Greenville Packer Backers: 2017 Week 07

Packers 10 Viqueens 23

The Packers are again limping as usual…is it the bratwurst and cheese?”-Radio and TV personality Colin Cowherd (“The Herd”)

“When was the last time Green Bay lined up in a classic I-formation with double Tight Ends tight to the offensive line?”-Minnesota announcer during Hundley’s first series

The Pack lost at Minnesota to fall to (4-2), but (Obvious Alert) it goes without saying that we lost much, much more than this game.
Maybe(?) that flushing sound is what once looked to be a promising season…

Upstart Vikings QB Case Keenum (now 1-0 against the Pack) after this disaster: “It’s always fun to beat Green Bay!” Excuse me? Who are you again? When have you ever beaten the Packers, or for that matter, anyone? Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ve been on the NFL field for like 15 minutes. And you didn’t “beat” the “Packers,” you scored 23 points at home against a JV squad that handed you the ball three times with turnovers just to make sure…

I was coming back from camping in the mountains and caught the first half on Vikings Radio, which obviously sucked badly even without the turn of events. I must say, they were extremely respectful, maybe even deferential, to not only Rodgers and his game, but also the Packers as a whole. These guys really look up to us. We are definitely in their heads, and it was a small consolation, maybe a little satisfying, to know that’s their mentality. Maybe even they have a clue about where they are in the food chain and where they belong...

After Rodgers took a cart to the locker room, I was yelling at the radio each subsequent play; “Why the #@$% is Vikings LB Anthony Barr still upright? Why hasn’t someone taken him out?” (He ended up leaving early with a concussion). Make no mistake: I don’t think it was a dirty hit, but it was unnecessary. However, that’s football. That’s good football. Put the shoe on the other foot, and think of what every defense strives to do to the enemy QB: At least ring his bell, get him foggy. Maybe even knock him out of the game (bonus). I get it, and I’m all in on the mentality. I was a defensive player in my playing days.

But it’s like when an opponent got too physical with Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan: Let the goons loose to protect your franchise, or to “settle the account” if it’s too late to save him. You may say “That’s not fair” or “That’s dirty.” These guys on the other side of the ball are animals. It’s not about fairness or being dirty, it’s about justice.

Mad Dog Radio: “This destroys the Packers, who were the favorites to win the Super Bowl.” What? Why “destroyed?” The team is at a respectable (4-2), with a pretty weak schedule and a bye over the next several weeks. Our division is still very winnable. Rodgers has a chance, however slight, to return by the end of the campaign. When was anyone calling us the “favorites,” especially with the casualty list that is our roster? Hundley sucked, but he was thrust into a bad situation with a game plan that wasn’t built to his strengths. That will obviously change this week and moving forward. McCarthy and the organization clearly think they have something in the UCLA slinger.

Channel history for further inspiration: Earl Morrall filled in for Bob Griese for essentially the season on the way to the Dolphins’ undefeated season in 1972. Jimmy Garropalo became a commodity after keeping Tom Brady’s seat warm. Matt Flynn got a huge contract based on his performance when Rodgers went down. More recently, Dak Prescott took Dallas to (13-3) after the Cowboys though it was “Vaya con Dios” when Romo went down (and please, Tony, stay down). Did any of us really think Rodgers was “the” Aaron Rodgers when Favre left?

Post Script: Despite what I would call pretty sparse crowds at Chief’s recently, our Greenville Packer Backers achieved an historic milestone last week: The 400^th Member joined this celebrated and esteemed organization! We are one of the biggest Packer Fan Base in the South, and maybe anywhere outside Wisconsin. I have it on good authority from the committee and the writers that hitting the 400 mark will almost certainly get this club over the hump and punch our ticket to the club Hall of Fame… Go, Pack, GO!!!

(Kraig Pringle)

Just Sayin’

I ain’t heard no fat lady sing ! ! However, she did start warming up at halftime. Now whether she continues depends a lot on Mike McCarthy. There have been many teams that have won, and won it all, with serviceable QBs. I am not saying we are still Super Bowl contenders, but all is not necessarily lost. Next Sunday is going to be a good indication. Now I understand that a coaching staff can’t change the game plan in a moment’s notice. So once Rodgers went down in the Vikings game, everything changed. What I didn’t see as the Vikings game started was Aaron Jones getting the start in the backfield. McCarthy is loyal to his starters to a fault. After what Jones did last week, there is no way Montgomery should have been ahead of him on the depth chart against the Vikings, especially since he is still nursing injured ribs. Based on his past, I see MM making little changes for the offense for next week against the Saints. I hope I am wrong, but I am not holding my breath. Everyone who watches football knows that Brett Hundley does not have the talent of Aaron Rodgers. Can he be a competent NFL QB? We all hope so. So McCarthy and his staff have to come up with a much different game plan moving forward. Some of that is warranted by Hundley being the QB from here forward. The other part of that is due to the condition of the OL. Hundley needs to have the ball out of his hand a lot quicker than Rodgers would have. Something else to think about is maybe play a couple of guys that Hundley is more familiar with, having worked with them in the preseason. In Hundley & McCarthy’s defense, Hundley was being thrown into the fire. And with a patchwork OL, Hundley’s play did not surprise me very much. Now, I expect him to play bet-ter Sunday against the Saints, having a week to work with the starters and (hopefully), develop a game plan that will suit his skills. Joe Callahan will now be the 2^nd string QB. Personally, I don’t know if it would be any great advantage in bringing in Romo or Kapaernick. While neither Hundley or Callahan have very much real game experience between them, they have been in the system for a while, know the players and the offense. The other guys don’t and would face a steep learning curve. If MM can create a game plan with quick passes, we could be alright. If MM expects Hundley to pick up right where AR left off, after a week of practice, we are doomed.

The old theory about broken collarbones is that they are usually left alone and heal pretty good. Surgery used to be rare. I have some experience with this. The orthopedic surgeon told me that when left alone to heal, while the bone may heal just fine, most of the time, the bone heals shorter. Surgery removes that shortness from the healing and it should be as good as new. Rodgers needs his arm to be back as close to normal as it was before the break, especially since it is his throwing shoulder. I was back riding in a little over 6 weeks. Of course, I didn’t have other people trying to knock me down and fall on top of me when I got back on the road...

Just Sayin’

(Jimmy Smith)

The Chief’s / GPB Report

A very tough Sunday indeed for our beloved Pack. We had over 50 Packer fans on hand at Chief’s, most stayed after they started showing “The Replace-ments” instead of the football game.

Not a lot to cheer about so only 11 prizes were handed out, here are the winners: 491 Deb York a Licence Plate Frame and a Car tag to 262 Tom Zumbach, 156 Phil Bender a rain poncho, 445 Brenda Davenport a lanyard, a hat when to 263 Pat Zumbach while 120 Kraig Pringle took a visor, 186 Karn Bender a car flag, 323 Celie Schliz liked the freezer koozie, 341 Kathie Gossett the coffee mug and both 372Sara Warpinski & 132 Sharon Schulz needed new socks.

Winner of the Trivia contest this week and a $25 gift card for our friends at Chief’s was: 156 Phil Bender. Because of the bye week, we will have an “internet only” contest. See page 3 for all the details.

Only a $1 pool this week. The winners were: 372 Sara Warpinski, 185 Ken Hill, 287 Perri Bresserman & 373 Candice Curran.

One new member to report. Lrt’s give a warm Packer welcome to our 400th member to join our little club:

500 Ted Anderson

A special thanks to the new owner, Matt, for talking on the phone to make sure DirecTV didn’t cut us off. The problem was the new HD receivers were not properly registered by DirecTV and had to be done manually on Sunday morning. In talking with Matt afterwards, he tells me starting very soon “ALL” TV’s will be replaced, more added and the overheads will go to laser projectors. He hopes to have this completed by the playoffs. In the off season the floors will be replaced and the outside deck will be turned into an area with it’s own grill. Chief’s has set aside a special prize for the club that we will give away at 11/6 duh bears game. Not much more to say then hope to see you Sunday at Chief’s at 1:00 so together we can all

BLEED GREEN MY FRIENDS! (PJ)

Packer’s vs. Aint’s

You can tell Coach Mike is from Pittsburgh. He doesn’t wax eloquent about the beauty of the game, he didn’t grow up listening to Vin Scully talk about the Dodgers. He didn’t listen to Vern Lundquist talk about his love for the SEC. He didn’t hear Jim Nance talk about the beauty of the Blue Monster at Doral. He comes out, gives you the facts and then asks for questions. When you boil all of his answers down, he’s basically just telling, “It’s football.” He does get irritated though.

I was watching TV Monday night and flipping around. I came on ESPN 2 (The Indy/TN game was effectively over) and they had a segment on Sportscenter about Coach Saban. The interviewer asked him are there any dumb questions. Coach replied, “Don’t ask me a ‘What If’ question.” So somebody asked Coach Mike a ‘What If’ question.

What if Brett Hundley lays an egg? Are you going to sign a veteran quarterback? Coach’s response was, “I’ve got three years invested in Brett Hundley, he’s our starter.” Joe Callahan is the backup. Joe went to a Division III school Wesley College in Delaware. It’s total enrollment is 1431 and folks, it ain’t cheap! Now some of you are shaking your head right now saying, “C’mon…Delaware?!?!” Delaware has a Superbowl Pedigree. Joe Flacco is a proud Blue Hen! Look it up on the interwebs, you’ll learn something!

Some of you would say, “What about Romo? He’s from WI and would love the chance to play for the Green and Gold!” Others, “I wonder how much Kaepernick has been working out?” Still others myself included remembered when Aaron broke his left collarbone and said, “I wonder if Ted still has Matt Flynn’s phone number?”

While those are still options let’s remember Brett played for UCLA, he’s 6’3”, 226, 24 years old, he was Second Team All Pac-12, Sun Bowl Co-MVP, in 2012 as a redshirt Freshman Brett led the Bruins to a Pac 12 Southern Division Championship, passing for a record 3,740 yards. During his time he broke the record for touchdown passes, total offense and is second for QB rushing with 1,747 yards.

Or to put it plainly, the kid can flat-out BALL!!

He did the best he could against a Minnesota team that is one of the stingiest in their own building. It didn’t help matters that our defense proved once again that they couldn’t catch a cold! If this keeps up, I don’t see Dom coming back next year. Of course, Vince Biegel or Demetri Goodson could be the second coming of Nick Barnett and Reggie White and we’ll be the Terrors of the Tundra once again.

Our Defense will have to play their butts off this Sunday. The ‘aints are once again the ‘aints of old, but they can still score touchdowns. They won’t beat you with defense, but they’ll try to outscore you.

That’s what they did last week as they decided not to play defense against the Lions and had a track meet instead. 90 points were scored between both teams. Saints 52-Lions 38. Drew Brees only threw for 186 yards. Former Heisman Trophy Winner Mark Ingram(Roll Tide!) pounded the rock for 114 yards, and caught for 35 more. Fumbles, pick sixes, Punts returned for touchdowns, this game had it all. I’m sure it was exciting to watch. With all of the turnovers, this looks like a game tailor-made for our turnover happy defense.

As of this writing (Thursday morning) Aaron still hasn’t had surgery on his collarbone. I’m sure the docs are waiting for swelling and pain to subside before they do it. It can’t be fun rolling over at night and being awoken by blinding pain. I’m like the rest of you. Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, hoping that Mike and Dom somehow get this team to play up to their potential. Oh, and for you Vince Biegel fans, he’s cleared PUP and was a full participant at practice this week. Goodson wasn’t ready to go. Vince will likely just practice and play Monday night against Detroit on Nov. 6. Now if you’ll excuse me, I wasn’t wearing a Goatee when the Packers ripped 3 wins in a row off, so I’ve got to trim this back into a sweet biker ‘stache! GO PACK!! GO!!! (Ken Hill)