Swine flu celebrity

Since coming down with H1N1 a few weeks ago, something unexpected has happened: I’ve become a swine flu celebrity. Due to the rampant news coverage and the fear the media has put into the minds of all when it comes to H1N1, I have the full attention of absolutely everyone when the subject comes up. I am the total authority – over the CDC website, over doctors, news programs, even over celebrity MDs Dr. Oz and Dr. Gupta. I lived it.

When I walk into a room, those in the room will awkwardly steer the conversation to the topic of illness or specifically swine flu. Then, the collective attention turns to me. “Andy, are you feeling OK finally?” they might ask. It is a strangely powerful feeling – I feel like I could say or do anything. The temptation to make up symptoms, embellish the suffering or otherwise just be the purveyor of misinformation sometimes becomes as strong as the temptation to yell in church during the middle of a sermon.

You know how people look at you without diverting their glance whatsoever – totally focused attention hanging on your every word? How people almost can’t listen to you enough? Well that is what it’s like. I tell stories of what it was like to have swine flu. I tell them about what my doctor said and how some of what he said was slightly different than what the CDC’s website says (this draws significant interest). I tell them about how Tamiflu made me feel WORSE than swine flu itself – justifiably spreading the fear of Tamiflu. When I speak people look at me like how they might look at a car wreck – they don’t seem to want to look at me/have any close contact with me whatsoever, but at the same time, they can’t look a way. I can’t remember holding court as often as I have since coming down with swine flu.

So, I was enjoying this newfound celebrity until the other day when I was talking to a friendly coworker who was a bit older. I had what I now consider to be a rookie celebrity moment because I pushed my assumed license to say anything too far. I was trying to describe what the swine flu headaches were like and my talk became a bit too free-flowing. I said that really, the headaches were most like “a delayed hangover headache, you know the kind that catches up with you at some point the next afternoon”. Younger friends seemed to find this description useful, but when I saw her reaction, I knew right away I had created a lead balloon moment. I forgot that I worked in an environment where counselors evaluate substance abuse (among other things) on a daily basis and that sometimes even the mention of drinking a beer in one’s past can draw looks (nice work environment, I know). So our conversation died at that point and I felt a bit like a real celebrity who just found out that it was the National Enquirer he just opened up to, not a “fan”. It’s interesting that my swine flu stories have been in less demand these last few days.

 

McCarthy on Tampa

Mike McCarthy told reporters today that special teams coach Shawn Slocum “has done a good job” and that the problems on the offensive line are “correctable.”

He said a bunch of other things, too. But I’m not sure it’s worth discussing them.

Because Mike McCarthy told reporters today that special teams coach Shawn Slocum “has done a good job” and that the problems on the offensive line are “correctable.”

What more can I say?

UPDATE: PFT’s Gregg Rosenthal, far less prone to hysteria than PFT’s Mike Florio, mocks McCarthy in a post this afternoon.  “McCarthy is either delusional or not doing a good job fixing the correctable mistakes, which certainly include Rodgers’ penchant for holding the ball too long.”  It’s never a good sign when your analysis from your head coach becomes a punch line.

Game thoughts

• Very simply, this Packer team isn’t nearly as good as I thought they’d be. Not even close.
• Our defense looked surprisingly vulnerable late in the game. I can’t totally discount the plays Josh Freeman made, he looked good. But our defense was obviously just over-matched and that’s pathetic against a team with a rookie QB that hasn’t done crap on offense all year.
• Mike McCarthy’s run/pass mix was again just way off, especially in the first half. We did score points yes, and there were some quality pass plays no doubt. But a better run/pass mix would have buried TB early on – and importantly, kept the ball in our hands even more.
• Special teams continues to be a weakness. Punting, coverage, even our return game. Just weak – yet we kept 3 FBs on the roster to help this situation out. Waste of roster space if we’re going to suck anyway.
• Jeremy Kapinos hit some bad punts. Even taking into account a stiff wind, he is just not an asset to this team right now.
• Our secondary, except Charles Woodson, looks bad. We have been lit up at critical times by a number of different QBs this year.
• Aaron Kampman is slow – very slow. This is yet another team that took advantage of Kampman in space. He is out of place as an OLB and the experiment should end now. Put a better, smaller athlete out there like Desmond Bishop and maybe, move Kampman to a DE position. Or, just go back to a 4-3 – what we’re doing is not working at critical moments in the game. Don’t be deceived by looking at our overall defensive stast because they likely won’t do justice to the problems this defense has had at critical moments.
• For years, I made fun of Eli Manning for what I called his “loser face”. He looked like the kind of guy who was most natural facially after a loss. Well, I was proven wrong by Eli – big-time. But I am beginning to worry that this Packers team, starting with the head coach, has somewhat of a collective loser-face like look on the sidelines. These guys should be furious after this loss. I didn’t see that. I want to see anger and frustration after this loss. And I want changes.
• This is a critical moment in our season. It is the halfway point. We have not played well and are only 4-4 because of the incredibly weak schedule we’ve played. How we respond here will say a lot. Changes have to take place. Our intensity level, our style of play, our execution, our penalty problem, our O-line, our LBs, our secondary, our special teams, Rodgers’ pocket awareness, playcalling – all of these things need to change and it starts with the coach. While MM isn’t responsible directly for the defense or the special teams, he is the head coach and is responsible for the coaches who are coaching for him. He has license to overrule any coach at any time. So this is on him. You’re on notice Mike McCarthy.

Adjusting Expectations, 2009 Edition

It’s a blog, so I can be self-referential, right? Good.

Last year, after the Packers lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I wrote a
post entitled “Adjusting Expectations.” Basically, I took a wide angle look at the Packers and concluded that they weren’t going to meet the high expectations many of us had for them before the season. I was scolded by other Packer bloggers for doing this. Our friend Aaron at Cheesehead.tv said I should know better. Even Brother Andy chastised me for “jumping ship.”

But I wasn’t jumping ship, I was just making some fairly obvious — if painful — observations.

And here we are again. The Packers lost to a Tampa team that earlier this year put up 86 yards on offense. They hadn’t won a game. They were ranked 28th on defense. They had 11 sacks. They were ranked 28th on offense. They were 28th in points scored — a total of 96 points.

Today, the Bucs had 38 points. They had 6 sacks. Their offense moved the ball easily. Their defense was stingy.

And the Packers flat-out sucked.

For the most part, I’ve been a defender of Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson. No longer. McCarthy’s playcalling sucks. Yes, the players have to execute. That’s the smart-guy way of defending bad playcalling. It’s not convincing.

Our offensive line is atrocious. It was atrocious last year. It’s on Ted Thompson that it still sucks.

The irony is that the conventional wisdom held that Thompson and McCarthy jeopardized their futures in Green Bay because they refused to put up with Brett Favre’s antics. And it turns out that their decision there looks good. Yes, Favre has played well. But Rodgers is a future star. Amazing to me that they wouldn’t come up with an offensive line to protect him.

But the Packers right now are a bad team that sometimes plays good defense. But they are a bad team.

It is the job of the head coach to prepare teams to play. McCarthy has failed in that task repeatedly. And he failed this week.

Jermichael Finley didn’t play against Tampa. But earlier this week he wrote this on “twitter.”

“Where my pack fans that are traveling with us to Tampa. We need this game not a big one but we need it.”

Not a big one?

Ask Mike McCarthy in January if this was a big game. It may be one of the major reasons he find himself among the ranks of the unemployed. Ted Thompson, too.

Mike McCarthy may not see 2010 as Packer coach

I agree with reader Bucky – this loss can be pinned largely on McCarthy. I was a McCarthy supporter after 2007 because the team played well, but he also seemed to be creative and had a nice command. Since that time, his sense of game flow has sucked and his players continue to make more mistakes than just about any group of players in the league. And even if the personnel on the o-line continues to be weak (which they are), we’re not getting anything out of these guys in pass protection. Not sure how James Campen stays employed. It’s not just the sacks, it’s the number of times Rodgers is flushed out of the pocket too. To be fair, I think Rodgers was also quite bad today – his pocket awareness is not good. While the line continues to suck, Rodgers owns some of this too. But the special teams was also very bad today – and so was the defense. Shockingly bad defense. Dom Capers isn’t earning his paycheck and the defensive players simply aren’t playing well. And don’t just look at the stats from this game – the defense was just non-existent when we most needed them.

I’m trying not to overreact, but it’s really hard. This team isn’t good and we are only .500 because we’ve played a super easy schedule. McCarthy better turn this around fast or he may not be here next year.

Colledge sucks

That one was on Colledge. Weak play – just got pushed over.

Huge break, lucky false start penalty

Why punt this?

We suck. We give it back to an offense we can’t stop. Yes, at this point in our team’s pathetic existence, we had a better chance of completing a 4th and 16. We suck.

Colledge is an idiot

Obvious hold there. Idiot.

The Packers suck

Nice team. Nice freaking team. We are getting absolutely schooled by a rookie QB.

It’s up to Aaron Rodgers now. Let’s see what he can do. Let’s see if he can shed the “can’t finish games” label. Come on. This is ridiculous. We need Rodgers desperately right now.