Mike McCarthy will be coaching for his job in Week 8 when the Packers travel to Los Angeles to face the best team in football. And again in Week 9 when Green Bay heads back on the road to face the Patriots. This team doesn’t have to win those games — in fact Womens Tramon Williams Jersey , they shouldn’t be expected to — but they can’t have their pants pulled down ... again. The 2018 season sits cantilevered on a precipice for McCarthy and Co. at 1265 Lombardi Ave. We’ve seen them shake off slow starts to seasons in the past, namely in 2010 and 2014, the two best recent vintages of the NFL’s most storied franchise. If this team falls however, and they’re more in danger of slipping than at any time in the McCarthy era, the Packers could be looking for a head coach this offseason. And unfortunately for the team, the coaches, and its fans, the ‘18 Packers are beginning to look eerily similar to the 2015 team. McCarthy survived that season. He won’t survive a repeat. Coming off the heartbreaking conclusion to the 2014 season, the Packers made wholesale changes to the secondary through the draft but did little else to boost them closer to contention. A Jordy Nelson torn ACL should never have doomed this offense, but it did. Injuries to Davante Adams and Randall Cobb further cut into the playmaking talent on Green Bay’s team, but Mike McCarthy’s decision to give up playcalling went about as well as Mason Crosby’s Week 5 and the offense sputtered all season. As the talent ebbed, McCarthy showed an inability to mitigate the issues with scheme. Rodgers play, coming off his second MVP season, likewise waned and they never consistently found a rhythm. They played just well enough to get into the playoffs, but lost a Week 17 for the division against Teddy Bridgewater and the Vikings. Rodgers' magic nearly led the Packers to the NFC Championship once again, but the defense collapsed in overtime against the Cardinals and Green Bay’s trying season came to a merciful conclusion. The seams showed on an offense lacking imagination. Rodgers became jumpy in the pocket, not trusting his protection or his receivers — none of whom were ever open. Coming off a painfully conservative NFC Championship Game against Seattle, McCarthy failed to push this offense forward. Excuses were ready-made. No Nelson. Adams wasn’t ready. Lacy had fallen woefully out of shape. The rookie cornerbacks just weren’t quite ready for primetime.When the team comes back healthy, they’ll be fine. And they still have Aaron Rodgers. Fast forward to Week 11 of the ‘16 season with the Packers sitting in the locker room after getting blown out against Washington. With their record 4-6, Rodgers uttered a phrase that will become canonical in Packers history and just might have saved McCarthy’s job. But Rodgers hasn’t forgotten how they got to the point of needing to Run the Table鈩? For most of the early parts of ‘16, the Packers offense didn’t look markedly better. Injuries at running back forced Green Bay to move Ty Montgomery from receiver, but he was never deployed in the kind of devastating way one might expect Josh McDaniels or Sean McVay would. Despite a healthy Nelson and a maturing Adams, the Packers scored 30 points just twice through 13 weeks of the season, and won just one such game.Rodgers bailed out a stale offense in 2016. The defense bailed it out in 2015. At some point, the Packers have to decide if they’re better off just leaving McCarthy in bad offense jail. Putting up nearly 1,000 total yards of offense the last two weeks for the Packers resulted in just 55 total points. A red zone offense that had been automatic in 2017 looks flaccid in 2018. There’s no accounting for how McCarthy has utilized Aaron Jones (or not) in this offense Womens Jimmy Graham Jersey , or the predictable playcalling. Oddly, the scheme has been pretty good. There are more combination routes, fewer iso routes, and more favorable matchups, but it’s clear Rodgers doesn’t trust it. Doesn’t trust McCarthy. It’s the only explanation for him consistently missing open receivers, failing to work progressions, and preferring instead to play backyard football. On a fourth down against the Bills, the Packers ran a pick play for Davante Adams to the left side of the formation and Adams broke wide open. It would have been an easy pitch-and-catch first down. Instead, Rodgers looked to rookie Marqueze Valdes-Scantling and nearly threw a pick-six. The play was designed to go to Adams, but Rodgers didn’t even look there. He has to take some of the blame for his own poor play, but go back and watch Rodgers early in his career. There are fewer second-reaction plays and more on-time throws. He played in rhythm and on time because McCarthy’s offense fit the incredible set of skill players the Packers could put on the week every week. They don’t have that advantage anymore. The Bears don’t have better skill personnel than the Packers, but Matt Nagy made Mitch Trubisky look like Peyton Manning against the Bucs last week (though in fairness, the Bucs helped). It’s not hard to look around the league at offenses churning out huge plays with less talent than Green Bay possesses, especially at quarterback. There are no more excuses for McCarthy and this offense. The blueprint is out there. Just flat out steal plays if that’s what it takes. Everyone else is already doing it. Some better health and better play from Rodgers could cure what ails this offense, but at what point does Mark Murphy look at this team and believe it’s better to treat the root cause of the problems rather than the symptoms? If Mike McCarthy is a highly successful football coach, this is where he has to show it. Be willing to change, show an ability to evolve, or simply go quietly into that good night because if he doesn’t do the former, he will almost certainly do the latter. Over a two week span, Acme Packing Company takes a look at each position group on the Green Bay Packers and provides grades and insight on how they performed in the 2018 season. Tuesday’s analysis looks at the outside linebacker group.The Packers opened the season with two former Pro Bowlers at the outside linebacker position, as Nick Perry and Clay Matthews were the two highest paid defensive players on the roster. At the end of the day, it was Kyler Fackrell who put up the best numbers over the course of the season, but other younger players did not see much playing time and the veterans did not play up to their usual abilities.It was not a strong showing from the group as a whole, and it hurt the pass defense all season.StartersClay Matthews2018 Stats: 29 solo tackles, 7 TFL, 3.5 sacks Authentic Randall Cobb Jersey , 1 FFThis was just the third time that Matthews has started all 16 games in a season.Despite the relative health, he managed to have his worst statistical season.This was the first time he had single-digit tackles for loss in a season with 16 starts.Yes, he had one or two sacks taken away on frustrating penalties, but he was less of a pass rushing force.Matthews was slower and was not able to bend the corner on his pass rush.He still believed greatly in his athleticism and tried to run around blocks, undercutting them rather than taking on the block and holding the edge.He did not do himself any favors entering his free agency.Nick Perry2018 Stats: 15 solo tackles, 2 TFL, 1.5 sacksPerry had trouble staying on the field this year.He was only available for nine games this season, the fewest since his rookie season.Even when he was on the field, he did not provide much of a pass rush.This was his worst statistical season.Perry managed well at being able to hold the edge in the run game.He was still valuable in taking on blocks and keeping contain.That said, he did not provide edge rush in the passing game.BackupsKyler Fackrell2018 Stats: 29 solo tackles, 12 TFL, 10.5 sacksFackrell stepped in frequently this season. He filled in for the seven starts that Nick Perry missed.Fackrell was not a consistent pass rusher, but he found the quarterback more than all the other OLBs combined.Fackrell also finished second to Matthews in total snaps.While Perry got more starts, Fackrell played 58.5% of the defensive snaps this season.Fackrell was not consistently effective and earned six of his sacks in just two games (including the now infamous phantom sack where he never touched Josh Allen). But while he was not a game breaker every week, he was still the most effective pass rusher on the team this year. Reggie Gilbert2018 stats: 27 solo tackles, 4 TFL, 2.5 sacksReggie Gilbert finished 2017 with several big games and made fans very excited about his potential.He never did find that success on the field this year.Gilbert was available in all 16 games, but did not manage to beat out Kyler Fackrell for a start during the season.Still, Gilbert is the youngest of the outside linebackers on the active roster this season and should continue to grow into the position.Kendall Donnerson2018 stats: no statisticsDonnerson did not make the 53-man roster until week 14.He spent most of the season on the practice squad after joining the team as a seventh-round draft pick out of Southeast Missouri State.He has incredible measurable athleticism, but he did not see the field at all this year.Overall Grade: C-The starters in this unit lacked burst and athleticism.Whether due to injury or age, Perry and Matthews did not get consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks.There was not much depth behind the starters to make up the difference.In a position where teams routinely rotate speed rushers, the Packers only had four outside linebackers for most of the year.The Packers ended the season with 44 sacks, but only 18 of those came from this position group.Consider that Dean Lowry, Mike Daniels and Kenny Clark combined for 11 sacks.It was not a good year for the outside kinebackers.Fackrell’s double-digit sack season was the lone shining light statistically.
