Packers CB Tramon Williams: "You Can't Take Winning for Granted"
The Packers are getting ready to face a division opponent with a winning record when the take on Chicago on Sunday.
Green Bay Packers cornerback Tramon Williams by Dennis Wierzbicki, USA TODAY Sports.
While social media is reserved as a forum for overreaction, Tramon Williams is a voice of reason on the state of the Green Bay Packers three games into the 2014 season.
"In this league, it's a tough deal to win," said Williams on Monday, a day after a 19-7 to the Detroit Lions. "You can't take winning for granted, and we certainly don't around here.
"Obviously 1-2 is not where we wanted to be at, but that's the reality of the league. You're going to have some down periods, but when the up periods come, you want it to go a lot longer than the down period."
The eight-year veteran and 31-year-old cornerback, one of the eldest members on the Packers roster, is acting like he's been around the block before. Maybe because he has.
Not only was Williams one of the key contributors to the Super Bowl XLV-winning team, he's been around the team in each of the past two season when the Packers also went 1-2 to open the season.
In both 2012 and 2013, the Packers would overcomes losses in two of their first three games to win consecutive NFC North division titles.
That's not to say that everything is rosy in the world of the Green Bay Packers right now. They know that despite winning three staight division crowns, they've also been bounced out of the NFC side of the playoff bracket with surprising ease in each of those seasons.
And there's plenty to fix for a team that currently ranks 28th in the NFL in total offense and 20th in total defense.
What Williams is saying, and head coach Mike McCarthy would echo, is that there's still time for the Packers to turn things around.
"We're going into Week 4," said McCarthy. "We've had some adjustments as far as the practice schedule, approach. Every team doesn't just jump out of the box and practice great each and every day, and that's no different this year. We'll just continue to stay focused on the things we feel in our preparation phase that lead to success on Sundays."
The outcome of Sunday's game against the Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago will go a long way toward coloring the prospectus for the rest of the season.
Win against the Bears, and the Packers will get back to .500 heading into a home game against another division opponent in Week 5. Lose and they'll be 1-3 with a loss to the Vikings looming as a potentially knocking them out of playoff contention.
Following a Monday Night Football win over the New York Jets, the Bears enter Sunday's match with a 2-1 record and can feel good about an early-season upset at the San Francisco 49ers in Week 2.
"We want to get started now, obviously we have to get started with Chicago," said Williams. "Hopefully we'll go in there and get a win. It's going to be a tough opponent again, as usual. All division games are. We just got to go in and figure out what it is that we need to do to get it done."
While the biggest problems facing the Packers are on the offensive side of the football, Williams and the defense are going to have to figure out a way to contain a Bears offense that features Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffrey and Matt Forte and has averaged 25.0 points per game early this season.
"The thing we are focused on is what we need to do to improve," said McCarthy. "We haven't put together a full game as far as the offense, defense and special teams playing in a winning fashion, and that's what we have to get to."
Brian Carriveau is the author of the book "It's Just a Game: Big League Drama in Small Town America," and editor at Cheesehead TV and its "Pro Football Draft Preview." To contact Brian, email [email protected].
Comments (3)
canadapacker
September 23, 2014 at 06:59 pm
Mr Williams needs to stop taking dumb holding penalties. He stopped us from getting off on a 3rd down due to a bad penalty. He is starting to remind me of Woods last year when he did that too. While I am on it - some of our backfield guys just dont want to stick their nose in it and make a tackle - we missed way too many in the backfield tackles for either no gain or a loss and the result is that the other teams are making at least 10 yards.
StormeeATL
September 23, 2014 at 10:44 pm
That "bad penalty" was a bad call by the officials. Williams hit Megatron just as the ball passed him, the ball was out of reach, too so should never have been called interference. It got called because it was in Detroit and it was Megatron. And the D looked far better than the O, they held the supposedly dangerous Lions O to 10 points and had 3 takeaways. They were on the field way too long because the O couldn't move the football. What game were you watching, or are you just a typical glass-half-empty troll?
Shavager
September 26, 2014 at 12:18 am
Tramon Williams shouldn't take TACKLING for granted--he's been the WORST tackler in secondary for Packers for 3 consecutive years now. He finally showed up to play in last quarter of the season last year 'cause IT'S CONTRACT TIME NOW. He's gonna look for that BIG contract, Packers would've been dollars ahead to TRADE him for a pick earlier this year, used that pick to move UP in draft and select a talented player the KNEW would not be around for them to pickup, that could've been an excellent opportunity to drastically improve this team. Resign Williams and you'll immediately see a drop-off in tackling and cover ability. I saw and heard enough vs. the Vikings on NFL Network in a replay game that Vikings players were all laughing about "38" being SCARED to tackle Adrian Peterson, Tramon Williams PROVED them right with his play then, we'll see it again if he gets resigned.