Category: Packers

… Packer uniform designs, of course. (You know I’ve covered this subject in the past.)

These two redesign proposals were passed on by WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, one from Facebook’s Mr. Design Junkie …

… the other from Baker of the Twin Cities …

… which has less traditional proposals as well:

Why does this come up at all? Can’t you gue$$, $illy?

To evaluate these properly requires looking back at previous Packer uniform designs as chronicled by the excellent Packers Uniforms blog …

… including clearing up some misinformation.

The Green Bay Packers started looking Notre Dame-ish because Curly Lambeau attended (but did not graduate from) Notre Dame. Though they wore green uniforms as early as 1935 …

… green wasn’t permanently one of the colors until Vince Lombardi showed up. Once plastic replaced leather for helmet construction, the Packers usually used gold helmets, though they occasionally wore white. Once color other than tan started being used for pants, the Packers usually wore gold pants, though they occasionally wore white pants and green pants.

The Packers even sometimes wore an all-gold look — apparently mixing metallic gold helmets with yellowgold jerseys and pants — proving again the maxim that just because you can doesn’t mean you should:

Today’s green appears to be a compromise (by Lombardi, his equipment manager “Dad” Brashear, or someone else) between the Lambeau-era navy and the brighter greens that popped up later, perhaps out of a desire to not look like the Philadelphia Eagles’ kelly green.

Between the Glory Days and today, materials have changed, shoes have gone between black and white, the socks have changed, the pants stripe is wider, the sleeve stripe went from five stripes to three, the arm numbers went from the bicep to the shoulder (called “TV numbers”), and the facemasks are now green. The colors have also been given Pantone Matching System numbers, so they are slightly different from what they were in the pre-PMS days. And that is all that has changed in 55 years.

Not many people know this, but the Packers’ green …

… and the Jets’ green …

… and the Eagles’ “midnight green” …

… are the same color. The Eagles and Jets had a brighter green, but went darker in the 1990s.

First, some ground rules. Because these are the Green Bay Packers, I oppose any blue uniform design, including the ’30s-era throwbacks. Any uniform that involves any color other than green, gold and white (that includes black, as is apparently depicted at the beginning with the players’ compression shirts, or gray, including gray facemasks) deserves to wind up the victim of your Delete button.

Why not gray facemasks? Because everybody used to have them until technology improved to color the plastic something besides gray. The mere fact everyone used to wear gray facemasks is not a compelling reason to go back to gray, which by the way has never been an official color of the Packers anyway. (The same can be said about black shoes, which make the wearer look slow. However, one compelling reason to wear white shoes — getting the benefit of the doubt on sideline catches because the shoes blend into the sideline paint — has been made pretty obsolete by instant replay.)

I’m also not a fan of the two-tone jersey, even though, yes, they wore those too. That’s a hockey look, not a football look. (Ditto any gold jersey, which is appropriate for the Packer Pro Shop and nowhere else.) And I am particularly not a fan of the head-to-toe monochrome look, especially the white-jersey white-pants combination, which is unflattering to wide players, who end up looking like the Michelin Man.

That’s where I depart from the purists. I do not oppose changing the gold to a metallic, because Lambeau had the Notre Dame gold in mind, but in the era of leather helmets, no one painted helmets. Frankly, “athletic” (that is, slightly redder than yellow non-metallic) gold is boring.

Readers know that Packers general manager Ron Wolf had considered replacing the athletic gold with Notre Dame gold …

… but ultimately decided he had bigger issues to deal with than the PR blowback from changing the gold. I would be fine with changing the gold as long as it didn’t look too brown, like the Saints, or Grey Poupon mustard-ish, like the 49ers.

I also would like to see the Packers adopt matching green pants to go with their white jerseys. The long-time road (except in Dallas) look has very little green in it for Green Bay. Green pants would make the Packers look something like …

I would even be OK with green helmets; that is the least objectionable thing to the first set of designs on this page, although they might then look too much like the Eagles.

Packers Uniforms did its own mild redesign proposal for a contest:

This skirts with, but doesn’t seem to violate, my First Law of Athletic Uniforms: Numbers must be legible. (Gold on dark blue or green, as shown in concept number two, is a potential problem that probably requires a white outline.) I like the takeoff on the wordmark (which is supposed to look like spray-painted stenciling on a crate used by, of course, meat packers), as long as the space splitting the numbers isn’t too wide. As an alternative, the Packers could adopt the font used in the Glory Years, with the weird numbers 3 (shown on Fuzzy Thurston’s jersey) and 5 (on Bart Starr’s, not Paul Hornung’s, jersey).

A similar look comes from Jesse Alkire …

… although he did less work on the numbers than Packers Uniforms did. I would dump the green socks.

For those who looked at Nike’s becoming the official NFL uniform supplier with horror, UniWatch came up with these Packer Nike Combat unis …

… which obviously aren’t radical at all.

One thing several of these proposals have in common — and something the Packers should emulate regardless of what they do with their uniforms — is getting the stripes off the jersey sleeves. The problem is that non-quarterbacks and non-kickers hardly have sleeves anymore, to avoid being held by the arms by their opponents. If you’re going to have jersey sleeves, they either need to be on the cuff of the jersey, or on the compression shirt underneath; otherwise they look bad because there isn’t enough material for them.

The Nike Combat design proposes going back to the days of numbers on the sleeves, which the Packers wore until Forrest Gregg arrived in 1984. Numbers on top of the jerseys are called “TV numbers” for a reason, and there’s a reason only a handful of teams (off the top of my head, Oakland, Washington and the Jets, plus a few teams’ throwbacks) don’t have them.

Finally, I’m surprised someone other than myself hasn’t proposed this look for late November and December, in keeping with two great Wisconsin traditions — the Packers and deer hunting:

Today’s (as opposed to yesterday’s, or tomorrow’s, or next week’s) TMJ4 reports on something that has nothing to do with a jaw disorder:

The coach and quarterback of the 1996 Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers admit that had they stayed together in Green Bay, the Packers might have more Lombardi Trophies in their collection.

“Had we stayed together, I think we win several more championships,” admitted Brett Favre in a shared interview with his then-coach, Mike Holmgren, in a recent interview with KJR Radio in Seattle.

“We were fortunate enough to win one together…but I think better things were yet to come had we stayed together.”

“Do you realize what my record would be as a head coach as I’d stayed with him? It would be phenomenal,” said Holmgren.  He departed Favre and the Packers in 1998 when the Seahawks hired him to be coach and general manager. …

“Had it not been for you at that time in my career…I needed someone who was firm, and also forgiving.  I really believe that,” said Favre.  “I was as raw as they come.  I needed someone who was patient…but also was understanding.  Had it not been for you at that time, I definitely would not have played 20 years.”

As Holmgren joked, “He was in the principal’s office all the time.”

The what-if game is fun to play, but some corrective history is in order here. After winning Super Bowl XXXI, Holmgren spent the next two seasons tamping down speculation that later proved correct, that he was looking to become a general manager/coach somewhere besides Green Bay. Holmgren left for Seattle because the Packers had a general manager, Ron Wolf, and he wasn’t ready to retire. Past history of the Packers’ general manager/coaches — Phil Bengtson, Dan Devine, Bart Starr and Forrest Gregg — made it obvious that a GM/coach would not work.

Or so it seemed. Holmgren left for Seattle, replaced for one season by Ray Rhodes. After Wolf fired Rhodes, he hired Mike Sherman. And then, one season after that, Wolf suddenly retired, and Sherman suddenly took over as GM and coach.

There is more to this than many Packer fans know, and there is also an element of history repeating itself. Bengtson, Devine, Starr and Gregg became GM/coaches because Vince Lombardi was the GM/coach. And that was the case for all but Lombardi’s last season in Green Bay; he resigned as coach after Super Bowl II and named Bengtson his successor. A season later, Lombardi left Green Bay for Washington to become the Redskins’ GM and coach, with part-ownership of the team thrown in. That’s obviously not an option for the Packers.

Meanwhile, the Packers decided after Gregg left that GM and coach were one too many titles for one man, and so they hired Tom Braatz as GM and Lindy Infante as coach. As we know, the second hiring of GM (Wolf) and coach (Holmgren) proved better than the first.

So why did the Packers name Sherman as GM? Wolf’s sudden retirement put the Packers in a bind, in the same way that Holmgren’s departure put Wolf in a bind. It’s a fundamental rule for CEOs — no one is irreplaceable, and no one is permanent, so you always have to have in mind potential replacements for your key management people. In retrospect, the Packers didn’t do that.

The obvious choice to succeed Holmgren would have been quarterback coach Steve Mariucci, but he left two years earlier to become Cal’s head coach for one season before becoming the 49ers’ coach. When Holmgren left Green Bay, there was no one on staff qualified to replace him as head coach. Defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur left with Holmgren for Seattle, as did most of Holmgren’s Packer assistants. Offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis didn’t get picked. Nor did tight ends/assistant offensive line coach Mike Sherman. Three days after Holmgren signed with Seattle, quarterbacks coach Andy Reid became the Eagles’ head coach. So Wolf brought in former Packers assistant Ray Rhodes, Reid’s predecessor in Philadelphia, and then told Rhodes to leave after an 8–8 season where team discipline notably decreased. Rhodes’ replacement? Sherman, who had left for Seattle.

Years after Sherman got his second promotion in as many seasons, Packers president Bob Harlan told me that the Packers were concerned about losing their scouting and player personnel staff, people a new GM would want to choose himself instead of inheriting an existing staff. Harlan’s philosophy was that the general manager was in complete charge of football operations, which included everyone below the GM, including the head coach. The Packers again felt there was really no one else on the staff qualified to replace Wolf as GM. (Including director of player personnel Ted Thompson, director of pro personnel Reggie McKenzie, and director of college scouting John Dorsey. All three are now NFL general managers, including Thompson, who would go on to replace Sherman as GM and then fire him as coach.) That was how it looked at the time, and when you present the facts, it’s difficult to see what other choice the Packers could have made except by second-guessing.

The revisionist history in Holmgren’s statement isn’t only in the obvious, that Holmgren left Green Bay because of his ego. The Packers lost free agent acquisitions Keith Jackson, Sean Jones, Santana Dotson and Reggie White to retirement, and none of them were ever really replaced. Other acquisitions, Desmond Howard and Eugene Robinson, left for other teams. Wolf’s last four drafts produced more busts (offensive lineman John Michels and Ross Verba, wide receiver Derrick Mayes, defensive lineman Vonnie Holliday) than even serviceable players (offensive linemen Marco Rivera and Mike Flanagan, safety Darren Sharper, cornerback Mike McKenzie, punter Josh Bidwell, and wide receiver Donald Driver). Wolf himself admitted that his biggest regret was not finding playmaker wide receivers for Favre after the Super Bowls. It’s not a stretch at all to say that Aaron Rodgers has much better receivers now than Favre ever did in Green Bay.

In retrospect, given the past few paragraphs, it should be obvious that Favre really was as good as he seemed to be at the time. Naysayers argued, and argue now, that Favre threw too many interceptions. But when you consider that Favre never had an elite receiver, had only one elite running back (Ahman Green), and had offensive lines that, except for one season (2004), were no better than average, not to mention some dubious defenses, Favre actually accomplished more than he should have been able to accomplish.

Holmgren fell victim to the self-applied Peter Principle — that if you can get to the Super Bowl as a coach, you should be able to run the entire football show. Bill Parcells won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants and got to one with New England, then the Big Tuna wanted to run the whole show, and his tenures with the Jets and in Dallas resulted in zero Super Bowl appearances. Jimmy Johnson won two Super Bowls in Dallas, clashed with owner/GM Jerry Jones, and went to Miami to run the whole show. Johnson didn’t get back to the Super Bowl, and Jones hasn’t gotten back to the Super Bowl. Mike Shanahan more or less ran the show in Denver, winning two Super Bowls, but couldn’t sustain that success, and had no success at all in Washington. Holmgren didn’t get to the Super Bowl with the Seahawks until his GM responsibilities were taken away from him. (However, even though Holmgren wasn’t the GM anymore, players Holmgren drafted, including running back Shaun Alexander, and acquired, including quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, were on the Super Bowl team.)

One important reason to separate the GM and coach roles, besides the obvious fact that each is a full-time job, is to provide a buffer between each and the players. Whether you’re on the team or not should be up to the GM; how much you play should be up to the coach. Sherman had some problems with some players because of one of those sides (it’s not clear which). If a GM doesn’t pay a player what the player thinks he’s worth, the coach can commiserate. If a player feels like he’s being mistreated by a coach, he can sound off to the GM. That’s not possible if the GM and the coach are the same person.

So that brings up an interesting what-if. Let’s say Holmgren had stayed in Green Bay, and let’s say Wolf had retired the same year he actually did retire. Keeping everything else the same, one could conclude that the only person on staff that Harlan would have felt was qualified to be general manager was … Holmgren. Packer fans can wonder if Holmgren would have ended up as the Packers’ GM/coach, and for how long. Or perhaps the Packers would have hired a general manager, but who was actually under the coach on the management chart, as the 49ers had with Bill Walsh. Or Holmgren could have stayed GM/coach for some number of seasons, grooming an assistant to take over for him as head coach, as Wisconsin did with Barry Alvarez and Bret Bielema.

Remember, however, that Seattle got to its first Super Bowl after taking away Holmgren’s GM duties. Holmgren took with him not only most of the Packers’ assistant coaches, but much of Wolf’s staff. That makes one think the scenario of Holmgren the grand poobah of all Packer football wouldn’t have worked any better in Green Bay than it did in Seattle. (Holmgren then was hired and fired as the president of the Browns.)

Holmgren and Favre can fantasize (along with Packer fans) about what could have been, but there’s one more important reason why they overstate what they could have accomplished. That’s because the NFL is built to not have dynasties in this salary-cap era. A sportswriter wrote that the year after a team wins a Super Bowl, it plays 16 Super Bowls the next season. That was certainly the case with the Packers after Super Bowl XXXI, that was the case for the Ravens this season, and that will be the case for the Seahawks next season.

For one thing, players’ egos get in the way. Stars (Favre then, Rodgers now) get paid fine, but the second- and third-level players start to think they’re better than they are, and so they go to financially greener pastures with promises of greater on-field roles. (Desmond Howard, the next-to-last puzzle piece on the Super Bowl XXXI team, left after the season for Oakland, and was never the same player again.)

For another thing, the puzzle starts getting disassembled. Assistant coaches and those who work for the GM get snapped up by other teams for bigger roles. That was how Holmgren got to Green Bay,  and that’s why Reid wasn’t around to replace him after Holmgren left. Note that three Wolf assistants from the 1990s Packer teams are now general managers, including Thompson and Seattle GM John Schneider. To keep people like the Steelers’ defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau (who was, believe it or don’t, Starr’s defensive backs coach before Gregg hired him in Cincinnati), those assistant coaches have to be happy where they are and not looking to move on.

This might come up again in the next few years if the Packers get back to the Super Bowl. McCarthy could, as Holmgren did, overestimate his abilities and think he can be somebody’s GM/coach too. The fact that it works in one place, New England (although it seems no one has the title of general manager), doesn’t mean it’s a model that should be emulated.

Beyond those realities, the last reality is that once you win, the rest of the league is gunning for you. In fact, once anyone has some success with something remotely different (i.e. the 49ers’ and Seahawks’ read option), the rest of the league will spend the offseason studying it and figuring out how to beat it. (Those who are not looking to do it themselves; the “West Coast” offense is now the standard NFL offense.) With video study, the rest of the NFL will know everything there is to know about how Wilson plays quarterback, how the Seahawks play defense, and so on. The NFL really does stand for “Not For Long.”

It’s not particularly a deep insight to observe that quarterback is not only the most important position in the National Football League, it may be the most important single position in team sports.

This Packer season should have convinced you by comparing the Packers with Aaron Rodgers vs. the Packers without Rodgers. But for those of you who blame the (admittedly not very good) defense, consider: The New England Patriots were a dominating team last decade. The one season that quarterback Tom Brady got hurt, the Patriots missed the playoffs.

This isn’t necessarily a recent development. Consider the late 1980s Bears, who had a truly scary defense, and Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton. Yet, the only time Da Bears won a Super Bowl was with a competent quarterback, Jim McMahon. Once McMahon got hurt, Da Bears still won a lot of games, but didn’t go back to the Super Bowl in the Mike Ditka era.

Consider this news from yesterday: Da Bears signed quarterback Jay Cutler, who has exactly one win in his career over the Packers as a starter, to a seven-year $126 million contract extension, with $54 million guaranteed. (It is not correct that the Packers, which Cutler has beaten exactly once in his career, are paying part of Cutler’s Bears salary.)

The list of the unimpressed includes the Chicago Tribune:

You can’t blame Chicagoans who greeted news of Jay Cutler’s seven-year, megamillion-dollar contract with a collective, “Whaaaaat?”

They have come to know and not particularly love the Chicago Bears quarterback.

Cutler’s performance on the field doesn’t seem to justify the generous deal. In five years under Cutler, the Bears have made the playoffs once. For the 8-8 season that just ended, he completed 63 percent of his passes, threw 19 touchdowns and had 12 interceptions. He sat out five games due to injury, returning just in time for the Bears to blow a division title and a spot in the playoffs.

Compare that with journeyman backup Josh McCown, who led the Bears to a 3-2 record, completed almost 67 percent of his passes and tossed 13 touchdowns with just, ahem, one interception. Some Bears fans thought they had a new Sid Luckman.

But the fans will get Cutler, who as a Bear hasn’t made anybody’s NFL All-Pro team but would be a lock for the All-Sullen team.

Cutler’s bosses like him more than the fans do. Bears general manager Phil Emery described improvement in Cutler’s “ball security, distribution to his targets and a transformation in his demeanor as a leader.”

We’ve seen enough job performance reviews to know a “transformation in demeanor” means the employee has become less of a … oh, let’s not go there.

Well, no, we have to go there. Winning can mask a lot of character quirks. (See: QB, Punky.) Great character can mask a lot of losing. (See: Two!, Let’s play.) But when you’re missing the character and the success, you can’t mask anything. …

Cutler may well be the Bears’ best quarterback option, even though Da Bears have exactly one playoff berth in Cutler’s five seasons playing in the Mistake by the Lake. This is a franchise that has made bad decision after bad decision about its quarterbacks. The franchise’s best quarterback was Sid Luckman, who stopped playing in 1950. McMahon was the Super Bowl XX-winning quarterback, Billy Wade was the quarterback of the 1963 NFL champions, and Rex Grossman got Da Bears to a Super Bowl. Keith Olbermann famously called Da Bears’ quarterback quandaries of the decades “one of the NFL’s great unrecognized traditions. With brief interruptions of stability from the likes of Jim McMahon and Billy Wade, this job has been unsettled since Sid Luckman retired. There has always been a Rex Grossman, he has always underperformed, and they have always been about to replace him.” And, you’ll recall, there was great debate over whether Da Bears should play Cutler or Josh McCown, which probably hasn’t ended with Cutler’s signing.

Want to know what playing quarterback is like? Sports Illustrated named Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning its Sportsman of the Year, and described a typical play thusly:

Peyton approaches the line of scrimmage and takes a snapshot of the defensive alignment, then scans an extensive mental catalog to recall where he has seen the alignment before and what it wrought. Manning cannot predict what the defenders are going to do, but he can predict what they’re not going to do. “What will happen here?” he asks himself, hands framing his face, as if he’s peering through an imaginary camera. “I’m not sure, but I do know the linebacker over on the outside is not going to blitz. I can tell you that will not happen. I’m trying to narrow things down.” He selects the play, and orders the protection with the best chance to counter the alignment. …

When Manning was a rookie, the Colts installed a no-huddle package called Lightning, which they deployed when they trailed. One day, around 2000, [offensive coordinator Tom] Moore asked Manning, “Why are we waiting to be down 10-0? Why don’t we start in Lightning?” This question changed football. At first, Moore would call two plays from the sideline and let Manning pick one. Then Moore gave Manning four plays and let him switch from runs to passes. Finally he let him call games. “It’s always been a cerebral position, but Peyton made it more cerebral,” says former Broncos quarterback and current executive vice president John Elway. “he was the first to get in the hurry-up, figure out the coverage at the line, find the right play against the coverage and call everything himself. He really started the no-huddle. Now everybody does it.” From Pop Warner on, quarterbacks are asked to think faster because Manning showed what was possible. “He set the standard,” says the Patriots’ Tom Brady. Manning still runs Lightning in Denver, as well as a superspeed variation called Bob.

I was once told I had the proportions of a quarterback — now 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds. The problem, I said that day, is that I have the arm of a kicker, and, though I didn’t mention it that day, the coordination and athletic ability of the Tin Man. (Not to mention good enough uncorrected vision to see big blobs coming at me a fraction of a second before being embedded into the turf.)

Even had I possessed all the ability needed to be a high school quarterback of the early ’80s, I would have spent a lot of time handing off, because my high school ran the pass-every-three-weeks Wing-T, and we played at Warner Park, where the average wind speed is hurricane force. A tackle from our team played outside linebacker at Wisconsin and in the NFL, but the high school was known for basketball, not football.

(That, however, didn’t prevent this inexplicable incident: During the 1996 Packers’ season, I was getting gas one Wednesday morning in Appleton when the guy at another pump asked if I was Brett Favre. After the season, Packer president Bob Harlan agreed that I really don’t look like Favre, as if Favre would have been getting gas for a 1991 Ford Escort GT in Appleton 45 minutes before practice was to start anyway. I did ask Favre a question at the NFC Championship press conference that season, which I guess is my but-I-stayed-at-a-Holiday-Inn-Express moment of that season.)

Even in high school, playing quarterback requires a lot of ability, and not all of it physical ability. Quarterbacks are supposed to be leaders, both verbally and on the field, and be the go-between between the coach(es) and the rest of the offense. They are supposed to execute the play, whether it’s a run or (increasingly, even up here in the Great White North) pass. The latter means you have to, at minimum, find the receiver in a one-receiver pattern and get him the ball before you’re planted into the turf. In the increasingly sophisticated high school offenses, you’re supposed to find the open receiver out of up to five, or take off before you’re, again, planted into the turf.

One reason some football fans prefer college to the NFL is the wider variety of offenses, from Georgia Tech’s triple option to, well, any number of wide-open passing teams. The read option, which really is the ancient single-wing with the ability to pass thrown in, was supposed to revolutionize the NFL. The reason it hasn’t is that NFL teams are hesitant to run it because of the financial commitment teams have made to their quarterbacks. And as we’ve seen, the number of NFL-quality quarterbacks is fewer than the number of quarterbacks playing in the NFL.

How important is the quarterback position in the NFL? Bad play at that one position is enough to get coaches fired, Kevin Seifert suggests:

The mere promise of good quarterback play earns a coach the benefit of the doubt, in many cases compensating for other pocks. A quarterback mess, or even the backslide of a long-term starter, typically spurs change.

As of early Monday morning, six franchises had fired their head coach in recent weeks. Four of them — the Houston Texans, Cleveland Browns, Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers — figure to have new quarterbacks in 2014. The downfall of the other two coaches could be traced at least in part to poor quarterback play. Robert Griffin III‘s regression sent the Washington Redskins tumbling to a 3-13 season, while Matthew Stafford‘s second-half collapse was one of the primary reasons the Detroit Lions lost six of their final seven games.

All six coaches had other problems, but if Matt Schaub hadn’t slumped badly this season, chances are Gary Kubiak would still be the Texans’ coach. If Greg Schiano could have found a way to make it work with quarterback Josh Freeman, he likely would be heading for a third season with the Bucs. Were it not for Stafford’s slump, Lions coach Jim Schwartz would likely be preparing for a playoff game Monday instead of cleaning out his office.

Hot-seat rumors have followed two other quarterback-thin coaches as well. If Jake Locker had remained healthy this season, coach Mike Munchak’s situation might not be as tenuous as it appears. And if Dennis Allen hadn’t flipped between Terrelle Pryor, Matt Flynn and Matt McGloin, his horizons would be brighter.

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t considered the possibility of firing coach Mike Tomlin, who has missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons. Why? Among other reasons, the Steelers always have a chance to win with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

To be fair, poor quarterback play is usually a shared responsibility. In some cases, coaches aren’t given much to work with. The Vikings’ Leslie Frazier is the most notable example. And sometimes, a quarterback fails despite the best efforts of his supporting cast. My own opinion, after watching the Lions closely over the past few years, is that Stafford should shoulder significant blame for his slump given the weapons the team provided him. Those who blame Schwartz’s offensive coordinator, Scott Linehan, are ignoring Linehan’s long history in developing young quarterbacks elsewhere.

“It’s a quarterback-driven league,” Frazier said Sunday, “and if you don’t have that position functioning the way you need to, I don’t care what you need to do in the other areas of your team, you’re going to be fighting uphill.”

That is how the NFL wants it. In the late 1970s, the league liberalized the definition of offensive holding, to give offensive lines more ability to pass-protect, while simultaneously strengthening the definition of defensive pass interference. Every time the defense appears to be about to catch up, the NFL changes the rules to benefit the offense, especially in the definition of roughing the passer. NFL management has realized for a long time that pro football is one of a large and growing number of entertainment options, and the NFL assumes that the casual fan likes to see scoring over grim defensive struggles.

Once again we must examine a Packers victory from the perspective of the vanquished, Da Bears, who apparently forgot that football games are 60 minutes, not 59 minutes 22 seconds long …

… after they forgot that plays end upon an official’s whistle, not before then.

The two players missing most of their season, quarterback Aaron Rodgers and wide receiver Randall Cobb, made up for lost time with Cobb’s touchdown catch on fourth down with 38 seconds remaining to give the Packers the 33-28 win, NFC North title and first-round home playoff game, against San Francisco Sunday at 3:40 p.m. Whether they deserve the playoff spot is immaterial, since someone must win the NFC North every season.

ESPN’s Michael C. Wright focuses on the play that gave the Packers their first lead:

Chicago Bears coach Marc Trestman struggled to explain Sunday how Green Bay’s Jarrett Boykin scooped up a loose ball and scored while everybody else on the field stood and watched.

The play was perhaps the most unusual turn of events in a 33-28 Packers victory at Soldier Field which end the Bears’ season.

“We didn’t pick it up and scoop and score with it. For me to try to explain why that happened, I really can’t at this time because we’ve never allowed the ball to sit on the ground like that at any time in practice,” Bears coach Marc Trestman said.

Green Bay took a 10-7 lead basically as the result of failure by the home team to play heads-up football.

With 3:28 left in the opening half, Julius Peppers sacked Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers from behind as Rodgers attempted to throw the ball. The ball came loose and hit the cold, damp turf at Soldier Field. Players from both teams froze, and officials never blew the play dead.

As players from both teams watched, Boykin alertly picked up the ball and romped 15 yards for a touchdown.

“[The whistle] didn’t blow, that’s why they allowed it to be a touchdown. Twenty-two players basically stopped,” Trestman said. “[No.] 11 probably got the word from the sideline to pick the ball up because it was over on their side. But I thought both teams stopped. So that’s why it’s such an unusual situation. Nobody got on the football.”

Officials immediately reviewed the play and determined Rodgers fumbled as opposed to throwing incomplete, and confirmed the original call of a Boykin touchdown.

“We all thought it was a dead ball,” said linebacker James Anderson, who watched the ball roll right past him. “That’s why everyone kind of stopped. It was a big play. We need to make sure that we hear the whistle. I thought I did [hear a whistle], but I don’t even know initially if anyone else knew what it was a live ball.”

Bears defensive coordinator Mel Tucker will take some heat for the club’s defense not being more alert and not following the tenet of playing until the whistle is blown, something taught to players at every level. Surely, some will question whether or not a defense coached by Lovie Smith would have let such a play occur.

Given what was on the line — the NFC North title and a berth in the playoffs — all those criticisms would be legitimate, but it appeared the players should shoulder the blame in this instance.

At Bears’ practices, every time the ball hits the ground — even on an incomplete pass — typically a defender scoops it up and starts running the other way.

“I guess the one time that you don’t, it hurts you,” Anderson said. “That’s neither here nor there. That was one play in the game, and we still had an opportunity to win.”

The Chicago Tribune’s Steve Rosenbloom is, safe to say, livid:

Just when you thought the Bears defense couldn’t humiliate itself any worse, there was Sunday’s final minute against the Packers.

The defense had been a mess all season. A joke. An embarrassment. One humiliation after another.

And that was true right down to the end. Right down to Aaron Rodgers’ 48-yard bomb to Randall Cobb on fourth-and-8 in a game the Bears led 28-27.

Fourth-and-8, do you hear me? The Bears couldn’t make that stop, and like that, they choked the game, a division title and a playoff spot.

With the Bears blitzing, Julius Peppers was cut as he charged at Rodgers, who stepped away and found a receiver so wide open behind the unconscionably bad secondary that he underthrew Cobb.

Think about that: The Bears blitzed on the decisive play of the season, even though they’re the worst blitzing team in the league, and then, despite knowing the blitz was on, the safeties, disasters all season, either sprinted up or sat down, and either way, they inexcusably let a receiver get behind them at the dumbest possible time.

Like that, the Packers converted three fourth downs on the final drive that covered 87 yards. Fourth downs, I’m telling you.

We’re talking about a choke of epic proportions, which is saying something for this year’s monumentally pathetic defense.

Look, I know that if the Bears had won, then they would’ve found another way to embarrass themselves nationally on defense in the playoffs. But still. Bad and stupid is just ridiculous when it’s as regular as the Bears defense.

Same mental mistakes. Same physical mistakes. Same stupid plays by the same lame players and coaches who apparently can’t teach defending fourth-and-season-to-go. …

All week, I believed this game was about Jay Cutler. This season was all about Cutler, and this game was a perfect ending — the division and a playoff spot on the line against a team that had tortured Cutler since he became a Bear.

And then Cutler directed four TD drives — three straight in the second half — and finished with 15 completions on 24 attempts for 226 yards and two TDs and one interception.

The pick came on the last play of the game — of the season — on a desperation throw forced by a horrible defense that couldn’t stop the Packers on fourth-and-8 at the 48.

Fourth-and-8 at the 48 — they teach that in clown college, right? …

Cutler played well enough to earn a playoff spot Sunday. Cutler played well enough to give the Bears reason to spend the money that a wanna-be franchise quarterback commands this offseason.

But Cutler’s price is nothing compared to the cost of deporting everybody on the Bears defense.

The Chicago Sun-Times’ Patrick Finley looks at the same play:

The Packers converted two fourth downs on the same drive Sunday, but now faced their longest conversion attempt: fourth-and-8 from the Bears’ 48 with 46 seconds remaining.

Get a stop, the game’s over, and the Bears win the NFC North.

The Bears would be bold.

They would blitz.

To quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ left, Julius Peppers dove and missed. Rodgers spun left, away from the rush, and spotted receiver Randall Cobb sprinting down the left hash, waiving.

He was wide open, having sprinted past a blown zone coverage for a 48-yard touchdown — and an epic 33-28 Bears loss.

“When you’ve got an all-out blitz on, you’re leaving the back end one-on-one,” coach Marc Trestman said. “What you’re counting on happening is that blitz has got to get there, so he can get rid of the ball.“

Cornerback Zack Bowman said the Bears “had some miscommunications on the back end — and that’s what happens when you have some miscommunications on the back end.”

The Sun–Times’ Rick Morrissey is no happier:

It ended the way it probably should have, with a puzzling defensive decision by the Bears in the final minute of the game, the resultant defensive breakdown and the obligatory Green Bay Packers touchdown.

It ended with a blitz that fizzled and a 48-yard scoring pass from Aaron Rodgers to Randall Cobb, who was so open he looked like he was running unopposed for office. If I told you it ended on the third of three fourth-down conversions on the Packers’ drive, I don’t suppose you’d be surprised. No, I didn’t think so.

If you want a summary of the season, there it is. A bad defense couldn’t stop Rodgers on Sunday, and it certainly didn’t help that the Bears decided to bring the house on fourth-and-eight. …

One of the themes has been head-scratching decisions and boneheaded developments. Sunday didn’t disappoint. The decision to blitz on fourth down didn’t make a whole lot of sense at the snap, and it looked downright brainless when Packers fullback John Kuhn was able to block Julius Peppers. It allowed Rodgers to step to his left, buying him time, space and a spot in the playoffs.

“I wasn’t expecting empty ­pressure, but they went for it,’’ Packers coach Mike McCarthy said.

“What you’re counting on happening is that the blitz is going to get there so [Rodgers] has got to get rid of the ball now,’’ Bears coach Marc Trestman said. “It’s not going to be a six-second play. Once Aaron Rodgers got outside the pocket, anything can happen.’’

Yes. Exactly. If Rodgers gets out of the pocket, havoc can ensue. And it did. I think they called that the chaos theory in “Jurassic Park.’’ You’re leading 28-27 with 46 seconds left, with the ball at midfield. Why blitz? Tighten up the defense and keep him contained.

But, no. Cobb found himself all by himself in the secondary because this is the Bears’ defense and that’s what happens.

More from the Arlington Daily Herald’s Bob LeGere:

It wasn’t the collective brain cramp late in the first half that lost Sunday’s game for the Bears.

Even though 11 defenders stood around watching as Packers wide receiver Jarrett Boykin scooped up a loose ball and pranced 15 yards for a touchdown, they were able to overcome that.

What they weren’t able to overcome is a defense that couldn’t make a play when it had ample opportunities with the game on the line. The result was a 33-28 loss at Soldier Field to the Packers, who claimed the NFC North title and a home game to start the playoffs next weekend. The Bears get to watch from home. …

But it was the Packers’ last possession that put the magnifying glass on a Bears defense that has been a burden most of the season.

Green Bay went 87 yards on 15 plays in 5:46 and converted not 1, not 2, but 3 fourth-down plays along the way. The dagger was a fourth-and-8 play from the Bears’ 48.

Bears defensive coordinator Mel Tucker sent an all-out blitz, which never got there. Rodgers got outside a pass rush what was supposed to keep him contained.

“Once Rodgers gout outside the pocket, anything can happen,” Trestman said. “You have to marvel at the fact he was going to his left and made that kind of throw (back to the right).”

After that it was easy because no one covered wide receiver Randall Cobb, who ran unaccompanied down the middle of the field, caught Rodgers’ toss down all alone behind the secondary and sprinted in for the winner with 38 seconds left.

“It came down to the last play, fourth-and-8, we had an all-out blitz,” defensive lineman Corey Wootton said. “We have to make that play. That’s on us, the D-line.”

Cornerback Zack Bowman, who did not have responsibility for Cobb, gave chase but to no avail.

“In the back end, we had some miscommunication,” Bowman said. “As a group we all take responsibility for the play. When everybody doesn’t get on the same page that’s when you get a big play.”

Prior to Cobb coming free, safety Chris Conte was the closest defender to him, as nickel corner Isaiah Frey was one of the Bears’ blitzers. …

Maybe the late-season fade can’t be compared to the collapse of the Detroit Lions, who went 1-6 in their last seven. But Trestman’s team had two opportunities to wrap up the NFC North and a playoff berth.

Instead, the Bears won’t be involved in the postseason party for the sixth time in seven years.

On Sunday, the Packers play Da Bears, with the winner winning the NFC North title and the loser watching the playoffs from home.

As stated before here, Da Bears are the Packers’ biggest regardless-of-record opponent.

Sunday’s game is juicier because Aaron Rodgers is finally returning for the Packers after his collarbone injury, and because the Bears are embroiled in yet another quarterback controversy.

Regardless of that, Bleacher Report reports on why Bears fans hate the Packers:

Since 1921, The Chicago Bears andGreen Bay Packers have engaged in the league’s longest and most heated rivalry. The two sides have met 186 times with the Bears winning 92 of thematchups. Close proximity, gritty battles and hated foes are just a few of the reasons why a Bears fan hates the Packers.

No player haunts Chicago fans more than Brett Favre. He was able to win 11 consecutive times in Chicago, but it was a meeting at Green Bay back in 1995 that cemented hatred for him from Bears fans.

In the November meeting of that season, the Bears were 6-4 and on top of the division, one game over the Packers. Favre was not supposed to play due to an ankle injury and had not practiced all week. A loss for the Bears meant a tie in the standings and a season sweep to Green Bay. Not only did Favre play, but he torched the Bears to the tune of 336 yards and five touchdowns. The Packers went on the win the division while the Bears finished third.

The name Charles Martin brings up terrible memories for Jim McMahon and the Bears. In a meeting the year after the Bears’ Super Bowl win, Martin inexplicably picked up McMahon and threw him to the ground, causing McMahon to separate his shoulder and miss the rest of the season. The Bears lost in the divisional round of the playoffs that year and McMahon was never the same again. Martin’s action garnered a two game suspension, which was the longest in league history at the time.

You can credit the November 23, 1924 meeting between the two teams as the first time the league ever saw an ejection. The Bears’ Frank Hanny and Packers’ Walter Vosswere tossed after a war of words turned into punches thrown. The Bears won the game 3-0. …

The last time the Bears played the Packers with so much at stake, this happened:

And yet, the Bears’ and Packers’ common history is remarkable, writes Martin Hendricks:

George Halas is synonymous with the Chicago Bears, a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who founded, played for and coached the franchise he loved.

“Papa Bear” also pioneered the growth and expansion of the National Football League and is one of the league’s most revered figures. Halas was a fierce competitor and wanted badly to beat Chicago’s most heated-rival Green Bay at every opportunity.

“Believe me, Coach Halas loved to beat the Packers,” said Mike Ditka, former Bears tight end and head coach. “I had no clue about the rivalry, but I quickly found out. Every year, we had to play them twice, and those were the most important games of the year to him.”

But Halas also had a soft spot for the league’s smallest franchise.

“Coach Halas had tremendous respect for Vince Lombardi,” Ditka said. “There may not have been any (love lost with Curly Lambeau), but he had great respect for Lombardi and the Packers organization.” …

Green Bay was expelled from the league during its winter meeting in January 1922. While it was Halas who was instrumental in bringing the infractions to the league’s attention, he also fought to reinstate the Packers.

Lambeau bought back the franchise in 1922 for a $250 fee, including $50 of his own money.

Green Bay returned the favor in 1932, when the Chicago franchise was struggling. According to the Packers media guide and the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Halas accepted a $1,500 loan from the Packers to meet his payroll.

“We (the players) always heard of the stories of the hard financial times for both the Packers and the Bears in the early days,” said former Packers back Herm Schneidman, who played from 1935-’39.

“Lambeau hated to lose to the Bears, and Halas hated to lose to the Packers. Those guys could scream pretty good at us fellows during the games. It was pretty intense. Curly got all worked up leading up to the Bears game every time.”

Green Bay faced tough times on and off the field at the end of Lambeau’s tenure in the late 1940s. The Packers won their sixth world championship in 1944, but they had losing seasons in 1948 (3-9) and 1949 (2-10) and continued to struggle financially.

Lambeau fell out favor with the team’s board of directors for the purchase of Rockwood Lodge as a training site in 1946 and was embroiled in an internal power struggle before resigning in 1950 to coach the Chicago Cardinals.

How ironic that Lambeau coached in the same city for two seasons against Halas, whose Bears were the superior franchise at the time. Green Bay endured the 1950s with three head coaches before hiring Lombardi from the New York Giants in 1959.

The team desperately needed a new stadium to replace City Stadium in the mid-1950s, and the league brass watched closely as it considered whether Green Bay could continue to be a viable NFL franchise.

Halas spoke at an emotional rally at the Columbus Club on March 31, 1956, in support of a new stadium as voters flocked to the polls to decide the stadium bonding funding issue.

More than 1,000 fans packed the auditorium to hear city officials, Lambeau, Halas, Gene Ronzani, Lisle Blackbourn, and former Packer Johnny “Blood” McNally and Tony Canadeo push for a “yes” vote to build a new stadium.

Headlines in the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s issue stated, “Dramatic Appeals Made: Halas, Lambeau urge ‘Yes’ Vote at Pep Rally.

The “yes” vote prevailed and a new stadium was unveiled for the season opener in 1957 against the Bears, with Halas, who had stepped down as coach of the Bears for two seasons, in attendance.

Green Bay edged Chicago, 21-17, to complete a weekend celebration christening the only stadium in the country designed exclusively for football. A new stadium did not change the team’s losing ways. They finished 3-9 in ’57 and hit rock bottom in ’58 with a 1-10-1 record under Ray “Scooter” McLean.

McLean was let go, and Packer President Dominic Olejniczak asked Halas for advice during the ensuing head coaching search. Halas endorsed Lombardi, a New York Giants assistant, stating “Lombardi is your man.”

And the rest is history.

“George Halas was a towering figure in the NFL,” former Green Bay guard Jerry Kramer said. “Without question, coach Lombardi had a lot of respect for Halas. More than respect, even a reverence.”

None of what you read prevented this from happening: Before one ’60s game, someone knocked at the Packers’ locker room door. It was Halas. Lombardi asked him what he wanted. Halas’ reported response: “I jsut want to tell you that we’re going to kick your ass!”

By the way: Lombardi’s Packers were 13–5 against Halas’ Bears.

Occasionally after a big win over a big Packers rival — usually the Bears or Vikings — I like to bring blog readers the perspective of the losing side’s news media, which often turn on the team they’re covering.

That particularly is the case with Sunday’s improbable 37-36 Packers win over Dallas, in which the Cowboys blew a 26-3 halftime lead. The comeback matched the 1982 season-opening game in which the Los Angeles Rams scored the game’s first 23 points, but the Packers scored the last 35 points.

The Cowboys are one of the Packers’ three biggest outside-the-division rivals. (The other two are San Francisco and the New York Giants.) There’s the Ice Bowl, of course (along with the NFL championship game one year earlier), and the Cowboys’ domination of the Packers in their infrequent ’70s and ’80s meetings. But when Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys, and when the Cowboys ended three consecutive postseasons, that’s what stokes a rivalry.

Perhaps this photo of Jones should be on page 1 of today’s Metroplex newspapers:

Or, in the words of Cowboys fan Hank Hill of Arlen, Texas:

ESPN Dallas called the game a “Total Meltdown”:

The Cowboys had a 23-point lead against a backup quarterback and could not close the deal as they continued to find inventive ways to lose in 2013 as well as continue their December woes.

Tony Romo threw two fourth-quarter interceptions. The first led to Green Bay’s game-winning touchdown and the second killed any chance the Cowboys had of coming back for the win. …

Romo’s final pass was picked off by Tramon Williams with 1:22 to play and it sent the Cowboys fans rushing to the exits and the large number of Packers fans into hysteria after Walt Coleman overturned what had been called an incomplete pass.

Two weeks after Sports Illustrated gushed over Romo, the Dallas Morning News has a different opinion:

1.) Another poor finish to put on Tony Romo’s resume. The Cowboys’ franchise quarterback threw two interceptions in the final minutes and he has no one to blame but himself. As great as Romo has been at times in his career, there’s no denying that his critical mistakes is what he will be forever known for. Romo had a chance to put this game on ice when he threw deep to Dez Bryant late in the fourth quarter on first down. Yes, the Cowboys should’ve ran the ball, but Bryant was wide open and Romo under threw him. The two picks followed and the Cowboys might’ve just watched a playoff berth go out the window.

2. The defense was bad, but you shouldn’t have expected anything different. The injuries and poor scheme have done this franchise no favors. It’s not fair, but the offense has to carry this team. Sunday against a bad Green Bay club, they couldn’t get the job done. The blowout on Monday night was bad, but the way they lost Sunday is even more embarrassing.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has a quote about Romo’s interception that set up the game-winning touchdown that will make Cowboys fans scream:

Five plays later, Romo was intercepted by Sam Shields at midfield with 2:50 left in the game.

“It’s a run call. That specific time, we should have run the ball,” Romo said. “It’s tough. They overloaded the side we were going to run the ball to. It’s my fault putting the ball in position for the defense to make a play.” …

Two plays after the ensuing kickoff, Romo was intercepted by Tramon Williams with 1:22 left to play. On first down, Romo threw 9 yards to Beasley. On second down, Williams intercepted Romo on a similar play intended for Beasley. Beasley stopped on the route and Romo threw outside.

The News’ Rainer Sabin pursues the failure-to-run angle:

The Cowboys seemed determined to throw even in situations that didn’t require them to pass. Case in point: The interception that was the Cowboys’ coup de grace. The original play was a run but Tony Romo checked out of it and sealed Dallas’ fate.

“Certainly it didn’t work out well for us,” head coach Jason Garrett said. “We’ll go back and look at what we did.”

The film will show that the Cowboys curiously marginalized DeMarco Murray in a game he averaged 7.4 yards per carry and gained 134 yards. Murray faded in the background as the Cowboys carried the ball seven times in the second half and played like a team aiming to overcome a deficit as opposed to one trying to maintain a lead.

It was uncertain how Murray felt about how his reduced involvement after his day began with great promise when he sliced through the Packers front during a 41-yard dash in on the team’s second possession. After carrying the ball 18 times in a game in which Tony Romo had 51 dropbacks, the third-year tailback disappeared from the locker room by the time the media invaded the premises. But the man he runs behind, newly-acquired fullback Tyler Clutts, was there. Asked to explain why the Cowboys didn’t keep feeding the ball to Murray, Clutts didn’t give a definitive answer.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ve got to control what we can and we didn’t do enough to win the game. Simple as that.”

Clutts joined the team earlier this month. By then, the Cowboys had shown that they were so committed to throwing to the ball that they sometimes paid for their allegiance to that pass-first philosophy. In a close-shave victory over Minnesota last month, Tony Romo dropped back 54 times and the Cowboys called eight running plays.

A week later, in a blowout loss to New Orleans, they dug themselves a hole at the end of the first half when Romo misfired three consecutive times on one series. The Saints got the ball back, scored a touchdown and cruised to an easy win. Essentially the same scenario unfolded last Monday in a deflating defeat to Chicago. Near the end of the second quarter, Romo threw errantly on three straight downs, the Cowboys punted, and the Bears scored just before the break to take a commanding lead.

Then came Sunday.

“At different times in the second half, we probably could have run the ball more,” Garrett said.

But they didn’t. After building a substantial lead, the Cowboys, who entered Sunday throwing 64.1 percent of the time, were reluctant to feature Murray. In the final two quarters, the Cowboys carried out 11 plays on second-down – when the decision to run or pass is usually a toss-up – and Murray was handed the ball on only one of them.

Garrett, who hears Callahan’s play-calls through the headset he wears, acted as if he was powerless over how the offense was managed during the period when they lost control of the game.

“We wanted to mix run and pass,” Garrett said. “…We’ll go back and evaluate and see how well we did that.”

About clock management: In the NFL, the 40-second play clock begins after the end of the play, when the official either waves the game clock to a stop or raises his hand and blows his whistle. (In high school and college, the play clock starts when an official spots the ball at the new line of scrimmage.) So if an NFL team does nothing but hand off and gains not one single yard, that team can take 2 minutes, plus however long the plays take to run, off the clock. Given that, the only way the Packers could have stopped the clock in the fourth quarter is by using their time outs and with the two-minute warning. The bizarre thing is that, thanks to Shields’ interception, Packers fans probably thought Eddie Lacy scored too soon with 1:31 left.

But as the News’ Brandon George reports, it wasn’t just the offense:

The Cowboys actually forced Green Bay to punt Sunday six days after Chicago never did in a Monday night meltdown.

But Packers punter Tim Masthay was nowhere to be found in the second half.

After only allowing Green Bay a 57-yard field goal in the first half, the Cowboys’ NFL-worst defense showed its true colors in the second half.

The Packers scored touchdowns on all five second-half possessions before they kneeled three consecutive times to end the Cowboys’ misery.

After the Cowboys blew a 26-3 halftime lead, owner Jerry Jones still said he has “a lot of confidence” in defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin because of his experience.

The Cowboys played the entire second half with their top four linebackers out with injuries. Their top two defensive linemen – DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher – combined for only one tackle.

“The second half was a complete debacle,” Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr said, “and they took advantage of us. We couldn’t get off the field once again.”

A Cowboys’ defense that held Green Bay to 1-for-6 on third-down attempts in the first half couldn’t get the Packers to punt in the last two quarters.

Green Bay converted 6-of-7 third-down attempts in the second half. The only one they didn’t convert was the third-down kneel by Green Bay quarterback Matt Flynn to end the game.

The News’ Tim Cowlishaw blames, well, everyone:

An organizational failure of epic proportions. Sunday’s 37-36 loss to Green Bay at AT&T Stadium was nothing less and, when it comes to head coach Jason Garrett, the hot seat is back in play.

The old “clock management” issue that troubled Garrett in seasons past was reopened Sunday…even if Garrett all but suggested he has no control over it.

Meanwhile, the bad news for Garrett is that the Cowboys have blown four leads of 20 or more points and, while one came in 1965 before the team ever had a winning record and another in 1988 when Tom Landry was about to get fired, the top two have come on Garrett’s watch.

Here’s another stat that isn’t pretty. The Packers tied their team record for biggest comeback (23 points), and they’ve only been in the NFL since about a decade before the Great Depression.

What the Cowboys are experiencing is a fairly standard December recession. Still, I think the head coach has plenty of help in making these awful things happen.

Garrett’s not the type to point fingers directly, pull a Bill Parcells and say “I’m not the one who committed all those penalties.”

Then again when asked about the failure to protect a lead — specifically about throwing late when they should have been running and forcing Green Bay to use timeouts — Garrett could not have been more direct.

“The idea was to run the ball and use the clock,” he said, then explained how the  system allows Tony Romo to change to pass plays if he sees nine defenders geared to stop the run.

He also made it clear about where those play calls are coming from.

“Bill (Callahan) calls the plays,” Garrett said. No hesitation, no suggestion that his headset gives him any more access to play calls than a Jeff Gordon fan listening to the 24 team’s radio during a NASCAR race.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said last month that Garrett was coming back for 2014. That doesn’t mean it’s written in stone — he was pretty steadfast about Chan Gailey coming back in 1999 right up until he fired him two days after a playoff loss in Minnesota. …

We are running out of things to say about how bad Monte Kiffin’s defense is, how irrelevant DeMarcus Ware has become, how many relative no-name receivers Brandon Carr can’t cover (add the Packers’ Jarrett Boykin to the roll call) and so on.

A Green Bay team that managed three points in the first half scored five touchdowns in the second, three of them on 80-yard drives.

The Cowboys offense could have limited the carnage had Romo avoided those (gulp) two late interceptions. Yes, the entire world should know by now that Cole Beasley cut short his route on the final ill-fated throw. Beasley, Garrett and Romo made sure of that with their post-game remarks.

The Star–Telegram’s Randy Galloway adds:

The easy answer is this:

Fire everybody. Now.

But since there’s nobody to jettison Jerry Jones, that allows his butt to wiggle off the hook. For nearly two decades, Jerry has done no time for his multiple football crimes.

Speaking, however, of blame:

Honk if you are guilty of having overrated Mr. Jones’ current maggot-mess of a football club.

Personally, I’m leaning on the horn based on a seasonlong assessment that the Cowboys were the epitome of NFL mediocrity.

The month of December, however, has totally exposed the fallacy of that theory.

Mediocrity would be a pronounced upgrade. Instead, this is simply a decaying club, which between Chicago last Monday night and here at the Big Yard on Sunday afternoon is rotting from the head down. Jerry’s head. 

But let’s not waste time here. We need to get right to Tony.

Green Bay’s second half offensive tsunami swept the Cowboys into the history pages for dubious franchise deeds with a 37-36 win column rescue by the Packers, drawing the obvious question of “worst loss ever?”

The answer is yes. Simply because it was the latest loss that defied logic.

But at his going financial rate of $108 million, Tony Romo was outplayed for the second game in six days by a backup quarterback. This time, Matt Flynn. Last week, Josh McCown.

In Romo’s defense, he isn’t facing the depleted Cowboys’ defense, which even outdid itself in incompetence by giving up five straight touchdown drives in Sunday’s second half as Green Bay rallied from a 26-3 intermission deficit.

Then again, it’s not like the Packers, or the Bears last week, don’t have some serious defensive problems of their own.

But Romo throwing interceptions on the Cowboys’ last two possessions, one pick while attempting to milk a five-point lead, the other while attempting to get into field-goal position for the trusty foot of Dan Bailey, is the way this loss closed out.

The last pick was not Romo’s fault. Young receiver Cole Beasley simply cut off a sideline route.

The other one? Good grief, Tony. …

Romo dodged a defender who came loose on the play, but then his pass was a tad behind Miles Austin. Such a game-changing opportunity did not elude cornerback Sam Shields.

But so much of the second half came down to the Cowboys not using the run game enough, particularly since it was effective all afternoon.

Then again, when the game became a shootout, the emphasis was on the Cowboys putting up points. “It’s easy to look back now and say, ‘Run the ball, run the ball,’ but at the same time, if they are going to have numbers [the Packers stacking the defensive box], it’s a tough situation,” Romo said.

“What I have to do is a better job of protecting the ball, and I didn’t do a good enough job of that. I will next time.”

Aikman and play-by-play voice Joe Buck proved an excoriating tag team in their critique of the Cowboys play calling and clock management in Dallas’ 37-36 come-from-ahead loss to the Green Bay Packers in front of a national television audience.

In the end, Buck concluded the loss “is going to go down as one of the worst defeats in the history of the Dallas Cowboys.”

Added Aikman: “It’s hard to explain but the clock management by the Dallas Cowboys was about as bad as I’ve seen.”

That would include the play calls that ran through Coach Jason Garrett, once Aikman’s backup with the Cowboys and still his friend.

Just minutes before as the Packers were en route to their game-winning touchdown Aikman called out star defensive end DeMarcus Ware, who had been invisible all game.

“This is where DeMarcus Ware needs to show up,” Aikman told America. “He was challenged this week. He’s been a non-factor all afternoon.”

Ware didn’t show. …

Recall that the Cowboys led 26-3 at the half and they still led 29-17 as the third quarter wound down. Inexplicably, the Cowboys insisted on throwing the ball despite a successful running attack by DeMarco Murray, who was running with ease. He was averaging seven yards per carry. Running eats clock. Just what the Cowboys needed most.

After three consecutive incompletions all Aikman could say about the choice of plays had been a “big mistake.”

In the wake of one seemingly ill-timed Romo pass, the four words America heard were: “Are you kidding me?”

Considering the source it was a four-word indictment harsher than anything tweeted or written in its wake.

And there was Buck coming off the top rope when Packers defensive back Sam Shields intercepted a Romo pass on a second-down-and-six at the Cowboys 35 yard-line with a little less than three minutes remaining. Murray had just rushed for four yards.

“Why the Dallas Cowboys refused to run the ball in this situation is inexplicable,” Buck said. “The play calling of the Dallas Cowboys will come under serious question.”

USA Today poured gasoline on the fire:

After a furious Green Bay Packers comeback on Sunday cut a 26-3 halftime Cowboys lead to 36-31, Dallas had the ball up five points with just over two minutes remaining. On a second-and-6, when almost every other NFL team would be running the ball to milk the clock, Romo dropped back, scrambled away from a rush and threw an inexplicable, indefensible interception that led to the game-winning score for the Packers.

Then, when he had a chance at redemption with 1:20 remaining and his team down one point, Romo threw another pick, ending the game and bailing out the Philadelphia Eagles for an earlier loss in Minnesota. Now, the NFC East is in the hands of Philly, not Dallas, because Romo couldn’t keep the ball away from the Packers.

The Romo defenders, and there are plenty out there, will say the biggest story of the game is the absolute second-half collapse of the Dallas defense. It’s not Romo’s fault his team’s defense gave up five second-half touchdowns on the first five second-half possessions to a team that could barely win a game without Aaron Rodgers as a starter. And it’s not his fault the Dallas play calls were for passes instead of runs on the clock-killing possession at the end of the game.

These things are all true — though, there’s criticism when teams throw late (“they’re being too reckless) and there’s criticism when they run, (they’re playing it too safe) and these gripes always fit snugly into the game narrative. The Dallas defense is terrible and the playcalling was baffling. But the defense didn’t throw behind Miles Austin on the first pick, nor did it float a pass to a wideout who stopped on his route on the second. That’s on Romo and that’s life in the NFL. Quarterbacks are the heroes and quarterbacks are the goats and there’s rarely an in between.

The Cowboys were not the only victims Sunday:

This police motorcycle reportedly was run over by the Packers’ team bus.

Today is one of the great NFL traditions that I wish the Packers were a permanent part of — the Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit.

The Packers used to play the Lions in Detroit (or Pontiac after and before) on Thanksgiving until 1962, when the Packers’ only loss was that game. Vince Lombardi decided to end the tradition after that, which seems like an uncharacteristic-for-Lombardi thing to do, to wriggle out of a challenge.

Not many fans may realize this, but Lions vs. Packers is the NFL’s longest continuously played rivalry, with twice-yearly meetings since 1932. Yes, the Packers have played Da Bears longer, but the NFL strike in 1982 wiped out that season’s Bears–Packers meetings.

The Lions have done better on Thanksgiving than on days not named Thanksgiving for several years. Which makes, according to Bleacher Report, the Packers a bigger rival for the Lions than the other two NFC North teams:

What do the following things all have in common? The Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field, Ahman Green, Donald Driver, Charles Woodson, Jordy Nelson and freakin’ Samkon Gado!

They’re all part of Green Bay Packers lore, and they’ve all killed the Detroit Lions at one time or another.

Of course, all those names are from the last 20 years. The truth is, the Green Bay Packers have been dominating the Lions much longer than that. …

The overall record is 98-65-7 in favor of Green Bay, and the Pack have outscored the Lions by nearly 1,000 points in those games.

Even worse, they are 2-0 in the postseason against the hapless Lions. …

A history of butt-whoopings isn’t the only reason why, either.

The Packers Have What Lions Fans Want

I’m not talking about Super Bowl wins; I’ll get to that later. What the Packers have that Lions fans want is myth, legend and historical significance.

They have a myriad of Hall of Famers who helped make the NFL what it is today. Vince Lombardi, Ray Nitschke, Bart Starr and Reggie White all had huge impacts on the NFL.

Lombardi’s speeches will live forever. Nitschke typified the kind of hard-nosed never-say-die player every team wanted. Defensive ends will be trying to emulate White’s powerful pass rush forever.

The Lions have no such players in their history.  Bobby Layne is more famous for the curse he put on the Lions when he left than for what he did when he played.

Alex Karras is more famous for his work on television and in film than for playing football in Detroit.

Then there’s Barry Sanders. He’s one player Lions fans could always hang their hat on. Arguably the greatest running back in NFL history, he chose retirement over playing out his career in Detroit. …

Even on the rare occasion when the Lions steal a win from them, like in 2010, there’s always an asterisk. In this case, Aaron Rodgers was knocked out of the game. So the Lions’ 7-3 victory actually turned into a negative.

The Packers were without their best player and the Lions managed to beat them by only four points?

Regardless, it’s the losses that chap the you-know-what of Lions’ fans, and there are three particular games that stand out.

In 1993, the Lions finished 10-6 and beat the Packers in the last game of the season. They won home-field advantage in the playoffs, and fans were going crazy. Sanders, Herman Moore and Rodney Peete were poised to make a playoff run.

Unfortunately, they had to play the Packers again in the first round. Any knucklehead could tell you the Lions’ chances of beating them twice in a row were slim to none. The Pack knocked the Lions out of the playoffs by the score 28-24.

Dreams were dashed.

The following season, the Lions were riding a wave of positive energy from the previous year’s playoff berth. They went 9-7 and reached the playoffs for the second straight year.

That year would be different, right?

Wrong. The Packers held Sanders to minus-1 yard rushing and the Lions to minus-4 yards rushing as a team. The Lions lost 16-12, but it was how the game ended that really boiled fans’ blood.

The Packers intentionally took a safety to run out the clock and seal the victory. That’s bush league and made Lions fans all the more irate.

Finally, the Packers had the pleasure of putting the final nail in the coffin of the worst season in NFL history. They beat the Lions 31-21 on December 28, 2008 and the Lions finished 0-16.

It was painful for fans to watch the Lions go winless, but to lose the final game to the Packers was excruciating.

And the Lions haven’t won at Lambeau Field since 1991.

Adding spice to today’s battle of two teams within one-half game of each other in the NFC North are the comments of Packers offensive lineman Josh Sitton, as reported by Lombardi Avenue:

It probably wasn’t the best timing and probably not the best thing to say two days before a big game but that clearly didn’t matter to Green Bay Packers left Pro-Bowl guard Josh Sitton.

He went on the air today with @GaryEllerson and the @1250WSSP, and was just being Josh … honesty is the best policy – even though it will certainly lead to bulletin board material for the Detroit Lions.

Sitton should know. He plays against those guys twice a year and doesn’t mince words when he talks about the opposition. When it comes to the Lions, it’s not a secret. They are dirty. They do everything they can to get to the quarterback. They do everything they can to hurt the quarterback and when Sitton was asked if the Lions would go after Aaron Rodgers (or whomever is playing quarterback for the Packers), here’s what he had to say:

“Absolutely. I don’t think there’s any question about that. They go after quarterbacks. Their entire defense takes cheap shots all the time, that’s what they do, that’s who they are. They’re a bunch of dirtbags, or scumbags. I mean, that’s how they play.”

He wasn’t done either.

He also told us something about from where the attitude stems:

“It starts with their frickin’ coach. Starts with the head coach. Schwartz, he’s a (expletive), too, I wouldn’t want to play for him. … Starts with him, their D-coordinator and their D-line coach. They’re all just scumbags, and so are the D-line.”

He’s right.

The Lions play a game of pain. Their game is to inflict pain any way they can. When they have a coach who can’t even shake an opposing coach’s hand after a game without chasing him down because his ego was bruised, you can see how that attitude would be reflected by the players who play for him.

The reaction, one day later:

You heard them, I heard them, the Lions heard them and head coach Mike McCarthy heard them … did he care and does it really matter?

Well, here’s how McCarthy reacted this morning when asked about it:

“I heard about them. Really, when matters like that happen with the media, the only thing I ask our players is to not create questions for everybody else in the locker room. Those comments did not create that.”

That’s because everyone, including McCarthy, knows that what Sitton said was spot-on. They ARE scumbags and their style of play only backs that up. McCarthy didn’t say it in those words, but his comment and reaction only solidifies Sitton’s comments.

Whether it’s bulletin board material or not doesn’t matter at this level of the game. They are all professionals and will go out and play like their next paycheck depends upon it. But watching the line play will be interesting … in fact watching the action after plays will be even more interesting. That’s when the dirty work gets done by the scumbags.