Blunt Remarks By My Buddy Bad Bob McGinn

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The failure of the Green Bay Packers' defense this season lay at the feet of the players, Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy and his staff of defensive coaches.

When the offense had one bad day, the defense not only wasn't there to pick it up last Sunday but exacerbated the problem by giving up 37 points in the crushing NFC divisional playoff loss to the New York Giants.

Lambeau Field stands ice cold and silent. The NFC Championship Game destined for Green Bay will be played late Sunday afternoon in San Francisco, and the Packers will be watching from home.

In his valedictory Wednesday, McCarthy spoke of weak fundamentals and sloppy tackling to explain the collapse of his defense. That was the sanitized coach-speak of a man obviously not interested in saying what was really on his mind.

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In chronological order, let's look back at the people and events that shaped the worst defense in franchise history and the second-worst defense in NFL history. Clearly, this is a fall that could have been avoided.

On March 2, the Packers cut A.J. Hawk to escape his $10 million guaranteed salary for 2011. The next day, they signed him for $33.75 million over five years.

The decision to re-sign Hawk was doubly damaging because it also meant the end of Nick Barnett's career in Green Bay. They played side-by-side from 2006 until Week 4 of 2010 when Barnett broke his wrist. Scouts routinely over the years called Barnett the better player of the two.

Hawk started 15 games, playing almost every down. He finished third in tackles with 109 and didn't have a turnover play. His contract averaged $6.75 million.

It's beyond me how Thompson can come back with Hawk as the starter next season. There even have been whispers among Hawk's teammates. They know better than anyone else how little his game has to offer.

Some scouts have said rookie D.J. Smith played better in 3½ games than Hawk did. He's the future, not Hawk.

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By draft day, Thompson already had made the decision that Cullen Jenkins was too much of an injury risk and wouldn't be re-signed. It was similar to March 2010, when Thompson let Aaron Kampman, another oft-injured pass rusher, walk as a free agent.

Thompson was dead right on Kampman because he kept getting hurt. But he was dead wrong on Jenkins.

The Packers were counting on Mike Neal to compensate for Jenkins' pass rush. If Neal failed, they knew the next-best rush option was to draft someone to start opposite Clay Matthews.

Jenkins was the same player in Philadelphia that he had been in Green Bay except he didn't miss any games. Neal, of course, proved worthless. The entire D-line had 37½ pressures in 17 games this year whereas Jenkins had 35 by himself in 15 games last year.

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Driven to wit's end by the non-pass rush, coordinator Dom Capers threw up his arms and decided he might as well just drop eight against the Giants. But given the dysfunction in the back seven, Eli Manning still shredded the defense and that was that.

Not even Capers' "Come to Jesus" meetings during the open week could rescue this bunch.

Tramon Williams, Sam Shields and Morgan Burnett learned it from Charles Woodson. They also had won a Super Bowl taking those same kinds of chances.

Even that is no excuse for what happened in coverage. What went on at the linebacker and secondary levels was shameful.

Not only wouldn't Williams and Shields hit anyone, they kept gambling as if they were trying to become the next Deion Sanders. Williams became a sitting duck for double-moves. Shields wouldn't stop peeking at the quarterback when he wasn't in contact with his receiver and too often ended up losing him.

Patrolling deep, Burnett got so itchy to join the interception parade that he kept vacating the middle and endangering the cornerbacks.

The cultural creator and ringleader, Woodson, came through with his normal haul of picks but also gave up two or three times as many costly plays.

Yet, Woodson always gets the benefit of the doubt from his coaches and almost always from the fans. Because his words and matter-of-fact body language almost never acknowledge fault, the ill-informed often consider him beyond reproach.

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A year ago, the Packers played over many more injuries than just Nick Collins. This time they didn't because a raft of defenders fell off their performance level of 2010, including Woodson, Williams, Shields, Peprah, Hawk, Raji, Neal, Frank Zombo, Jarius Wynn, C.J. Wilson and Howard Green.

Some of those who coordinated and coached offenses against Green Bay this season pointed out that Capers' fire-zone scheme wasn't exactly hard to figure out, either.

Aaron Rodgers and the offense would have scored 50 points or more if given a shot at this inept defense. Even though the Packers were ahead at least 90% of the time, the defense still couldn't muster more than 29 sacks.

So it's over. An impressive 36-12 in the last three regular seasons, the Packers had a legitimate chance to win three Super Bowls and instead captured one.

If Thompson now lets center Scott Wells get away, as he did Jenkins, you'll know something is terribly amiss. But the guess is that the Packers will have learned from their mistake.

The Packers have a dominating offense led by a prolific quarterback. The next eight months will be about reshaping the defense into a competent group.