Morning Buzz: Squirrel steals show at Lambeau
Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers and their embarrassing loss to the Indianapolis Colts from around the web and here at PackersNews.com. Grab a cup of coffee (or brew some tea) and get caught up on everything you need to know about the Packers.
Since we try to be the purveyors of buzz in this space on a daily basis, there really is only one place to start today.
Squirrel!
That’s right, in a game where the Packers came out and played uninspired football against a team they should have beat, the appearance of a squirrel in the end zone took the internet by storm Sunday.
As for the moribund football team that resides in Green Bay, Bob McGinn’s postgame column does a great job of sounding the alarm bells that all is not well with Mike McCarthy’s team.
You start losing as a touchdown favorite at Lambeau Field, you start losing everything.
That’s becoming a habit, a very bad habit, for coach Mike McCarthy and the Green Bay Packers. The latest failure came Sunday on a postcard-perfect afternoon for football that was won by the dogged Indianapolis Colts, 31-26
Pete Dougherty uses the word “blah” to describe the Packers in his column on the issues facing the team and their lack of identity.
It’s not just that the Green Bay Packers are only 4-4 halfway through a 2016 season that they entered as a Super Bowl hopeful. It’s how they got here that has to have them worried.
By the time they took the field for their 3:25 p.m. start Sunday, they knew the Detroit Lions had beaten the Minnesota Vikings. So a win over the underwhelming Indianapolis Colts would have put the Packers in a tie for first place in the NFC North Division with half the season ahead of them.
Instead, as a seven-point favorite at home, they played maybe their worst game of the season.
The tone for the day was set when the Colts opened the game with a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. The coverage units were poor all day, as Michael Cohen lays out.
After that inauspicious beginning, the team seemed to lack energy and it was noticeable to everyone, including the starting quarterback.
Rodgers calls out Packers' 'lack of juice'
Last week against the Falcons, defensive coordinator Dom Capers sat back and played coverage. His guys couldn’t get to the quarterback. This week, Capers' guys blitzed extensively. And they still couldn’t get to the quarterback. Ryan Wood takes a look at the lack of pressure.
Gary D’Amato examines the failures on defense as a whole, including their inability to get stops at crucial times. It’s not a pretty picture.
Cohen spotlights Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, who had probably his finest game of the season ... right up until the end.
Tom Silverstein looks at how the Colts slowed down the offense, including a note on former Packers backup quarterback Scott Tolzein helping the Colts prepare for Aaron Rodgers.
I spoke with despondent Packers fans via Facebook Live after the game.
Elsewhere, Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal writes that maybe the Packers just aren’t very good anymore.
Some of Ron Zook’s units are worse than Shawn Slocumn's were.
Some national outlets are starting to wonder about Mike McCarthy’s job security.
Things just don’t look good in general around Green Bay.
But of course, it all comes back to the squirrel.