Could Cincy loss be functional?

Maybe, just maybe, the loss to Cincy on Sunday could help propel this Packers’ team toward the kind of great season some of us have been guessing they will have. Maybe. Just judging from the reaction to the loss over the course of this past week, I’d be surprised if this team came out flat Sunday.

Part of the reason I’m pulling this annoying optimistic stuff is because of the reaction from the coaches/team to this loss. Everyone is mad. I’m not quite sure it made much sense but McCarthy’s defensive rant at his press conference yesterday indicated to me that he is definitely ticked – and a few players have indicated MM has not been happy all week. That’s as it should be. He wants to win and these guys want to win.

Now, I’m not going to go overboard here into the denial zone, this team does have problems – namely: our franchise QB being vulnerable to injury because of horrendous tackle play in particular, the safety situation, the D-line taking the week off last week, obviously the O-Line, linebackers not doing much and the playcalling – Joshy is absolutely right, when you abandon the run (70% passes last week), it’s very easy for a defense to anticipate what’s coming. But following is some positive spin I’m working hard on believing until it’s proven otherwise:

• Last week, while it was a bad loss because of poor execution, we lost to a team that will likely surprise people this year – a team with some high level talent. Part of our poor play was due to Cincy executing at a high level. Yes, I thought we’d win in a blowout, but I too learned that Cincy isn’t terrible.
• While I have lots of concerns about Darren Colledge as a LG much less the LT (and, by the way, I believe the back-up LT should be playing LT this week, not the starting LG), the fact is Chad Clifton gave up 2 of those sacks last week and has been in serious decline for 3 years now. I’m not sure he should be starting anyway.
• While I’m concerned re dropping Rouse now just because he knew the system and was frankly, another body at safety – I agree with Ace and others that he wasn’t that great and we probably won’t miss his contributions much. (Ron L reporting he’s been picked up already by the Giants).
• On a related note, Matt Giordano and Derek Martin may very well fit the system much better than Rouse and hopefully, one of them will fit it better than Bigby – who hasn’t been good since 2007.
• The Cincy loss will teach these guys that they can’t take games off and that if a perceived weaker opponent is on the schedule, then they need to destroy them, and not take anyone lightly. I think we’ll see that this week.
• There is talk of accountability in the locker room right now. I like that. While I’ll certainly wait to see if the talk is backed up by better play, I think it’s important that players and coaches own up to their errors.
• If the WR dropping stops which I fully anticipate it will, we might pick up several more first downs which would in turn open the playbook back up for MM.

Packers 37, Rams 20.