During his Monday press conference, Mike McCarthy said RT Mark Tauscher may play on Sunday against the Cowboys, or he may be out a couple weeks. Obviously former starter RT Allen Barbre would play in his place, but he hasn't played well all season.
McCarthy said he wouldn't switch the coaching responsibilities for the offensive line or special teams at this point. As much as James Campen's and Shawn Slocum's units have struggled, it's not like he can go out and sign Bobby April and Alex Gibbs right now to replace them. The only coaches apparently available at this time of year are in semi-retirement and calling bingo.
Though it does look like T.J. Lang is set to replace Daryn Colledge at left guard, according to the Journal-Sentinel. Of course it would be great if Jason Spitz could step in, but he's unfortunately done for the season. It's about time for Colledge's benching. He gave up a lot of sacks for a guard in 2008, and I've been hoping for his benching since the game in Minneapolis. Actually I don't know how he got his job back after he was benched in 2007.
McCarthy was pretty clear about what needed to be done:
We don't need wholesale change. We may need to adjust some things and that will be our focus. But as far as going outside the building, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I have all the answers, but I'm very confident in the issues that we've had in pass protection, that they are correctable.
Which is fine, but I wonder if he meant correctable this season. Or with the players currently on the roster. Contrast that statement to something he said after the Bengals game when DE Antwan Odom had 5 sacks:
At some point, you have to win the one-on-one battle with the help being secondary instead of a primary focus.
They were losing one-on-one battles back in week 2, and it hasn't looked much better since then. If your players can't win the one-on-one battles, the only thing would seem to correct the problem is new players.