“If you think we have the right players, then we need to simplify things,” said Aaron Rodgers, who threw for 246 yards and a touchdown. “If you don’t, then that’s a whole other conversation.”

Hmmm.. That sure sounds like Rodgers is throwing coaches and players under the bus one more time. IMO he left out the biggest culprit and said NOTHING about what HE should do differently.

"In the past, you’d see guys hold each other accountable when someone made a mistake or actually cracking a smile and having fun. Now, even during the wins, it doesn’t seem like the majority of these guys want to be there."

This is POISON in Green Bay. I love the Packers, Lambeau is an iconic venue just like the organization. BUT, kids who are 21, 22, or even 25 years old don't care about that. They care about money, nightlife, expanding their brand, and maybe winning.

The Packers literally can't offer ANY of that. Not like Philly, LA, or even two of the NFL's doormat franchises who both just spanked the Packers, the Giants and Jets can. If the Players don't want to be there that's HUGE.

Question...Do you think it's a coincidence the Packers never land the wanted FA? I don't, I think they don't want to play with Rodgers.

The Packers and MLF specifically need to learn to be more tactical. It is very telling when LeFleurs keeps repeating that he "has to see the tape" before he can assess what the issues were and how to fix them. A good field general, a good leader, is able to see what is going on quickly and be decisive on how to react. That is how you make in game adjustments that work! That is how you rally your team in the face of adversity! This team is crying out for leadership and MLF should be the one to step up. Looking at the tape is a way to game plan and get a strategic leg up on the opposition and MLF is very good at it. A coach needs the whole package though, a coach needs to be a a leader.

Cory you're being generous when you say: "This is the first two-game skid of coach Matt LaFleur’s tenure." Maybe in one season but, in his tenure, they got used to losing at least two in a row when they lost to Tampa in 20 then lost to the Saints to start 21. Last year they lost to Detroit and San Fran then starting with the Vikings this year. 3 in a row. I'm not as generous. Tenure is a whole not a part.

I got the feeling ARod started talking about simplifying the O after he heard Mike Tomlin say it after beating the Bucs on Sunday. What's too hard? Teaching the kids or fooling the other team? By the way, the young kids on the teams the Packers were playing seem to have been taught their jobs and were doing them well. Actually, young kids all over the NFL this year. Not to mention 2nd year and 3rd string quarterbacks.

I along with everyone else would like to know what simplify means. Perhaps we will learn today on the Pat McAffee show what it means.
If I had to guess, I'm thinking maybe simpler blocking schemes? Perhaps fewer options on routes? Simply meaning running simpler routes such as our favorite the good ole slant pattern. I'm not sure what he was referencing.
However, maybe we are focusing on the wrong part of what Rodgers said though. “If you think we have the right players" “If you don’t, then that’s a whole another conversation.”
Maybe we are focusing to much on the simplifying where we should be talking about if we have the right players part of it. He can't talk publicly about the players that need to be benched. But in his way he brought it up and everyone is focusing on the simplify part when in reality he is talking about the personnel.

One of the biggest problems this Offense has is it is not able to overcome negative plays. Penalties and negative plays they simply haven't been able to overcome them.
The drive after they scored their TD against the Jets, they were moving the ball. They moved it until they got a holding penalty. Instead of 3rd and 4 it became 2nd and 17. Then they had a delay of game and it became 2nd and 22. They couldn't overcome that.

I do believe this offense can figure things out. I am an eternal optimist and I think they have the pieces to figure it out.
First things first they have to fix the OL. They have the players to do it. They just have to make a change. Perhaps Yosh can't play RT. He could potentially be playing out of position there. Which would be similar to Jenkins possibly playing out of position at RT. So maybe they are looking at Tom being the answer.
Once they solidify the OL, they can then get the weapons doing what they need them to do. Doubs needs to be trusted more within this offense. He gets open a lot. They need to make him the number 1 read more often.

I think something that could really help this offense out is more 2 TE looks. Lets say they go with Jones, Lazard, Doubs, Tonyan and Deguara as our base personnel. We have a lot of options with that look. Jones can motion out wide. They can move Deguara anywhere. Going with more 2 TE's I think helps with the WR issues right now. Tonyan is the most reliable pass catcher on the roster. I think Deguara has quietly had his best 2 games back to back as a pro.

So basically they have to get the OL fixed and a lot of the offensive problems will be fixed. With the faulty OL they haven't been able to run it well and haven't had time to throw the ball to WR's that are getting open. That is the starting part for the offense.

There would be No talk of simplifying things if they Block. The OL is isn't missing Bahk or Jenkins now. Every fan saw the problem from game one. The message was failure from the start! And it's time to put the pieces back together, where they belong. Wilkins must be the LG.

For 2 years I’ve been saying they should trade the Diva and for a couple 1sts and a couple seconds and start the rebuilding. I was reviled and ridiculed. Now it seems like I’m the driver of the bandwagon. Unfortunately, I think they waited too long and trading him now would be a repeat of the Favre deal, a 2nd rounder probably. Maybe less, after the Russell Wilson debacle currently happening in Denver.

I also spent the off-season laughing about the homer writers’ articles about how dumping Davante would help the Packers because Diva could spread the ball around. I remember writing that, using that logic, the Bulls should have traded Jordan so Stockton could have spread the ball around. How is dumping Davante working out so far?

MLF leadership is certainly being questioned right now and people are wondering out loud that this team needs some strong leadership to rally around and compete. The question is does he seem like that strong personality type that can inspire and rally the team to snap out of this malaise. Or does he seem like a really nice guy that is just the head administrator? I’m not optimistic 😢

Like many of you, I expect more of Rodgers but in fairness to our star, there is very little any offense will do behind that O-line. Running or passing needs time, space and execution and our O-line is generating little more than errors. To Rodger's credit, he hasn't come out and called the line garbage.

Ultimately, this comes down to coaches teaching and organizing the players to do a job. Without good coaching you have a bunch of guys with scattered efforts and inconsistent results. The team appears to be unmotivated and disinterested but I think they are disorganized and disheartened by the general chaos. Joe Barry has better players than last year but the guys are playing like it is the first game of the season. If Lafleur is a headcoach - now is the time to show it.

They will come out with some life against Washington.. then something will go wrong, ML will panic and they will be in a dogfight to beat a bad team.
Looking at the rest of the schedule, I don’t think it will matter what they do as they stumble their way to a seven win season.

Just throwing something out there that hasn't been discussed much:

The offensive coaching staff went under significant change this past year. Hackett and Outten left for Denver and Getsy to Chicago. Stenavich went from OL coach to OC, and Butkus took over as OL coach.

That's a lot of moving parts on just one side of the ball. I can't help but wonder if that hasn't contributed to the 'malaise' on offense.

I think that we are missing the woods for the trees. There is an overarching reason we are pathetic on O and look likely to remain so as long as LaFleur is in charge. Look at this O as a whole and at what we’ve tried to do. Then consider why LaFleur won’t solve it because doing some would mean facing up to the fact that he had no plan to get Rodgers to buy in to play with this roster beyond you can do it with Cobb, Lazard and Watkins.

LaFleur has totally screwed up any chance of getting the most out if this roster by resorting to a pathetically conservative use of rookie talent that strips down our passing O to a very limited and predictable bare bones call set that mostly focused on the short horizontal; the passes that are run substitutes while omitting to run our best offensive weapon consistently.

We go light on receivers, send only one deep or intermediate typically, yet rarely throw to TEs or RBs (and when we do it’s mostly shallow). So Ds have fewer offensive threats. We also encourage them to pack the first ten yards, to address the run and most of our passes. That facilitates heavy rush pressure and makes the short pass and the run much more difficult to defend. It’s worked like a charm and we have no answer because we have no threat deeper typically, or one and he attracts S help because there’s no other route that cause doubt.

Of course LaFleur doesn’t get it. If he did we’d have had different personnel and a radically more aggressive approach rather than this self strangling ultra cautious rubbish. Admit that and the whole facade of his strategy and competence unravels. It also may help explain Barry’s baffling caution too. A HC sets the tone. If anything, LaFleur outstrips Barry in the caution stakes overall.

Our offensive issues don’t start with the O Line, that’s struggled in large part because our whole plan is calculated to defeat itself. We are scheming to make it as hard as possible for our runners, our WRs and our QB. We are playing like prior years but without the diversity of calls or the talent.

We’ve simply gone extra conservative to a point where it should be obvious that it is self defeating. We’ve been that way every game this year, but Tampa figured it out pretty comprehensively and every subsequent opponent has simply come out and replicated that. In the Giants case it took a half. The Jets didn’t wait. Don’t expect others to.

The 'Illusion of Complexity' has turned into a 'Complex of Delusion' and we now sit and wait to see how this story goes and ends. It's a different story, but the same story as with the battle between Rodgers and MM, and who wins the Offense path going forward.

Rodgers has tossed MLF in front of the bus with his 'simplify things' and now MLF either succumbs to Rodgers request or MLF stands by his Offensive schematics that are more illusive to him than an Illusion to opponents.

I said a few times, this team has talent, but the ability to pull off any Illusion is a magic trick too complicated and beyond them at this time.

Hey this is October, the month for the ghoulish and the dead. Packers certainly are in costume for that.
1. The O line isnt going to just "presto get better".
2. The run game could improve but these guys arent game breakers and never were. Especially Dillon.
3. The passing game will improve if the routes are run and the passes are on target and they stop dropping them. Either these guys can hang on to a football or he football isnt getting there?
Otherwise why should we expect things to change? It is what it is.

I hope if Wash puts a lick on the Packers, go Barry gets the blame and is sent packing. His time should be up but if the next guy installs the same crap defensive scheme, whats the point?

With Rodgers in effect holding out the past two seasons, has he been sending signals that he's lost his passion for the game?
Is ennui the reason for him not wanting to attend all of the OTAs and not wanting to play in the preseason?
Does he not want to put in the effort to work with young wide receivers?
To simplify the offense: Is that to make things easier on himself?
Is this why he has to go to South America for some kind of exotic drug-induced stimulation?
Does it seem as though Rodgers is cranky and unmotivated during the game, and emotionless and monotone after the game?
Is the rest of the team lifeless because Rodgers is lifeless?
***
P.S. If these things are basically true, then I have a genuine concern for the well-being of Aaron Rodgers; but he should be getting help somehow rather than dragging down the players and coaches and fans of the Packers.

“If you think we have the right players, then we need to simplify things...If you don’t, then that’s a whole another conversation.”

This was a great moment of leadership. In other words:

1. If you think we have good players, the coaches don't know what they are doing.

2. If you think we have an untalented roster, then the GM doesn't know what he is doing.

"But don't blame me. Not my problem."

This isn't that hard, they are what their record says they are. Half the time, good offense. Half the time, good defense. 3-3 record seems about right for a team that plays half a game.
I said it in previous posting on another article...this year there is a lot of mouthing off by the players. Don't usually see that in teams that are well coached.

Like I said earlier the Tea and age seems to have affected the coordination of Rodgers. How else you explain the wide throws, the over throws and under throws!? Yes he has been rushed more often than before but unless like Rodgers said the QBs legs go he should be able to move and avoid more of it than Rodgers is able to. Maybe the legs are gone as well with his age. Maybe time to play to Rodgers diminishing skills and quit the hero ball and play a smaller game.