November 13, 2008
Five questions with MJ Kasprzak
The Bears head north to Green Bay in a clash of division rivals on Sunday, and MJ Kasprzak of The Frozen Tundra and I had a five-question exchange about our respective team's opponents. My questions with his answers are below, and his questions with my answers are available here.
1. The obvious one here . . . what is your take on the Brett Favre saga, and how has his absence affected the team's performance this year? How do you feel it will affect the team's performance in the future?
Oh man, I have talked about this ad nauseum. I need to do like celebrities and have certain questions off-limits before I agree to interviews! The summarized version is that I don't think our record would be any different with Brett at the helm, since our problems have been on defense, and I think that by next year we will already be better off with an improving Aaron Rodgers sticking to the gameplan than an uncontrollable and declining Brett Favre. If you want more detail than that, the following links provide my view most fully:
2. The Packers have already surrendered more sacks in 2008 (21) than in 2007 (19). What has lead to the substantial increase in sacks and what can Green Bay do to shore up the pass blocking?
For one thing, Rodgers does have a tendency to hold onto the ball too long. We also have had a lot of injuries on offense, and for the first three games did not have the offensive line intact, plus have had a couple missed games since then, including our best lineman, Chad Clifton, for much of the Tampa Bay game. The receiving corps has also been missing a player or two all season, keeping us from going to our five-wideout set that opens up quick passes and keeping key receivers from getting open, leading to coverage sacks. Finally, our running game stinks this year--we have had only one truly good performance, against the league's worst run defense, Indianapolis.
3. The Bears have been lit up by has-beens and never-was' like Brian Griese, Matt Ryan, Dan Orlovsky, Gus Frerotte and Kerry Collins. Are the Packers even going to bother to run the ball on Sunday or are they just gonna let Rodgers carpet bomb Chicago's secondary and force them to defend the pass?
I love the angst in that, and to quote our last decent president, "I feel your pain." To answer you question, I hope so. Not running the ball is one of the things getting Rodgers killed. But I am okay with us just running enough to keep you honest.
4. Conversely, Green Bay's run defense is almost as bad as Chicago's pass defense. Matt Forte is fourth in the NFL in total yards from scrimmage and is looking like the real deal in the backfield for the Bears. How is Green Bay going to slow Forte down?
Um, almost as bad? You're kidding, right? Our run defense is so bad, you could put Rashan Salaam in there right now and he'd get 100 yards. And that was before we lost Nick Barnett. We might hold up for most of the first half and then a good part of the third quarter (after the halftime break), but after that, if we don't have a lead that forces you to abandon the run, we'll get tired. At that point our only hope for slowing him down is to have him trip over the lineman that pancakes our defensive player.
5. The Packers are 4-5 after finishing 13-3 and going to the NFC Championship game last year, and being picked to be one of the top teams in the NFC this year. Is Green Bay better than their record indicates, was 2007 a year of overachieving, or are there other factors at play contributing to what I would imagine is a disappointing season for the Packers?
I'll take door number three, Monty. As I mentioned above, injuries have killed us. We have now lost two key run stuffers (Cullen Jenkins and Barnett) to injury and Ted Thompson inexplicably traded our best defensive tackle to Cleveland. We had three safeties hurt at one point, and I'm not even counting Al Harris, since Will Blackmon filled in nicely while he was out. We've had more than our share of injuries on offense, too: at wide receiver alone, Greg Jennings missed time, James Jones has missed almost the entire season, and Ruvell Martin missed multiple games. Ryan Grant has struggled with a hamstring problem, there were the offensive line problems I mentioned...it goes on. When you have this many injuries, it is not just bad luck; if Rock Gullickson, the strength and conditioning coach, still has a job in March next year, it will be the most senseless failure to fire someone since, well, Matt Millen the last six years.
Discussion
1 Comment on "Five questions with MJ Kasprzak"
#1
Posted by MJ Kasprzak, November 14, 2008 2:19 AM
This guy's almost as much of a blowhard as you are, Ryan!
BTW, when I just read it, it seemed I was saying Al Harris was a safety--he is, of course, a corner, but my point is I didn't even get into his injury on our D because I really don't think it's damaged us that much. Plus, he's back.
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