Mistakes made, lessons learned in Green Bay?

By Os Davis  |   Wednesday, October 10, 2007  |  Comments( 3 )

Green Bay Packers
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All good things, as they say, must come to an end, including eight-game winning streaks by fascinating NFL teams such as the 2006-2007 Green Bay Packers. After emerging from the subpar pack at the end of last season, head coach Mike McCarthy has his mostly hand-picked bunch of mostly youngsters playing decent defense and creative offense.

More importantly, he had his Packers at 4-0 going into last week's game against the Chicago Bears and the rest of the league believing his guys were dangerous.

Until it fell apart - OK, you don't have to go that far; until it all looked mighty wobbly - in a disastrous second half that saw the Bears accrue 17 unanswered points in making the Cheesy Ones look like the most disoriented and disorganized team since ... um ... the early 2006 Packers. So call it a 8.5-game winning streak. Also call it over.

The secrets of Chicago's victory (and keys to the Washington Redskins' game plan for next)? How about:

The Bears' serious exploitation of the Pack's man coverage. Greg Olsen simply out-jumped Atari Bigby for the quick-strike follow-up to the Brian Urlacher interception the Packers sorely needed to prevent. Later, Desmond Clark blew past Brady Poppinga and everyone else for the dagger TD that had been designed merely to get the first down on a third-and-2 play.

Lovie Smith stated in the post-game that "We like the matchups with our tight ends versus their guys." This week, the Pack should see a diet heavy on the Chris Cooley, who showed last week just how good (and underrated) he is in all facets. Washington offensive coordinator Al Saunders has his team running an ultra-complex offense nearly to perfection; though Washington doesn't run many two-TE formations, Saunders will surely dig into the playbook to baffle with Cooley. Coming off a breakout game, scary Mike Sellers may also create matchup problems.

Ol' Favre showing hints of Old Favre. Now, I know we're well into the Unofficial Year of St. Brett, but the water-walker showed his unfortunate tendency for erratic decision-making. The Urlacher pick was the showcase play - Favre rolled right, couldn't find the receiver and hurriedly threw left while being pursued by about 27 Bears. Additionally, after a shaky and uninspiring 5-of-9 performance to start the fourth quarter, Favre couldn't go long during the game's final drive while time ran out on the Packers and meaningless 8-yard gains.

Should the Washington-Green Bay game be tight in the closing minutes, figure Favre to see a lot of the anti-Peyton Manning defense, i.e. back off the secondary a further 5 yards.

Extremely costly mistakes. WR James Jones should be given a game ball for his two-fumble performance. After that, he should be given that old college training ritual of Never Let The Ball Out Of Your Sight. In preparation for the Washington game, Jones needs to be sleeping, showering and eating with the pigskin in a relationship closer than Tom Hanks and Wilson's.

And a couple of veteran miscues were particularly painful: Favre's third-quarter interception was bookended by Charles Woodson's fumble on a punt return. Combined with the bizarre "illegal formation" call on Corey Williams in the first half that give the Bears a first down on fourth, these mistakes were directly responsible for helping a low-watt offense to 17 points. Chicago perpetually had opportunities inside the 50; thus did the Bears win the field-position contest going away and ultimately the game.

Washington, too, is quite content to swap punts until a flub by the opposing offense or special teams; witness the tight margin of victory in Weeks 1-3 combined. Last week, Washington blew out the Detroit Lions on conservative play as well as a ridiculous two picks and three fumbles recovered for losses by QB Jon Kitna.

Though still sitting pretty at 4-1 and two games up on Chicago, Green Bay lost a costly one on Sunday, an "L" that could well haunt the Pack later in the season. Now if McCarthy, rapidly emerging as one of the finest coaches in pro football, can impart a few lessons this week, the Packers should be back on track with a home win against Washington.

School's in all year-round at RealFootball365.com
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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