I was watching the show this evening and during the audience Q&A a young boy asked a seemingly innocent but inciteful question. "How come you didn't put more pressure on Favre?".

After an audience chuckle McCarthy acknowledged that the kid actually asked a good question.

His response however bothered me. The answer was the we actually tried acouple of pressure packages early and they werent very succesful so we sort of got away from that.

Now you (coaching staff) go thru tireless preparation for your next opponent. And you also spend a week at a minimum during the summer preping for divisional opponents. So, the decision to pressure was intentional and what had been predetermined to be your best plan of action to confuse and defeat your opponent.

So is it alarming that we've devoted so much time to a scheme that after a couple unsuccessful attempts we abandon the game plan? And you guys said the MM doesn't make adjustments. LOL.

I am a MM and TT supporter and often find myself defending them to others. But this comment struck me as a coach not very committed to his game plan or one that lacked the creativity to mix it up a bit. Or maybe worse yet one that won't question Capers or ask him to ratchet it up.

I understand that you dont want to keep with a game plan and get beat because of it (no adjustment) but that brings into a different problem. That being you know this QB better than any other you will play this year and you put in a game plan that got exposed and beat from the opening drive.

This could be my turning point. I sincerely hope not as that means an unsuccessful year for the Pack. I'm not panicing yet, just a bit more skeptical.

MM will never, ever say anything useful in public about game planning.

And why should he?

I gotta believe the situation at safety has more to do with it than anyone is talking about. I think Collins has been playing pretty hurt since he got injured. I haven't seen him do anything since then, and they have to be ultraconservative with the other safety.

One thing I haven't seen anyone mention is that not only were they being ultraconservative with Martin, he actually got benched in the 2nd half because of blowing assignments and Jarrett Bush was the 2nd safety for most of the 2nd half.

He should not. I repeated that fact only because some people seem constantly surprised by it.

I think people take it for granted that it is easy to pressure Favre. He was unloading the ball pretty fast most of the time. Go back and re-watch the game, and count the time between the snap and the throw.

The Vikings game planned to avoid the pressure by getting rid of the ball when pressured.

If you want the pressure to work, you also need to shut down the receiver corps for a few seconds after the snap, or be in a position to jump the throw.

How come MM didn't game plan to neutralize Jared Allen then? Why not do the same thing Minny was doing?

I understand pressuring the opposing QB can be tough sometimes but that play when Favre stood in the pocket and had time to have some friends over for a barbecue, made me want to puke! How sweet would it be to see Aaron with that kind of time? Ted should be embarrassed for having five years and putting put this O-line together.

Funny thing about that O-Line comment and TT having 5yrs to get it right. I always see people blame TT and very seldom see anyone criticize Campen. Why is that?

Last year there was almost a lynch mob assembled to run Bob Sanders out of town as the defense faltered. Why the outrage at a def coach last year and rarely a breath wasted on Campen. I do believe we have some talent on the Oline. Cliffy is old but can hold his own for another year so when he gets back that excuse will be gone. Colledge IMO will be a good LG for 10yrs. I like Spitz @ center. Sitton, jury still out. And Barbre stinks today but with his athletic ability I like what the future might hold.

So, to me, it comes down to poor coaching. I think TT delivered the players to do the job. TJ Lang gives me hope as well.

I think that is a great question! I would have. To an extent he did though. On our opening drive, Rodgers did get the ball out fast, pretty much right up to the sack-fumble, when he didn't dump the ball to Grant. Again, he didn't get hit until he had held the ball about 3 seconds.

I think dumping the ball out quick and throwing screens until the game plan changes to less aggressive presure sets up the situation where he can stand there forever, especially if you can throw in a few good runs.

Strikes me that the way to beat Favre is to jam the receivers before they get off the line so the quick release isn't there, and combine that with the blitz. I just don't know if we have the coverage talent after woodson and harris to be effective at smothering their receivers for 3 or 4 seconds.

Please go through ALL my posts on this site. I have hammered Campen several times and think he should have been gone with the big purge this last off-season. Every year it takes this OL several games to 'hit its stride'. Well, waiting to 'hit its stride' is going to get Aaron Rodgers killed this year! This is totally unacceptable. No sir...I agree with you 100%. Campen needs to be replaced yesterday!

I agree with your analysis. Campen and Capers have both escaped major criticism, while the long knives are already being sharpened for MM. However, that said, what really bothers me is that after the Packers OL (in particualr) has another bad game, we are told "That will be corrected" or "That will be addressed." After the Bears game, it was "poor pad level". Wait- the team had a long time to get the OL ready to play, including four exhibition games. Suddenly, after the Bears game, someone started thinking about "pad level"? Why do the Packers seem to constantly be in a "we're going to fix that" mode? Why can't problems be detected in practice, corrected, and then repeated with the players until they are automatically using the right technique?

The answer, to me, lies with the coaches. Last year, the defense was turned over. Perhaps its time for a similar scrutiny of the offensive coaches.

And I think it is the talent these coaches have to work with. Who really thought Colledge was going to stop Jared Allen? Or anybody else on our line? None of those guys could really start anywhere else in the NFL.

Both sides of the ball have glaring weaknesses that no coach, no matter how good, can cover up.

While I like Capers and he is an upgrade at the DC position... he is not a miracle worker.

Next year we turn the offense over. Last year the defense. 5 years into Thompson's regime. I know it's not popular to criticize him here, but c'mon look at what we just said.

So does that mean MM? He calls the offensive plays?

I don't know anymore. I'm not ready for more rebuilding. "The Pack is Devine", "A Fresh start with Bart". Do any of us have the answers? No. My regional boss came in this week and gave a speech saying, I don't care about exuses, I want results. We have this quarter to improve, or we start with a clean slate from manager to custodian. And frankly, I understand. Rebuilding is for losers, and I don't consider The Pack to be that kind of orginization.

I was thinking that myself as I watched the game. I will defer to someone who can address the following, but I thought Capers had said during the preseason that he would mix in man-press schemes with zone? I don't know if he's done much of that to date?

We have two of the best man-to-man press corners in the league going up against the Vike's smaller-type speedsters. They could jam and disrupt right off the line (depending on how the refs want to interpret that 5-yard rule ). Wouldn't that be a good counter against getting the ball out quickly on a blitz? I suppose the staff was leary of Brett's excellent ability to throw the slant, but that's why you drop linemen to clog those throwing lanes. At least TRY it.

I heard TT wanted to save money and they we just going to show reruns of last years shows.
Kimda like Jerry McCarthy as the Beaver.

I have been losing faith in MM for quite some time. Although, my faith was rekindled during the pre-season, it turns out it was short-lived. I still have hope for TT. But in truth, my hope for him is beginning to become a teenie bit less secure. However, the TT is talk for another time.

As for MM, the comment he made to the boy's question does seem to be worrisome indeed. The fact you would so quickly abandon plans to stop your opposition's QB and not have a backup plan?? hmmm...

Also, to let the other team beat, the way they beat you, with all that was riding on this game...division lead, seasonal momentum, organizational and personal pride and "making a statement" was almost inexcusable. Losing a game is bad. But losing bad is terrible. The Packers lost badly vs the Vikes because they played worse. OL problems or not, the team played inconsistent again. Untimely errors such as penalties, bad routes, missed tackles, poor individual efforts and dropped passes and a bad challenge.

If I was MM, I would have demanded Dom Capers devise a scheme to stop the Vikings QB or at least to pressure and punish him more than anyone else. Let Adrian Peterson beat the Packers, if he could. But for what now? The Vikes have gained even more confidence than they did at the season's start. Their QB is king of the mountain. They have a 2 game lead over the Packers. And their schedule is more favorable down the stretch.

If last year's season was any indicator for this year, I think the Packers are in a precarious position. The team seems have to lost it edge at home. The upcoming game vs the Lions should be a no-brainer win for the Packers. But I am not so sure. Why? Because nothing MM has done last year and this year tells me he has or will fix the same old problems that have routinely plagued the Packers under MM. There is another reason too. Some of the players are openly questioning the leadership and coaching on this team. Not good.

That's just it. if Petersen beats you it is expected and almost understandable. But the one guy you would think we would have an added incentive to stop is Favre. We know him better than any other QB and it is unacceptable and inexcuseable to go in with the plan being to allow him time in the pocket against a zone defense.

I believe we outsmarted ourselves by banking on Brett being too jacked up and making poor throws. The plan was for us to stop AP and Brett to stop himself apparently. But what our gameplan managed to do was to give the entire Vikings team a boost of confidence that can go a loooong way to making a team a cohesive unit. The 49er game told them that no game is out of reach and the Packer game showed the Brett can dominate an entire game. That lets the defense play looser and more aggressive. I think we did much more than lose a game.

Time to move on I know, but the way we lost is still eating at me. The game against the Ravens may tell exactly how big of a monster we helped create. GO RAVENS.

When you lose the players, because they do not buy into what you are doing it's over for the coach. Depends if they win the games they should or lose them. If they get beat by the Lions or the Browns MMs chances of making it to seasons end are slim. You can not allow a bad coach to continue to poison a team.

The answer lies in the "zone blocking scheme" that we can't practice against our own players in fear of injuring them, yet is deemed "safe" for gametime. The ZBS should be banned IMO.