Head coach Mike McCarthy has not done his young quarterback any favors by refusing to run the ball in either of the first two preseason games. I always thought the best way to break in a young QB was to have a strong running game. We don’t know if the Packers have that because they haven’t even tried to run the game yet this year. Shades of 2007.
The play calling against San Francisco was really strange. Four running plays called out of the first 25 plays in the game. Against a blitz-happy team no less. I always thought the best way to slow the blitz was to hit a few running plays or a few screens. The Packers tried one screen and it went for 20 yards. Go figure.
Maybe McCarthy is so concerned with the failings of the offense line to find cohesiveness that he doesn’t have confidence in some of the plays he wants to call. Whatever the case, I know it is preseason, but the play calling has certainly been suspect. I mean, don’t you have to get the running game ready for the opener as well?
Another game did nothing to change my mind that the Packers need a veteran backup at QB in case Aaron Rodgers gets hurt. Chris Simms of Tampa Bay will likely be traded but I can’t see Ted Thompson getting into a bidding war for him. Culpepper is still out there and will be considerably cheaper now than he was in April. It has to be disappointing to McCarthy that neither Brian Brohm nor Matt Flynn made any positive strides in their second games. They might both be headed for the practice squad.
I’m looking forward to the return of Greg Jennings and Ryan Grant, both hopefully will be back Friday night at Denver. Maybe with Grant back McCarthy will actually try to run the ball. Then again, maybe this zone blocking scheme still isn’t working.
More to come…