It’s put up or shut up time this week. There’s been time to adjust and now you’re facing the worst team in the division (unless you are the worst team in the division). There needs to be, at the very least, big steps and growth shown if there is any hope to make the season even remotely interesting and hang out on the fringe of the playoff race as a longshot. To do so, lots of people need to wake up and that is the theme of this weeks pregame.
Brett? Hello?
It’s start numbers 3 – time to stop missing wide open guys. If you think Mike is calling plays too conservative, talk to him about it. If he doesn’t listen, start hitting open guys and he may get less conservative. You’ve shown you can move around outside the pocket, great – now show you can hang in there and hit the seam route. Your line has given you some nice pockets and your blindside is a brick wall – step up in the pocket and deliver some strikes, then watch how much easier it gets to deal with a defense that has to watch for everything.
Aaron Jones? Hello?
Whatever you did on Monday, stop it. Get back into the groove you were in for Dallas and New Orleans. Maybe you’re an every other game player, but you’re due either way. Ty Montgomery has a knack for turning on against the Bears. If you can both rock out, that should be plenty to win this game.
Capers? Hello?
You’re facing a rookie QB who only started one year in college and has no receivers – can you please do something this week? You have talent over there. Perry, King, Randle, HaHa, and Clark were all top picks and they’re all talented – use them! No more soft zone coverage. Bring your safeties up to pinch the gap, attack the quarterback, and make the rookie come up big with his sh!tty receivers. The Bears have a good run game, but you have CM3, Perry, Martinez, Biegel, Daniels, Clark, Lowry, and a secondary that loves run support. Figure this out! … or do the right thing and resign; you had a great career.
The Biegel Effect
Ahmad Brooks was supposed to be that quality third OLB. He’s been hurt, but now Vince is ready to play. In his first game, he looked like a player immediately. Having a guy like that should make for a lot of exotic looks, but I hope it doesn’t. Capers gets too creative and the Bears offense isn’t that good. They don’t need to get exotic, they just need to go out, play hard, and win. Biegel is that kind of guy.
Predictions
I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Playing a bad team that we’ve owned, seeing our young QB start to make (slow) strides, a maturing run game, and emerging stars on defense all should line up to help the Packers break out of their funk and show at least an interesting spark to watch. But with off-field distractions and a defense that is not drilled or schemed to attack, this could be another dud. I think Kevin King grabs a pick, he’s always around the ball and should get it against the fellow rookie. I think Clark and Daniels own the line, but I can’t see the offense moving as much as it needs to. It could, don’t get me wrong, but I think the offensive line shuffling will keep Hundley playing off his athleticism instead of his head – he’s not taking advantage of all that film study from the last three years because he’s too busy running out of the pocket. Maybe going no-huddle will help, but this has all the makings of another crapfest.
Packers 16, Bears 20