I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.
From a question about Nick Barnett for Winston Moss on Greg Bedard’s ‘Mondays With Mikey’s Men’ feature over at JSOnline, where Bedard lets ordinary schleps like you and me posit questions to the assistant coaches:

You’re OK with how Nick is playing?

Moss: Versus his opportunities, he’s making the plays versus his opportunities.

Do you need to free him up, get him more opportunities?

Moss: You’re asking the wrong guy.

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• Top 5 Seattle Game Thoughts

Perhaps lost amongst my much written about angst over Bob Sanders is the unbelievable admiration I have for Aaron Rodgers and his incredible display of gamesmanship yesterday. I know Rodgers has stated that Favre’s streak had nothing to do with his determination to play yesterday, but come on. You know it’s in the back of his head. Indeed, it’s in the back of everyone’s mind as we watch the beginning of the Rodgers era.

Not only did Rodgers play but he played well. Yes, he threw an inexcusable interception at the end of the game. But as I wrote several times this offseason - there will be bumps in the road. The key is for Rodgers to learn from the big mistake and then not repeat it.

But overall, Rodgers has been one of the more consistent performers on a team that is suddenly quite erratic. Here’s hoping McCarthy can get the rest of the team performing at a higher level to take some of  the pressure off Rodgers, because right now, he IS the offense.

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• Think About This

…we should all be ready for the Aaron Rodgers consecutive games started streak to end at four.

First there was the news that Rodgers was not throwing at today’s practice and then there was McCarthy’s press conference quote:

I’m going to give him every chance, every possible chance, to play in the game.

If you look at McCarthy’s history dealing with injured players, he has ALWAYS, without exception, used caution when it comes to playing them. Now, the Rodgers situation is unique, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of the position he plays. It’s one thing to sit Charles Woodson or KGB. It’s quite another to sit the only quarterback on the roster to have an NFL start on his resume.

Add to the above the following from ESPN’s NFC North blog:

McCarthy added that “long-term effects” and “long-term vision” with Rodgers will be a primary focus in making a decision. McCarthy, however, cautioned reporters against interpreting those words to mean he won’t play Sunday.

Sorry Mike. Bloggers aren’t reporters, so I feel no obligation to heed your caution.

In Cheesehead TV’s estimation: Rodgers won’t start.

UPDATE: ESPN’s John Clayton seems to agree.

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• Think About This

…the Great Bailout of 2008.

Do I speak of the lunacy on Wall Street and in Washington? No. I speak of something far more devastating. The abandonment of the Green Bay Packers chances in 2008 by Packer fans, and more specifically, Packer bloggers who should know better. Steve over at PackerGeeks has a lengthy post detailing why, in the aftermath of the Cullen Jenkins injury (among many, many other things) it is time for Packer fans to “adjust our expectations”. He then goes on to tell us he himself, who saw the Packers as a 9-7 team, has officially downgraded the Packers to the “Will Be Lucky To Be .500″ category.

I understand this impulse, but I’m here to tell you it is WAY too early for this kind of talk.

First of all - yes, the Packers are finally getting bit by the injury bug. It was only a matter of time, especially after their relatively healthy seasons in 2006 and 2007. That’s just the law of averages. And yes, Aaron Rodgers’ injury is a cause for concern. As I’ve written many times, if the Packers are forced to go with Flynn for any length of time, the season is over. But from all indications (and we’ll know a lot more tomorrow) Rodgers will not miss Sunday’s game. It’s an injury that can be managed, much like Ben Roethlisberger is doing in Pittsburgh.

Secondly, a lot of fans, Steve included, are reacting to the teams poor showing in Tampa. This is understandable, especially given how poorly the team played on a very basic fundamental level. Blocking and tackling, the bedrock of football, were both atrocious this past Sunday. It’s easy to lose hope.

But what both points above have in common is that they can be overcome - with good coaching. And I am still of the belief that Mike McCarthy is a very, very good football coach. Yes, the Packers lost in Tampa. May I remind everyone that heading into Sunday’s game, the Packers were 1-5 in Raymond James Stadium with Brett Favre as their quarterback. And that lone win came in 2003 when Mike Sherman’s team had an unbelievable rushing attack, with three backs averaging over 5 yards a carry on the year. That’s how you beat the Bucs in Tampa. You pound it down their throat, negating all the speed of their defense and Monte Kiffin’s ability to tee off on the quarterback. Needless to say, this Packers team is not built that way, and they almost won anyway.

No, this is still a good team that ran into a buzzsaw Sunday. They will make the necessary adjustments and McCarthy will get them playing good football. They have three very winnable games lined up before the bye week. Yes, I said three winnable games. Atlanta and Seattle should actually be handled easily and the only thing making the Indy game difficult is the brilliance of Peyton Manning. But the Packers get them at Lambeau, and this Colts team can not pound the football the way Dallas and Tampa Bay did. The Packers will win the next three games and everyone will forget this horrible week where everyone thought the sky was falling.

Everyone but me, that is.

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• Despite Emotion, Culpepper Makes Sense

When Brett Favre retired, Mike McCarthy made it clear that Aaron Rodgers would be running basically the same offense that Favre had run the past three seasons. A tweak or two here and there, but basically, the same.

Today, when asked how much smaller the playbook would be if Matt Flynn had to start on Sunday, McCarthy replied:

We haven’t really operated on a very high volume all year, so that’s something coming out of the offseason. I think it’s important as a coaching staff to challenge yourself. I’ve dealt with very high-volume offensive game plans in the past. Over the long haul, I think it creates more opportunity for mental errors. I don’t think we have a volume issue as far as the size of our playbook for any of the quarterbacks to run. The percentage of that, the week will probably answer that question better.

He is one hundred percent correct, of course, about the potential for mental errors when opening up the playbook. One need look no further than Rodgers blowing the read at the end of the game yesterday, when he failed to find his hot read, Finley, for what would have been a sizable gain. But with the struggles of the offense to run the ball, and the struggles of the defense to stop opponents from running the ball and putting points on the board, the rewards far outweigh the risks in my opinion.

Rodgers looked shaky yesterday, but I would remind all the Chicken Littles of the world that the only time Favre beat Monte Kiffin’s defense down in Tampa was in 2003 when Sherman was coach and the Packers had three running backs averaging over five yards a carry. Other than that game, Favre looked much like Rodgers did yesterday every time he went down to Florida.

McCarthy has a good, young quarterback who will make mistakes from time to time. But he simply has to give him the freedom to make some plays, especially since his team can’t generate more than 30 yards on the ground on any given Sunday. Rodgers is the Packers’ best chance at putting points on the board, but he can’t do it if the opposing defenses know all four or five looks it’s going to see week to week.

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• Why Can’t Packer Fans Enjoy This?

“No Major Structural Damage”

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• Work To Do

I put Head Coach Mike McCarthy in the ‘Ugly’ category for the first time since starting the venerable day-after-the-game “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” tradition here at Cheesehead TV after watching what can only be described as a pathetic, mistake prone team lose it’s focus and throw away a game it had every business winning. Making matters worse, of course, is the prospect, looming over all of Packer-land, of the Packers losing Aaron Rodgers for an extended period of time. The idea of the Packers rolling out Matt Flynn against Atlanta next week, never mind against Seattle or Indianapolis the following two, gives Packer fans everywhere the opportunity to jump ship on the season, or worse yet, to engage in a game of ‘gotcha’ with Packer management as Brett Favre throws for seemingly a thousand touchdowns out here on the East Coast, each one a tiny dagger thrust into the heart of Packer Fandom.

But let’s get one thing clear here.

Mike McCarthy can win with Matt Flynn at quarterback. He has to.

Flynn beat out a prospect that not two years ago was a consensus first overall pick in Brian Brohm. Flynn has earned his shot. And one need look no further than the Packers next opponent, the Atlanta Falcons, for an example of how to win with a rookie quarterback (a rookie quarterback who was also made to look terrible down in Tampa Bay) Now, does Flynn have the physical tools Matt Ryan has? No. But McCarthy’s job is to tailor his gameplan to what Flynn does have. If teams like the Falcons and the Ravens can win with rookie quarterbacks, there’s no reason the Packers, with infinitely more talent at the offensive skill positions than either of those teams, can’t do the same.

McCarthy and Thompson wanted down this path, eschewing the need for a veteran signal-caller for the prospect of grooming two young quarterbacks in the event of a Rodgers injury. It’s an easy decision to make when you are armed with a newly signed five year contract extension, as Thompson is. Even if this year is a wash (which it by no means should be) the Packers come back next year with a healed Rodgers and a  seasoned Flynn backing him up. It makes sense, long term. But it’s hard for Packer fans to watch a team that was an overtime away from the Super Bowl not eight months ago, suddenly on the brink of a wasted season. It’s McCarthy’s job to make sure Flynn succeeds, which starts by giving him a running game and a gameplan that is not scared to take some chances and a defense that can keep the pressure off the quarterback to score every time his team has the ball.

Whether Rodgers or Flynn is the quarterback next week, McCarthy needs to get his team’s obvious deficiencies cleaned up. There’s way too much talent on this team for the Packers to stop winning.

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• If History Is Any Guide…

The return of Scott Wells is welcome news.

The Packers biggest problem over the course of the last three weeks (and there have been plenty) is the lack of a consistent running game. With Wells back and Spitz over at right guard for Tony Moll (who simply has no business playing guard) I fully expect McCarthy to start feeding Grant the way he did down the stretch last year. He simply has to take pressure off Rodgers, who was asked to do way too much against Dallas. Not that I think he can’t handle it. He can. But there’s zero reason, on a team this talented, that Rodgers should be asked to win games. Even a halfway decent running game will help tremendously.

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• Scott Wells Had A Terrible Game