Cheese Curds, 12/6: Can the Packers bounce back to Super Bowl contention in 2019?

Is it too much to expect a head coach to take a team to the Super Bowl in his first year with the franchise? Fair or not, that will likely be the weight on the shoulders of whoever the Green Bay Packers hire as their next head coach. A 35-year-old Aaron Rodgers, solid offensive weapons around him, and some up-and-coming defensive talent should give the new coach plenty to work with next season.

However, a boost in confidence for the players on the roster could help as well. A little over a decade ago, the Green and Gold got hot towards the end of a down year. Since then, multiple people involved with those teams have said that the success carried over into the following season as the team rebounded to achieve great things the next year.

Meanwhile, there remain reasons for optimism that this team can indeed turn things around down the stretch and into next season. Certain factors have inhibited the team from winning games, but the overall performance of both offense and defense have definite and fixable shortcomings. Address those, and it could help change the narrative moving into another uncertain offseason.

Aaron Rodgers cites 2006-07 as motivation for Packers to finish strong | Packers Wire
Mike McCarthy's Packers finished with four straight wins in 2006 (led largely by a resurgent defense), which helped buoy the team to a great year in 2007. Perhaps a similar finish this year could portend good things for 2019?

The Packers are going to rebound in 2019. Here’s why - SBNation.com
Bill Connelly's look at the Packers' numbers shows both an offense and a defense that are very good in some areas and very bad in others. With a bit better luck and better execution in specific situations, this team should be due to bounce back next season.

Kenny Clark is Packers’ nominee for Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award | Packers.com
Congrats to Kenny for this honor. It's impressive to see such a young player -- he's still just 23 -- up for this award.

Most recent book on Joe Philbin's playcalling: Northeastern, 1996 - ESPN
Philbin talked about his playcalling experience, which has been minimal in the past two decades. Outside of the occasional final preseason game, he didn't call plays in Green Bay, nor did he do so when he was the head coach in Miami. You have to go back to his time at Northeastern University in the mid-90s to find the last time that he did it on a regular basis.

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers says accountability never an issue under former coach Mike McCarthy | Packersnews.com
Rodgers seemed to take issue with some of Winston Moss’ feelings in his tweetstorm from Tuesday; specifically, he mentioned that he told McCarthy explicitly to pick on him in meetings to show the rest of the team that no one player was above the others.

24 Amazon workers sent to hospital after robot accidentally unleashes bear spray - ABC News
This isn't funny, but rather is a reminder that bear spray is serious stuff and should not be played around with. And maybe it should be kept in areas where warehouse robots can't bust open canisters?