Rushin\' Attack!
By PackerAaron
No, this isn't a post about the Packers running game, and no, it's not a post on one of the greatest coin-ops ever. No, the title refers to the attack on Twitter yesterday that kept most of the updates from the regular Packer beat reporters from getting through. This made following practice a wee bit tough. (Kudos, btw, to Tom Pelissero who still found a way to keep his blog updated as best he could)
I just wanted to follow up on an exchange I had with Cheesehead TV super-fan Andrew In Atlanta during our live blog of last night's practice. With said updates coming from the beat guys fast and furious, I've started to see a lot of fans starting to make sweeping proclamations about this or that player, the validity of the training staff, the problems the team is having in any number of areas, etc.
I'm here to say: Relax. And try to focus on the positive.
While the updates are nice, they are only snapshots, not only incomplete but without any context whatsoever. No good word from camp seems to come across the blog before some Debbie Downer has to fret about what it means for the player or side they were going against.
An interpretation of what I'm talking about:
Greg Jennings with a long catch against Al Harris
Oh God, see? I keep telling everyone, Al Harris is horrible in zone!
Ryan Pickett splits a double team and drops Wynn in the backfield
Our O-line sucks!
Ruvell Martin drops to the ground/Matthews drops out with a hammy
I thought we got rid of the strength and conditioning coach to stop all the injuries!
That last one is the most absurd.
Injuries happen folks. It's football, it's training camp and guys are going to get hurt.
As for the rest, I just hate how Packer fans seem to jump immediately to the negative. And it really got me thinking about Greg Bedard's observation in a chat he had with readers last year, about Wisconsin sports fans in general and their incredibly pessimistic view of their teams, no matter how good they are. (Sorry, I don't have the time here at work to look for it, but you can search his chats and find it if you're interested...)
It's easy to see a 140 character missive and get an image in your head. But it's impossible to know the ins and the outs of what is going on in practice. We know when they're running team drills, one on ones, and passing and line drills, but that's about it. We don't know what the offensive coaches are trying to accomplish, we don't know what the defensive coaches are trying to accomplish, and these objectives change with each segment of practice. We just don't know and have no way of knowing - so why not ENJOY what you're reading people? There will be plenty of time once the games start for real, when everyone's objective is crystal clear, to second guess, complain, nit pick, fret, etc. Why not take this time to revel in the positive? To enjoy the fact that our long national nightmare, ie baseball season, is almost over?
Now, I'm the first to admit that, yes, I'm as guilty as anyone of the above on occasion. It's natural from time to time and I completely understand the angst, believe me. I was just overwhelmed the last couple practices with some of negativity, and I wanted to try and appeal to fans to try looking at things a different way, if even just for a few weeks. Again, once the games start, we'll all have most of the hard evidence in front of us, ie broadcast film, to work off of.
Until then, just remember that we are far removed from the process. Why not enjoy it?
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Comments (24)
August 07, 2009 at 10:10 am
Rushin attack / Russian Attack - Awesome!
August 07, 2009 at 10:37 am
You can't polish crap, Aaron. The team is going to suck and you know it. Al Harris can't play zone. Hawk and Harrell are busts. The switch to the 3-4 is just going to confuse our own defense, so they'll be worse than last year. Since the offense isn't playing against a 4-3 in training camp, they're going to forget how to play a 4-3 in games. Driver's too old and Grant has been horribly inconsistent. Barnett won't be able to come back strong enough from his injury, and our hyper aggressive linebackers (Poppinga and Bishop) are going to draw too many stupid penalties. Our O-line just sucks and we can't be sure how our safeties are going to perform after Bigby's injury and Collins skipping minicamps. Finley could be good if he'd just shut up and play.
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At least we have Charles Woodson and a decent receiving corps, 'cause Lord knows everything else is going to go wrong.
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(If I missed anything, let me know.)
;)
August 07, 2009 at 10:48 am
Slocum has to use a bull horn. I thought we were going to get a ST guy with strong vocal chords. Now he won't be able to talk over the Lambeau crowd on game day and ST will stink
August 07, 2009 at 11:30 am
Fantastic post ! Big thumbs up !
August 07, 2009 at 11:40 am
I was just about to post this exact thing (though not nearly as well written) in response to ron in the pickett article...some of us spend a rediculous amount of time trying to find out as much as we can about the packers but to think we ''know better'' than the dozens of professional coaches and scouts who spend thousands of hours a week studying much better information then we can get our hands on and interacting with the actual players because we see a couple tweets from beat writers during a practice is both ignorant and arrogant. We all do it at some point and I'm no exception but you really do have to ''stop and think''... hey these guys know a lot more than me and if there's anyway of improving the team as a whole, a specific positiion, or an individual they are going to do everything they can to make that happen.
August 07, 2009 at 11:51 am
We'll see soon enough won't we? I'll be the first to admitt my errors. Join me?
August 07, 2009 at 11:58 am
speaking of overreactions to tweets...has anyone seen BJ Raji's posts lately?
-"next fan message lmao... get a life and mine wont be so important to u"
-"ready when they are"
That's not a good way to start out. I don't know what some dude said to you, but fans pay your salary bud. Then again, Young players tend to flap their mouths a little more. It only a mild concern to me now. I just hope he gets better advice when he's on the team.
August 07, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Bulletin: Tory Humphreys out with a broken arm. Looks like Finley and Lee at least for the begining of the season.
August 07, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I agree, people need to stop overreacting to things that happen in camp because we don't have all the information and we aren't well placed to be making decisions based off the slivers of circumstantial information that come out of camp.
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Poppinga needs to be released because he's destroying our team, by the way.
PackerAaron
August 07, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Asshalo - I actually agree w/Raji on both of those points.
PackerAaron
August 07, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Shootz - that wasn't what I said re:Poppinga, not by a long shot. I knew someone would bring that post up in response to the above. My call for Poppinga to be cut stems from a series of events over a much longer timeline than just one incident in camp.
August 07, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Packer fans aren't negative. Just look at their feelings about Capers, who is going to turn the defense around and bring the Pack back to 2007 strength. The problem is, Capers didn't exactly burn up the league in Texas or Miami. Sure those were tough jobs, but his mere presence didn't make those teams into super bowl winners. Packer fans have invested their hopes in Capers. My point is not that that is irrational (even if it is), but that they have a lot of hope and positive feelings about the team.
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Lest we forget, the kicking game truly sucks. The punting is awful no matter who does it and Crosby has accuracy problems -- even on kickoffs!
PackerAaron
August 07, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I repeat - after Bob Sanders, anything Capers does with this defense will seem like a minor miracle.
August 07, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Dude, that account is 99% likely to be fake, just like the leroy butler one.
PackerAaron
August 07, 2009 at 01:20 pm
I though the Butler one was false as well until it correctly predicted his appearance at practice the other day, looooong before anyone would have known Butler was going to be there.
August 07, 2009 at 03:21 pm
I was about to comment on the negativity in the coverage by the media and bloggers. Its easy to pick out screw ups in a practice. Not so easy for an observer from a distance with limited background in the sport to see the positives or the little things done right. Oh its 420, time for my "joint therapy"
August 07, 2009 at 04:49 pm
I loved that video game! I wonder if there is an online version of it....???
August 07, 2009 at 04:51 pm
Crap.....there goes the weekend:
http://nintendo8.com/game/669/rush'n_attack/
August 07, 2009 at 05:52 pm
Aaron, you don't want to hear more from that one poster about how the Packers (and any other team for that matter) don't have a proper strain/sprain medical staff and will fail until they do?
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I personally loved it...got even better after the 10th time.
August 07, 2009 at 06:43 pm
Hey Aaron we have nicknamed Bob Sanders Mr.Vanilla over at the HQ. He's idea of a radical defensive call was corner blitz once every other game !
August 07, 2009 at 07:16 pm
Our temporary angst is because we want our team to be perfect(even though we are not) and when even the slightest thing goes wrong(as we see it) we panic. We want to stamp our feet and look for someone to blame.
Now I'm not sure how good Capers is, but if our team last year came so close to winning those 7 games--with a completely predictable defense, how much better will we do with a D that is unpredictable? I think we'll be very pleasently surprised.
August 07, 2009 at 07:45 pm
I guess I'm in the minority. As I am year in and year out, probably, overly OPTIMISTIC about the Pack. Like this year, if our D and ST's get in the upper half of the league and our O slightly improves... WHY NOT US? And I'm dead serious, is that overly optimistic? If so, I wouldn't have it any other way. Hell, THIS is the time to be optimistic, three months from now we could be staring at a 3-5 record (never know), So yeah everyone say it with me... GO PACK GO... GO PACK GO....
GBP 4 LIFE
August 08, 2009 at 12:24 am
I noticed from the Packers newsletter that Nelson is not returning kicks. I thought he did well last year in preseason...
August 09, 2009 at 06:52 pm
"I guess I’m in the minority. As I am year in and year out, probably, overly OPTIMISTIC about the Pack."
I've had good feelings about pretty much every season. I think it's a personal fault, though. I tend to believe that those who are in charge tend to know what they're doing. Most of the time, I'm right. Sometimes I'm not. But I still tend to believe it unflaggingly.