Ruvell Martin was inactive this past Sunday so that McCarthy could get James Jones involved in the offense. But once again, Jones “banged his knee” and was limited to nine snaps. And yet, McCarthy explicitly stated at the opening of his press conference yesterday that the team came out of the game healthy. You’ve got to think that the medical staff has told McCarthy that Jones’ knee is fine, but Jones keeps telling McCarthy he can’t go.

It’s time to sit him down for good this year.

Now, I know knees are tricky, and I know if a players’ mind is on his knee rather than his game, that’s not good for anyone, not the team or the player. But there comes a point, if the medical staff says he’s fine and he keeps refusing to play, well, Ruvell Martin is more than willing and able to catch 8 yard slants and to block down field, only one of which Jones has done this year. Jones is simply keeping healthy and eager players on the bench at this point. Keep him inactive for the rest of the season. Don’t put him on IR - if one of your recievers goes down, then activate him. But at this point, the team wouldn’t be any worse off if he was in street clothes every week.

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• Top 5 Seattle Game Thoughts

Now I know I’m dreaming.

In his sprawling weekly column, CNNSI’s hack eminent national NFL writer Peter King traditionally includes a “Coach of the Week” and lo and behold, look who he spotlights this week:

Coach of the Week

Bob Sanders, defensive coordinator, Green Bay. One would have to think that jobs were on the line at Lambeau Field Sunday, both on the field and on the coaching staff, with Green Bay’s sub-.500 record and two straight poor defensive performances. Sanders and his staff came back strong, orchestrating a scheme to hold Chicago to three points and 234 yards.

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• Woodson Should Be Number One

That’s the assessment McCarthy gave today on FOX Sports Radio.

It’s a valid point - Rodgers is running one of the most complex offensive systems in the NFL and he has missed extremely extensive practice time since the Tampa game when he injured his shoulder. That said (and I hate to pile on McCarthy here, though I think he can take it) - isn’t that all the more reason to pack it in with heavy formations and call a less timing-intensive gameplan with fewer receiving options for his under-practiced quarterback to have to navigate? I know he’s the expert here, but McCarthy’s point about Rodgers’ lack of practice time makes his decision to spread it out on Sunday all the more curious.

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• Rodgers Watch

More than any coach or player on the field in the Metrodome yesterday, Mike McCarthy shoulders the largest portion of blame for the Packers failings against the Minnesota Vikings yesterday. From his abandonment of the running game to his flabbergastingly stubborn insistence to throw out of the shadow of his own end zone, even though his team had done nothing to warrant such confidence, from challenging Peterson’s touchdown to going insanely conservative once again when the game was there for the taking, McCarthy owes it to his team to take stock of what he really has on offense and start calling the game accordingly.

Earlier in the season, I had called on McCarthy to open it up, spread the field and allow Rodgers to run the offense the way Favre had run it. McCarthy, to his credit, stuck with simple gameplans and helped his young quarterback by moving him around and giving him no more than two or three options on most passing plays. That’s why he’s a head coach in the NFL and I’m a blogger. But yesterday, for some inexplicable reason, McCarthy saw the trouble his team was having protecting the quarterback, but kept sending them out there with spread formations and few heavy sets designed with protection as their first priority. It took until the 3rd quarter for the Falcon/Rhino formation to make its appearance (and when it did, Grant promptly ripped off a big gain for a first down…)

McCarthy, like his young charge at quarterback, is struggling right now. He needs to right the ship - fast - before his team faces the Chicago Bears this weekend, a team and a coach that McCarthy has yet to beat in a meaningful game. And this one will mean more than any that have preceded it…

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• We Don’t Know Jack

Where to begin?

Aaron Rodgers, by his own admission, had his worst day as a pro yesterday. And yes, a good part of it was due to the offensive line and McCarthy’s complete lack of attention to pass protection. But Aaron Rodgers did himself no favors in his reads and in his fundamentals. He continues to stare down his first read, and it is killing him and the offense. Asked about possibly missing open receivers in the progression, Rodgers bristled a bit yesterday, giving all the credit to the Vikings coverage as to why he was holding the ball too long on so many occasions.

The fact is this - he’s a first year starter in one of the NFL’s most complicated passing offenses. He’s going through the growing pains we all knew were coming. He’s having problems not only locking on to his first read, but in setting his protection as well. It just killed the offense yesterday. I counted three occasions where Lee or Humphrey motioned into the backfield. It needed to be happening with much more frequency in the face of that Viking pass rush and that is on Rodgers.

The fact that Rodgers has been sacked 21 times through nine games after Favre was sacked only 19 times all year in 2007 is not a coincidence. As many people had observed through the years - Favre’s ability to get rid of the ball quickly made the offensive line look better than it was. And now that a young, inexperienced quarterback is the one pulling the trigger, we’re seeing much more of this line’s deficiencies. Some commenters yesterday took issue with my bringing up Favre, saying that I had supported the move to Rodgers and that I was somehow in violation of that support by noting how the game yesterday would have been different if Favre was still taking the snaps for the Green and Gold.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Aaron Rodgers is a good quarterback with a chance to be great. But he has some serious growing to do, and as McCarthy said this summer, the only way for him to grow now is to play in real games. He’ll have great moments and he’ll have games like he did yesterday. But he is going to be fine. The frustrating part is watching rookie first year starters like Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan have such success. But of course, what do they both have? A running game. And the Packers had the start of one yesterday until McCarthy inexplicably went away from it.

Rodgers is a work in progress. Yesterday was a tough learning experience. We can only hope he and McCarthy both learned a few lessons…

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• No Veteran QB For the Packers?

Looking at the game again last night, I confirmed something (in my mind, at least) that I had suspected after the Atlanta game.

Bob Sanders can’t design a quality defensive back pressure package. He CAN design a quality linebacker dog/blitz but doesn’t have any quality pass rushers at the linebacking position.

The worst offender is A.J. Hawk. He is simply dreadful when called upon to blitz from the line. If he comes free, he has a distant chance. If he is presented with any kind of resistance, forget it. He simply can not get around or shed any kind of block. He GIVES UP. Let me get this straight - he can’t cover. He can’t rush the quarterback. And we made him the 5th overall pick in the draft? Yikes.

Hawk is not alone, of course. For all the talk of Poppinga’s talent as a pass rusher, after all the puff pieces this summer about how the coaching staff was putting in new packages where Brady could show off his pass rushing prowess, we’ve gotten as much production from Poppinga in rushing the quarterback as we did last year. Namely - zippo. And don’t even get me started on Barnett, who has just forgotten how to play the game.

And then there are the defensive backs. Go back and watch the Atlanta game and then watch the Tennessee game again. Every time Sanders sends Woodson or Williams, a glaring hole is left in the coverage that both Matt Ryan and Kerry Collins easily exploit for big gains. It’s like Sanders just doesn’t take into consideration that offenses can adjust their routes on site. (Note to Bob: Ask your Head Coach about this. His offense does it all the time) I mean, pull up a seat and grab your popcorn when you see a Packer defensive back rushing the quarterback. It’s Amateur Hour!

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• Woodson Should Be Number One

Tough game for the new $20 million man.

He made some good throws and had some good reads, but once again - when the game was on the line, when the game was there for the TAKING - Rodgers could not get it done. Sure the turnovers hurt - these fumbles are becoming alarmingly routine - and the interception was just a result of forgetting to look off the safety in the face of the blitz - but once again it was Rodgers’ inability to move the offense when it counted the most that doomed the Packers yesterday. Add to that the continuing problems in the red-zone and it was just a tough day at the office for the first year starter.

On that note - has anyone else noticed that the Packers have regressed to 2006 in their red-zone offense? I’m not sure what it is, but this team is a mirror image of the Favre-led squad that could move up and down the field between the 20s but almost always bogged down in the red-zone. And it’s no mystery what teams are doing - they are playing coverage, dropping seven to eight guys for Rodgers to navigate his way through. To his credit, he hasn’t thrown many interceptions - however, he hasn’t thrown many touchdowns either (though funnily enough, he did both yesterday) McCarthy must find a way to get Ryan Grant going and get some pressure off of Rodgers when it comes to getting the ball in the end zone, because right now teams know that Grant won’t or can’t beat them inside the 20.

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• What I Don’t Get…

According to Packers.com Aaron Rodgers has signed a new contract extension:

The Green Bay Packers have signed QB Aaron Rodgers to a long-term contract extension through the 2014 season. Ted Thompson, Executive Vice President, General Manager and Director of Football Operations, announced the signing Friday.

“As we talked about in the past, we try to be proactive in our discussions with our current players and we felt like this was an appropriate time to try to come to an agreement with Aaron,” said Thompson. “We feel like this is good for the organization and the players, and we will continue this approach as we move forward.”

Update: Here is Aaron’s interview after announcement.

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• No Veteran QB For the Packers?