"Nobody thought Montgomery was going to be a hero back in August. The thinking was that he would have to scratch and claw just to earn time as a fourth receiver."

RC... Are you reading this???

A hero? Perhaps not, but many of us have been a Montgomery supporter since LAST season. After what he showed in the little time he had to show it I was surprised it took as long as it has for McCarthy to REALLY turn to him. Especially when everytime he touches the ball something positive happens 98% of the time. The man is MADE for the position.

Question... If Montgomery had to go to McCarthy to ASK to play RB, then that sure as the hell shoots down the idea MM and TT drafted him with the thought of being a RB doesn't it? Just saying...

Edit....Props to Ted for drafting him though no matter what position. The guy is a Football Player!

Yep, he's good.

"And it’s all because Montgomery was humble enough to put the team before himself."

"Ty Montgomery is a hero because he was humble" = Cory dislikes Lacy for personal reasons. Ty Montgomery is a hero because he went off for 161 & 2 TDs against Chicago on Sunday.

According to TyMo, he's always wanted to be a RB. I'm betting he let some coaches know. I'm also betting that Thompson noticed Stanford using him out of the backfield before drafting him.

Someone else's take (Sam Monson, 2 months ago):
Montgomery is a natural running back, but the really intriguing thing about moving him back there now is that he has been seasoned as a wide receiver, at least to the point he is competent there—for a running back. Montgomery now becomes a far more dangerous matchup problem for a defense than if the Packers had just drafted him as a running back all along.

I have said it for a while now and will say it again. Montgomery is a perfect RB for the Packers offense. McCarthy likes to use his RB's all over the field. He has spread Lacy, Starks, Kuhn and others out wide which essentially became a non factor. Now when he spreads Montgomery out wide he is a legit weapon that defenses have to account for.

The part that impresses me the most with Mongtomery is his vision and patience for a guy who never really played RB before. And his strength and ability to break tackles for a former WR.

His ability to see even the tiniest of holes and explode through them is just incredible. Also his patience is really impressive. Most young RB's have to learn to slow down and let his blockers create a hole. His patience and ability to not panic has really given him a lot of positive yards. You typically don't see many WR's stiff arming players. But as RB Montgomery has already shown a devastating stiff arm. We really haven't had a RB that is as slippery as Montgomery since Ahman Green.
An insane stat is the yards after contact. Per Rob Demovsky 'Montgomery averaged 6.13 yards per carry after first contact on Sunday.'
In that article you have to love what TJ Lang says about Ty.
“It felt like he broke about 20 tackles out there,” Packers right guard T.J. Lang said. “A lot of the time, it was just blocking and glancing over and seeing him, and he was bouncing off guys. You don't really know what to do at that point, just get out of the way and let him run. Obviously, he had some really, really big plays for us.”

Her is a link to that article.
http://www.espn.com/blog/green-bay-packers/post/_/id/36061/built-to-run-...

Monty is a great story, but McCarthy misused him as a WR (hardly ever throwing to him until 6 weeks into the season). I didn't know he had to ask to play RB, but I suppose sometimes that's what it takes. Either way, he's a godsend since we've been dying for a running game.

Regarding Lacy, we still need him for next year. I think he'll be back on 1 year prove it deal, or perhaps a 2 year deal at most. All it takes is one injury or for Monty's sickle cell trait to act up and then he's out. We must have depth. It's a long season and RB is a bruising position.

Plus, the last thing I want to see is Eddie Lacy bulldozing our defensive players in another uniform. Him and Monty as a 1-2 punch? That would be devastating for opposing defenses.

Monty's shown he has the chops to be an effective RB. Now that he's shown it, teams will increase their focus on him and game plan to stop him.

Which begs the question - Will MM realize that early on when a team crowds the box and call plays with options that allow AR to audible out of them and exploit that?

I bring it up because Minnesota will have enough game tape to key on him, and D front to back it up. Will we see the Packers effectively counter-punch with plays designed to exploit that scheme, or will Mike 'want to hit our targets' and keep running Ty into 8 men?

In-game adjustments and realization in real-time what a defense is emphasizing hasn't been one of Mike's strong suits.

Monty is a hero to the Packers. He solved their RB position making it one of their strengths. Nick and RC are right, in that MM should have looked to Monty much earlier than he did. If I'm TT, I would say "I drafted for you a Marshall Faulk and the best you can do is use him as a receiver once in awhile?" Also, Monty is the perfect back for the Packer's pass first offense. Just imagine this for a second....Green Bay is in the playoffs, it's the second qtr and they are down by five points to the Seahawks. MM shows Rip and Monty in the same backfield. If you're Carrol, do you stack the box to stop the run? Do you play the safety(s) back in case Monty becomes a WR? So they drop their safety(s) to keep Monty as a RB. Maybe the run is to Rip or maybe Rip blocks for Monty. Either way, the running play could start that drive that brings in the victory! Monty can break those long runs and make teams pay for dropping the safety. Rodgers will make them pay for stopping the run. Heck, Monty can run those WR routes so he has to be covered like by a CB.
This is why Green Bay can beat the Vikings. Use Monty like a hammer and see if they can start a run that features a very good weapon for Rodgers and company. Of course none of this works if the oline doesn't show up or the defense decides to play bullfighter to the opposition's TE and RB.

I didn't see but 2 minutes of the Bear game. Long enough to see Lang and Taylor run into each other and miss on the Bears LB. Seeing that Monty made some huge numbers running the ball made me think that the Oline did something right....I did see it but only on replays, but in the clutch they need to be better.

Early on back in August I wrote that I was looking forward to seeing Monty and Cobb in a backfield together and how defenses would try to stop them, never thinking that Monty would end up as our primary RB. Also, early in the season, when the offense was struggling I called for MM to give Monty more snaps because I believed that he could be a difference maker in our offense. I must admit that I never expected him to become such a huge factor as he has become. Teams will have tape on him now but the question remains how we DCs defend against him, especially when he comes out of the backfield on pass plays. On running plays, even with 8 in the box he has demonstrated that he can break tackles, especially when he gets to the second level. And let's face it, once Rodgers reads 8 in the box he is going to audible to a pass play. Why wouldn't he? Monty's performance has made play action passing an almost automatic given going forward because defense must respect the fake and step up to meet it, Which is just enough to open up the quick passing game for Rodgers and the WRs/TE. With the OL playing as solid as it has the Packers offense will be tough to stop, unless they stop themselves. Go Pack Go! Thanks, Since '61

I will admit to being someone who felt that Montgomery was best utilized in the slot and maybe getting 4-8 snaps in a backfield role. I humbly admit the error of my ways....

All Packer fans are excited about what Montgomery and, yes, Christine, bring to the party. And it couldn't of showed up at a better time. There are challenges for this offense going forward.

- Avoiding our previous running tendencies of down and distance between the tackles predictability.

- Being creative, disguising the run calls to get these guys in space.

- Getting Rodgers to employ the short pass to help move the chains.

There is no reason why this offense can't control 35 minutes of clock and keep defenses totally guessing. The onus will fall on McCarthy and Rodgers to make these new found weapons work effectively. Let's hope that the humility is flowing.

"There is no reason why this offense can't control 35 minutes of clock and keep defenses totally guessing. The onus will fall on McCarthy and Rodgers to make these new found weapons work effectively."

Talk about hitting nail squarely on the head. This is completely on McCarthy and his "Group" of coaches at the top of the offensive coaching staff along with QB1. If McCarthy, Clements, and Bennett can't figure out an effective game plan with a few twists to keep defenses guessing over the next few weeks, then Bennett and Clements are more worthless than I thought. Who knows, maybe it was Bennett or Clements who finally talked McCarthy into using Montgomery, maybe Rodgers, but between all the "Offensive Genius" surely they can stop defenses from saying they knew what play was coming on a certain down and distance.

It sounds like you are condoning his behavior. Maybe you should look back if you are the main editor and see for yourself.

I don't know the full history, I'm sure, and don't have time to find it out or even care to be honest. This is juvenile stuff I have little patience for. I don't care who's at "fault." I just want it to stop.

The end.

Monty's snap counts:
Game 1: 11
Game 2: 0
Game 3: 4
Game 4: 2 (Lacy got 26 and Starks got 49 big ones)
Game 5: 35 (Lacy got 31, Starks was out)
Game 6: 60 (lacy and Starks both out).

So, why did it take so long? Same reason MM played Barclay ahead of Spriggs. MM is not a great coach.