can stop worrying about football for a few weeks and maybe enjoy the holiday.

Cleditushuntitis

Brew Town Beat nails it on Justin Harrell.

Is It That Bad?

The Packers’ season is all but over at this point and there’s not a lot left for us fans to do but to wait to see what moves Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy make during the offseason. But is it really so bad that at packergeeks they’re posting about the Vikings?

So Long To A Winning Season

With the 24-21 loss to the Texans, the time for excuses is over. How do you let Houston beat you in the cold of Lambeau Field? How do you come up with four turnovers but still lose the game?

Today’s loss, like last week against Carolina, came down to the final minute and once again the defense couldn’t hold. They got torched by Owen Daniels and Kevin Walter for more than 200 yards, and allowed Steve Slaton to break for 120 more. Houston hung up 549 yards on the Packers and only because of several key mistakes was the score even close.

And so we bid a fond adieu to all hope of finishing the season with a winning record, never mind thoughts of making the playoffs. The best we can hope for is that McCarthy’s Packers can find the fortitude to win their final three games to avoid a losing record, and with a road date in Chicago still looming in a couple weeks that seems far from certain.

We can also hope that the brain trust at 1265 Lombardi Ave. is starting the process of evaluating talent — both on the field and on the sidelines — in order to hit the ground running in January when the job of making changes to improve the team for next year begins. Some hard decisions need to be made with respect to Mike Stock and Bob Sanders, and the defensive line in particular needs some playmakers.

It should be an interesting off-season — at least I hope so.

Vegans at Lambeau?

I’m not sure how I should feel about this, but PETA recently named Lambeau Field one of the top five vegetarian-friendly stadiums in the NFL. While it’s nice to see the historic stadium recognized, should we be worried that they’re serving too much tofu up in brats and beer country?

(h/t to Railbird Central)

The Colored Glasses Come Off

Green & Gold punch is a powerful concoction — it must be to have kept Lambeau Field sold out through the 1970s and 80s — but for this season, at least, that elixir’s spell has worn off for me. The loss last Sunday to the Panthers was a little too much and there’s a little too little of the season remaining, so it’s time to be realistic about our Packers team. The playoffs are a long shot at best and a deep post-season run even more so for such an inconsistent squad.

Aaron at Cheesehead TV speaks truth to power on this and makes some good points about what went wrong this year. But I would add that the lack of team identity may have doomed this season from the start. Surely the messy divorce with Brett Favre interrupted that process during the offseason, but even that could have — should have — fostered a sense of “us against the world” in Green Bay, serving as a basis for some kind of personality to emerge. Each week, though, a different team seemed to take the field, sometimes confident like against the Colts but more often timid and unorganized like we’ve seen the past couple weeks. Perhaps Derrick Frost wasn’t the only one who failed to transfer things from the practice field to game day.

But just because I’m being realistic about the Packers chances to make the playoffs doesn’t mean I won’t still root them on the last four games. They have a chance to gain some confidence and start building for next year, not to mention a sweep of the Bears would do the soul some good this holiday season. And just because this year wasn’t as successful as last doesn’t mean we should clean house or make any wholesale changes: I still believe in Ted Thompson’s philosophy of building through the draft and I think Mike McCarthy can coach a winner. They just need to get better at what they’re doing.

Hopefully the failures of this season resonate through the halls at 1265 Lombardi Ave. during the winter and spring and 2009 puts Green Bay back in the winner’s circle.