If you have yet to see the cult classic terrible movie, The Room, you should skip next week’s Packers’ game and watch that instead. The reputation of The Room is well-earned, with director and lead Tommy Wiseau not just failing at every aspect of filmmaking, but failing in the most creative, asinine ways possible.
Seeing The Room is also good preparation for any future Packer game that resembles the absolute debacle that took place this Sunday. The Washington-Green Bay game failed on a coaching level, on an officiating level, on a personnel level and on an execution level. The game plan was a disaster, which, once again, landed the Packers in an enormous hole. The defense struggled as the Washington tight ends dominated, catching six balls for 135 yards, which, in addition to a bomb to wide receiver Paul Richardson, exposed the Packer safeties as the weakness many feared. Alex Smith only completed 12 passes on the day, but he made the most of it with several big strikes, and the Washington running game did enough to cement the game away late.
The Packers helped lose the game every way they could. Let’s go over them in painstaking detail.
Drops
In certain circumstances, drops can be as bad as turnovers, and in this game the receivers were turnover machines. Randall Cobb put the ball on the floor in the fourth quarter, ending any hope of a comeback, but that was his second game-killing play of the day as he dropped an easy fourth down pass from Aaron Rodgers earlier in the game.
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Rodgers also tossed a perfect 3rd down pass to tight end Lance Kendricks, who simply couldn’t hang on.
Finally, Davante Adams had a drive-killing drop in the first quarter on what should have been an easy first down.
The latter is concerning as drops were a big problem for Adams early in his career, and after a clean 2017 season they have become an issue again in the early going this season. Rodgers had pedestrian numbers in this game, but they don’t do his performance justice as he made several big plays to open receivers. Those receivers simply failed.
Coaching
The league has gotten much smarter over the last several years as offensive coordinators, now steeped in analytics, and innovative tactics developed at the collegiate level, put unprecedented pressure on opposing defenses. Mike McCarthy, and Aaron Rodgers, who is responsible for a substantial amount of play calling, have fallen behind the times.
The biggest problem with McCarthy specifically is that he doesn’t value possessions. There are a few simple rules you should follow when thinking about play selection and timeouts. McCarthy violated almost all of them against Washington, wasting his timeouts at the end of the first half and frequently running the ball on second down-and-long situations. McCarthy’s most egregious sin of the day was a late 4th quarter punt on 4th and 5 when they were still down by multiple scores. That decision sealed the game, and Cobb’s subsequent fumble was simply adding insult to self-inflicted injury.
Creating possessions is the best thing a coach can do for his team. Smart use of his timeouts would have given Aaron Rodgers close to a minute at the end of the first half, instead of just 21 seconds. Punting when you need two possessions to score is indefensible when there is not enough time left for two possessions. He seems to have no understanding of the consequences of his decisions.
Officiating
I really do hate writing about the officials, but the officials seem to appreciate the attention. Clay Matthews was once again flagged for unnecessary roughness on another perfectly safe and appropriate hit of Alex Smith. The NFL Operations twitter account immediately leapt to the defense of the refs, claiming the call was correct, but any sane person understands this is nonsense.
The Packers likely would have lost this game on their own, but it’s worth noting that penalties have granted Packer opponents 11 first downs on the year, while the Packers have only picked up 2 first downs via penalty. That’s an enormous impact by the officials, and if the league doesn’t clean up some of their rules, the refs aren’t just going to appear incompetent, they’re going to appear corrupt.
Defense
Finally, Mike Pettine’s defense was eaten alive by Alex Smith, Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis. Adrian Peterson posted big numbers as well, but Pettine’s defenses often allow backs to pile up mostly pointless yards. The problem on Sunday was that they are not supposed to allow these kinds of leads in the first place. Pass rush continues to be an issue as the Nick Perry contract continues to be one of the worst in football, but this game was mostly about safety play. Both Kentrell Brice and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix were repeatedly torched for big plays by the tight ends. On Paul Richardson’s one touchdown catch, Brice was completely out of position and took a terrible angle.
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Safety is one of the cheapest, and most widely available positions in football as the league as a whole undervalues it, but the Packers have shown just how important it can be when an opponent decides to exploit a weakness there. Brice and Clinton-Dix are polar opposites with Brice’s aggressive nature often causing him to make poor choices, while Clinton-Dix is so passive that it’s easy to target the area directly in front of him.
Fixing poor safeties is one of the easiest things to do in football, and its long past time the Packers brought in some new blood. If Davon House is going to continue to see time at corner, the team cannot afford to have poor safeties cleaning up his messes.
