The Packers: A Good Team, But Not A Good Enough Team

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates start with some breaking news out of college sports as the NCAA proposes to reduce the transfer windows into a single transfer window. Under the proposal, there would be just one 10 transfer window in January. No more players checking out before the bowl games! Lucas says hey, progress is progress. Oates is not so sure. Not that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea, just that he isn’t holding his breath that it’ll come anytime soon. He’ll wait to see if it will hold up before a judge before he starts celebrating. But of course, the main topic today is the Packers. Green Bay’s season came to an end in Philly after losing to the Eagles on Sunday. To sum up the season with a phrase: they were a good team, but not a good enough team. So many people expected them to really step up this year, and they simply didn’t. Yes, they spent their money well last offseason when they picked up some top players on both sides of the ball. But look at Love. Expectations were high at the end of last season, and he just didn’t grow this season (though Oates thinks he didn’t regress either). Yes, he had some injuries, and those probably played into why he wasn’t as mobile as he needed to be. But people just expected more. The defense played well this year, Lucas thinks, but the issues laid in the offense. There is a lot of talent on the Packers offense, but there needs to be a standout, specifically a standout wide receiver. Jacobs is great, but there were very few explosive plays on Sunday.  Look at next year, the locker room will be looking different. One thing that we know is that Tom Clements, the Packers’ long time quarterback coach, is retiring. As a man who had worked with Farve, Rodgers, and Love, the Packers are definitely going to miss him next year. Plus, two major players are almost certainly gone: Christian Watson and Jaire Alexander. It’s neither of their faults, and nobody would rather sit around hurt than play. But you still need to show up, and both of their absences were felt on the field.  The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.